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THE HISTORY 




OF THE 

REFORMATION OF RELIGION 

IN SCOTLAND, 
By JOHN KNQX; 

\ N 

TO WHICH ARE APPENDED, 

SEVERAL OTHER PIECES OE HIS WRITING; 

INCLUDING 

THE FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE, COMPLETE, 
AND HIS DISPUTE WITH THE ABBOT OF CROSSRAGUEL, 

•NOT GIVEN WITH ANY FORMER EDITION. 

WITH 

A MEMOIR, HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION, AND NOTES, 

By WILLIAM M'GxWIN, Esq. 

AUTHOR OF THE PROTESTANT, THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION VINDICATED, &c. &c. 

COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME. 




GLASGOW: 
PUBLISHED BY BLACKIE, FULLARTON, & CO. 
AND A. FULLARTON & CO., EDINBURGH. 

M.DCCC.XXXI. 



43X 

/093 




GLASGOW: 
HUTCHISOX AND BROOKMAN, PRINTERS, V1LLAF1ELD. 



A5 

(V. 

CONTENTS. 



Pagb 

Introduction, containing an historical sketch of the state of Religion in Scotland from the 

introduction of Christianity till the time when Knox's History commences . . i 

Life of John Knox xxxiii 

Ceremonial at laying the Foundation Stone of Knox's Monument at Glasgow xli 
Knox's General Preface •••..........] 

History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland. 

Book I from 1422 till 1558 3 

Book II from 1558 till 1559 103 

Book III from 1559 till 1561 175 

Book IV from 1561 till 1564 245 

Book V from 1565 till 1566 321 

Letter delivered to the Lady Mary Regent of Scotland from John Knox . . . 361 
The Appellation of John Knox from the sentence pronounced against him by bishops and 

clergy 375 

Letter to the Commonalty of Scotland ... 401 

Admonition to the professors of the truth in England in 1554 409 

The First Blast against the regimen of Women 439 

Letter to the People of Edinburgh 463 

Sermon delivered in 1565 ............. 465 

First Book of Discipline 486 

Oration against Reforming Preachers by Quentin Kennedy, Commendator of Crossra- 

guell 527 

Reasoning concerning the mass between Quentin Kennedy and John Knox in Maybole, . 539 

Prologue ............... 541 

The Abbot's First Letter . 544 

Knox's answer to the Abbot's First Letter 545 

The Abbot's Second Letter 546 

Earl of Cassilis' Letter 548 

Knox's Answer to the earl of Cassilis' Letter ........ ib. 

The Abbot's Third Letter 549 

The Abbot's Fourth Letter ib. 

Answer to the Abbot's Fourth Letter 550 

The Debate between them 551 

Knox's answer in writing to Kennedy's last argument 570 



ADVERTISEMENT BY THE PUBLISHERS. 



The most interesting' part of Scotish history is that which relates to the reformation 
of religion in the sixteenth century. From the period of the introduction of Chris- 
tianity into Scotland, our fathers, for many ages, were quite independent of the 
Church of Rome — holding a purer faith, and practising a more simple form of wor- 
ship. But during the dark ages, corruption in both doctrine and worship began to 
prevail ; and though the Scots maintained their religious independence much longer 
than most of the other nations of Europe, they yielded at last, and for about three 
centuries the Man of Sin reigned over them with absolute dominion. During this 
deplorable period, at least one-half of the property of the kingdom was possessed by 
a domineering and luxurious priesthood, who kept the people in the grossest ignorance, 
who studied above all things to prevent a ray of light from breaking in upon their 
votaries, lest it should discover their own corruptions ; and as they possessed all the 
learning of the times, such as it was, and were believed to have power over the world to 
come, they found it easy to bend the minds of men to implicit submission to their will. 

It must be interesting to know how our fathers burst such fetters, and cast off 
such a yoke; and happily we are furnished with abundant information on the subject. 
There are on record very ample details of the proceedings of the Reformers, after 
their cause became a national one, every step of their progress being distinctly mark- 
ed, until they obtained the grand object of their labours and sufferings: and respect- 
ing these we have the important advantage of possessing the testimony of one who 
was not only a witness of what he records, but who bore a prominent part in the 
great events which form the subject of his narrative. Such is Knox's History of the 
Reformation of Religion in Scotland, of which a new edition is now offered to the 
public. 

There have been many editions of Knox's History, but most of them imperfect, 
and incorrectly printed. The most perfect of these is the Folio edition published in 
Edinburgh, in 1732, from the manuscript in the library of Glasgow College, of 
which an account is given in the Introduction. This edition has been consulted in 
preparing the present. Dr M'Crie, speaking of it, says, — " The appearance of this 
edition removed all the doubts which had been entertained as to Knox having writ- 
ten the History of the Reformation. It is the only one that deserves to be consulted, 
if we except the imperfect edition." This refers to one that was attempted in London 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

soon after Knox's death, but which was not finished, being suppressed by order of 
the Archbishop of Canterbury. It also has been attentively consulted and compared 
in preparing- this edition. 

The Introduction, written by William M'Gavin, Esq. contains an historical sketch 
of the state of religion in Scotland, from the introduction of Christianity till the time 
when Knox's History commences, comprising a period of twelve centuries : and 
although the materials of history during this dark period are but scanty, there is 
enough to show that originally the Church of Scotland was independent of any 
foreign jurisdiction : that her ritual was comparatively simple and unostentatious; 
and how she became gradually affected by the errors of popery, and then subject to 
the See of Rome. The editor has also subjoined Notes to the history for explanation 
or elucidation ; and occasional biographical notices of eminent characters, whose 
names occur in the text. 

Besides all the author's productions appended to former editions, to the present 
edition has been added the following interesting and rare pieces written by 
Knox, and not given with any former edition, viz. The First Book of Discipline ; 
— Quentin Kennedy, Abbot of Crossraguel's * Oration' in favour of the Mass, and 
against Knox and the reformers — The Disputation which took place betwixt John 
Knox and the Abbot of Crossraguel, at Maybole, in 1562. These scarce tracts alone 
have hitherto cost more than is now charged for a complete copy of the present 
work. 

Glasgow, March, 1831. 



INTRODUCTION. 



CONTAINING 

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE STATE OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND FROM THE INTRO- 
DUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY TILL THE TIME WHEN KNOX'S HISTORY COMMENCES. 



We know nothing with certainty of the 
period when the gospel was first brought 
into Scotland. Writers on the subject seem 
all to have been desirous of assigning this 
event to a very early period, even to the 
first century of the Christian era. Dr 
Jamieson informs us, that the ancient Cul- 
dees professed to have received the Christian 
religion from disciples of the apostle John ; 
but from any authentic record extant, it 
would appear that the sphere of John's la- 
bours was in the east, and so we may sup- 
pose was that of his companions and disci- 
ples. We know that Paul travelled west- 
ward as far as Italy, and that he purposed 
to go to Spain, but there is no authentic 
record of his ever having effected his pur- 
pose, except a very general expression in 
an epistle of his fellow labourer in the 
gospel, Clemens, which is reputed genuine. 
He says, " That St Paul, in preaching the 
gospel, went to the utmost bounds of the 
west." This, if understood literally, may 
include the British isles, which were the 
western extremity of the Roman empire. 
But we can easily suppose that Clemens 
referred to Spain, which is right west from 
Italy, and the extremity of the empire in 
that direction. The British isles are north- 
west ; and though they may be included in 
the expression, it does not appear that they 
are necessarily so. If the apostle of the 
Gentiles did visit our island, he would pro- 
bably take Spain and Gaul in his way ; and' 
it must have been after he was set at liberty 
from his first imprisonment in Rome, A. D. 
60 or 61. If not about that time, it can 
scarcely have been at all, consistently with 
what is recorded of his life and labours 
elsewhere. 



Many highly respectable authors of the 
English church, regard it as an authentic 
historical fact, that this apostle did preach 
the gospel in Britain. The evidence does 
not command my entire belief, though I 
regard it as not incredible, so far as relates to 
the southern part of the island; but the words 
of Clemens in their most literal acceptation, 
do not necessarily include Scotland. The 
most ancient testimony relative to the in- 
troduction of Christianity into this part 
of the island, is that of Tertullian, in the 
second century, who says, that " before his 
time, Christianity had extended itself to 
parts of Britain inaccessible to the Roman 
arms." We know that the Romans overran 
all England, and the south of Scotland : 
this author must therefore refer to the 
highlands, probably some of the western 
isles, which were afterwards so famous as 
seats of learning and religion. 

Tertullian wrote about the end of the 
second century ; and all that we gather 
from his testimony, is, that Christianity had 
penetrated the remote parts of Britain be- 
fore his time. Eusebius in the fourth cen- 
tury, informs us that the gospel was preached 
in Britain by some of the apostles. He 
must have said this at least two centuries 
and a half after the apostolic age ; he could 
not therefore speak from his own know- 
ledge ; and from the scarcity of written re- 
cords, at that period, it must have been al- 
most impossible to know the certainty of 
such matters, relating to a country so re- 
mote. We know how difficult it is to as- 
certain the truth of many things in the his- 
tory of our own country, within less than 
three centuries, notwithstanding numerous 
written records ; it must have been much 



INTRODUCTION. 



more difficult for an author of the fourth 
century to ascertain the truth of events 
said to have taken place in the first, and in 
a country so remote from his own. The 
ancient Scottish Christians are said to have 
kept Easter according to the rule of the 
Greek church, which is one of the reasons 
why Scotland is supposed to have received 
Christianity from the eastern, rather than 
from the western, or Roman church. But if it 
be admitted, that the Scots received Chris- 
tianity along with a rule about keeping 
Easter, it will fix the era of that event a 
considerable time after the age of the apos- 
tles ; it will at least prove that we did not 
receive Christianity from them, for they 
gave themselves no concern about keeping 
Easter, unless it be among the things which 
they condemned as will- worship and super- 
stition. 

We know little or nothing of what was 
passing in our own country at a period so 
remote as the first two centuries, except 
what is noticed by certain Roman histo- 
rians, who either would not, or did not 
think it worth their while, to mention who 
first brought the gospel to our ancestors. 
But as Rome kept up a constant military 
intercourse with her remotest colonies ; and 
as we know from the New Testament, 
that there were Christians in the Roman 
armies, we may reasonably conclude, that by 
their means, the gospel was carried to the 
remotest parts of the empire ; and, perhaps, 
at first, so unobtrusively as not to attract 
the notice of historians or public function- 
aries at Rome. The kingdom of God 
cometh not with external show ; and by the 
instrumentality of " devout soldiers," it 
may have come in many places ; and mul- 
titudes in Scotland and elsewhere, may have 
embraced the gospel; and churches may 
have been formed, of the existence of which 
there never was any written record. In 
short, it was not till churches had departed 
from primitive simplicity, and acquired 
some degree of secularity and political im- 
portance, that historians began to take no- 
tice of them; which, I suppose, is the reason 
why so little is known of New Testament 
churches any where, except what we have 
recorded in the New Testament itself. 



I suspect there is not a little of what 
may be called ecclesiastical vanity at the 
bottom of this desire to trace the origin of 
certain churches up to the apostolic age. 
It is like the pride of ancestry which exists 
in many great families. Besides, it is taken 
for granted by some that if a church had an 
apostolic origin, it must still have an apos- 
tolic character which does not by any 
means follow. I doubt if there be a church 
in existence that had an apostolic origin, in 
the sense commonly understood by the 
terms. The church of Home certainly had 
not; but we find from the last chapter of 
Paul's epistle to the Romans, that there 
were several churches in that city, which 
were acknowledged by the apostle as such, 
which is as good as if they had originated 
with him. There was the church in the 
house of Priscilla and Aquilla, verse 5. 
There was the household, or church in the 
house of Aristobulus, verse 10. There was 
another in the house of Narcissus, verse 11. 
In both these verses the word household 
is a supplement; an J it might be read bre- 
thren, or church, as in the first instance. 
There are others mentioned in the 14th 
verse, and "the brethren," or church, 
" which are with them." Also in the 15th 
verse, and " the saints which are with them ; 
so that we find there were at least five 
churches in Rome at the time when the 
apostle wrote his epistle ; but there was no 
such thing known at the time as the church 
of Rome. The apostle does not address 
them as one church, as he does that in Co- 
rinth; but individually, as all the saints 
which be in Rome. Some churches did 
originate with the personal labours of apos- 
tles ; but even these did not long retain 
their apostolic character. They became 
corrupt ; and their candlestick has long- 
been removed. Though it could be proved 
therefore, that the apostle Paul did plant 
the church of England, as some allege, and 
John or his disciples that of Scotland, it 
would avail nothing, unless these churches 
have remained as the apostles planted them. 
On the other hand, churches whic i are 
constituted like those of which we read in thj 
New Testament, being built on the testi- 
mony of the apostles, have not only an apos- 



INTRODUCTION. 



iii 



tolic character, but also ah apostolic origin, 
though they sprung up only yesterday. But 
it is time to attend to the facts of the case 
as these can be gleaned from the historians. 

Buchanan records an event that was cal- 
culated to bring Christianity into notice 
and make it the subject of history, viz. 
the conversion of Donald I. king of the 
Scots, about the beginning of the third cen- 
tury. It is not mentioned, however, as the 
introduction of Christianity into the coun- 
try, but the adoption by the king of a reli- 
gion already professed by many of the peo- 
ple. He says, " It was of advantage, too, 
for the preservation of peace, that Donald 
first of all the Scottish kings, was convert- 
ed to the Christian faith, although neither 
he nor several of the succeeding kings, to- 
gether with a great part of the nobility who 
favoured them, were able to eradicate wholly 
the ancient heathen rites. But the expedi- 
tion of the emperor Severus, which took 
place during his reign, overturned all his 
institutions, public and private." Book iv. 
chap. 36. If Christianity was among these 
institutions, as the words seem to imply, it 
would appear that Donald had given it 
some sort of establishment, perhaps no 
more than simply building places of wor- 
ship, and giving the Christians his counte- 
nance and protection. These would be dis- 
persed by the Roman army, and their build- 
ings destroyed. 

It is not surprising that Donald could not 
eradicate wholly the ancient heathen rites, 
for many of them are not entirely eradicat- 
ed yet. The ancient religion of the people 
was Druidism, a species of heathen idolatry 
that prevailed over a great part of northern 
Europe. The priests of this idolatry prac- 
tised an imposing ritual, were supposed to 
be the favourites of heaven, and they had 
great influence over the minds of the peo- 
ple, not only in matters of religion, but also 
as judges in civil causes. Their supersti- 
tious rites had a firm hold of the public 
mind, from which the people could not be 
emancipated by any thing short of the con- 
version of their souls to God, which we can- 
not suppose to have been the case with all, 
or even with a majority who professed Chris- 



tianity, after the king Uecame a Christian 
The observances of Halloween, the kind- 
ling of lights on the hills at certain times, 
and the rites of Beltan (Baaltien, or Bell's 
fire, Dr Jamieson,) with many other prac- 
tices which still exist, may be traced to our 
heathen ancestors. Genuine Christianity 
eradicates these things : but that which is 
national, or merely nominal, is perfectly con- 
sistent with what is called a harmless obser- 
vance of them. The Baal fire of theDruids, 
was connected with bloody rites, and hu- 
man sacrifices, which Christianity happily 
put down, notwithstanding the merely nomi- 
nal profession of many who bore the name. 

After the invasion of Severus we read no 
more of Christianity for nearly a century. 
It is not to be supposed that it ceased to 
exist in Scotland ; but, not being in favour 
with Donald's immediate successors, it would 
be in too much obscurity to attract notice. 
David Buchanan, the author of a preface 
to an old edition of Knox's History, fixes its 
revival under the reign of Crathilinthus ; 
but his celebrated namesake, whom this 
writer generally follows, places it in the 
reign of Fincormachus the immediate suc- 
cessor of the former. Both agree that the 
revival in Scotland was occasioned by what 
are called the ninth and tenth persecutions, 
under the emperors Aurelius and Diocle- 
sian, which extended to the south of our 
island, and caused many Christian Britons 
to take refuge among the Scots. Thus 
Buchanan writes under the reign of Fincor- 
machus, "Freed from external cares, the 
Scots, now, chiefly exerted themselves for 
the promotion of the Christian religion, to 
which they were incited by the following 
occurrence. Multitudes of Britons, fearing 
the cruelty of Dioclesian towards the Chris- 
tians, sought refuge among them, of whom 
many, illustrious for the piety of their doc- 
trines, and the uprightness of their lives, 
remained in Scotland, and led a solitary 
life, with such a reputation for sanctity 
among all ranks, that, upon their decease, 
the cells they had inhabited were changed 
into churches, and from that custom it still 
continues that the ancient Scots call church- 
es, cells. This species of religious they 



INTRODUCTION. 



called Culdees, * and the name and the in- 
stitution remained, until a more recent kind 
of monks, divided into a number of orders, 
expelled them, which latter were as much 
their inferiors in doctrine and in piety, as 
their superiors in riches, ceremonies, and 
other external rites, by which the eye is 
captivated and the mind deceived." 

The southern refugees are said above to 
have " led a solitary life ;" and it was very 
natural that those who had been driven, for 
the gospel's sake, from country and friends, 
and, perhaps reduced to a state of poverty, 
should cultivate retirement, at least separa- 
tion from the world. But that they did 
not altogether seclude themselves from so- 
ciety, like many in other places, who aban- 
doned the company of men to live in 
deserts, is, I think, evident from the state- 
ment of the historian. The word, cell, with 
a different pronunciation of the initial let- 
ter, furnishes the well known names of 
many of our towns and churches to this 
day. Thus, i&Tpatrick, i&7malcom, &c. 
The cells of the Culdees must have been 
places of public resort, else the w r ord could 
scarcely have become synonymous with 
church. The Culdees were probably pas- 
tors of Christian congregations, who assem- 
bled at their cells, or places of residence, 
for divine worship. While the majority of 
the people were still heathen, and enemies 
to their religion, they would of course 
choose retired places for their meetings, 
where they could hear the word, and enjoy 
Christian fellowship without disturbance or 
hostile intrusion, just as our covenanters did 
in the time of persecution. These last were 
called mountain men, because they held 
their meetings for social worship in recesses 
of the mountains ; and some of their mini- 
sters were compelled to reside not only in 
cells, but caves of the earth. 



* It does not appear that the name originated 
with the exiles from the south, or belonged to 
them exclusively, I rather suppose that they at- 
tached themselves to a pre-existing order, or be- 
took themselves to the ministry of the gospel, 
the ministry being the only sort of religious 
order that then existed. Dr Jamieson tells us 
that both the Scots and Irish claimed the honour 
of giving origin to the Culdees ; but I do not 
recollect of any such claim being made by the 
English. 



The ancient Culdee pastors would gene- 
rally be buried where they had lived. 
Hence the word, cell, came to signify bury- 
ing place as well as church ; and hence 
also, the almost universal practice of burial 
places being attached to churches, the pro- 
priety of which will not be questioned : 
but as connected with the graves of emi- 
nent saints, or persons who were supposed 
to be such, it was the origin of much super- 
stition and even idolatry. It became the 
fashion to build churches over the graves 
of such persons ; to call the places by their 
names ; to build altars to their memory ; 
to regard the place which contained their 
bones holy ground ; and then to regard the 
bones themselves as objects of religious ve- 
neration. But such a horrible prostration 
of intellect had not taken place at the period 
of our history to which these remarks 
relate. 

That the Christians who came from 
England, on the persecution by Dioclesian. 
were at least not all idly recluse, appears 
from their activity in propagating the gos- 
pel and suppressing the heathen rites. The 
author of the preface above mentioned, 
writes as follows, " Among the fugitives 
who did then repair to Scotland for shelter 
from the general massacre, were many ex- 
cellent men in piety and learning, whom 
the king Crathilinth not only kindly re- 
ceived, but also employed to aid him and 
his council in the farther settling of Christ's 
truth in his kingdom, and in the total extir- 
pation of idolatry out of it ; which was so 
much the harder work, because of the 
Druids, the principal false prophets, and 
idolatrous priests in those days ; who not 
only by their subtile hypocrisy, and sense- 
pleasing divine service, but also by cunning 
forecast, having drawn into their hands the 
hearing and determining of civil affairs, and 
so gained upon the spirits of the poor and 
simple people, that they could not imagine 
how to be without them, and live. The 
resolute care and diligence of king Crathi- 
linth and his council, with the help of those 
pious and learned men, surpassed all difficul- 
ties ; and having put quite down the groves 
and altars under the oaks, and, in a word, 
all idol-service, established the pure wor- 



INTRODUCTION. 



V 



ship of the. true God in every place of his 
dominions ; and tilled up the rooms of 
those false prophets, with godly and learned 
teachers of the people, which was done 
every where through the kingdom, but 
particularly in the islands, which those men 
chose for their principal abode, as being 
most fit for a retired life." There is a good 
deal of churchman-like colouring in the 
above. The king and his council can hardly 
be supposed to have effected such a change 
by means of mere instruction and persua- 
sion, even with the help of the pious Cul- 
dees. It is not said that any kind of coer- 
cion was used, and we ought not without 
evidence to conclude that there was. Chris- 
tianity was now the religion of the court ; 
and many would embrace it for the honour 
and advantage of the thing, who were still 
heathens in heart. But making every 
reasonable allowance for this, it is evident 
that Christianity made great progress at 
this time, and the state of society would 
assume a new and an improved character. 

Christianity had now acquired a sort of 
civil establishment. It was the religion of 
the state ; but it had not yet obtained any 
legal endowment, or permanent provision for 
the support of ministers. They must have 
been dependent upon the contributions of 
their respective flocks, agreeably to the di- 
vine ordinance ; and this will always be 
found an adequate source of support when 
pastors and flocks are faithful to one an- 
other, and when both are disposed to obey 
the Christian precept, to be content with 
what God is pleased to bestow, believing 
his promise, that he will not leave nor for- 
sake them. 

Crathilinth died about the beginning of 
the fourth century, having persevered to the 
end in the good work which he had begun : 
he was followed with zeal by Fincorniachus, 
his immediate successor, who reigned nearly 
half a century, during which, says David 
Buchanan, author of the preface already 
mentioned, " the gospel did flourish in pu- 
rity and peace." Such a long, and such 
a peaceful reign, is a rare thing in the 
ancient history of Scotland ; and it was 
no doubt owing partly at least, to the* influ- 
ence of the gospel so extensively professed, 



which not only subdues the ferocious pas- 
sions of those who embrace it, but tends 
also to promote the peace and civilization of 
society at large. 

But a different scene soon presented it- 
self. On the death of Fincorniachus, there 
were three competitors for the crown, which 
occasioned a civil war among the Scots 
themselves ; and then they were attacked 
by the Picts, whom the Roman general in- 
cited to make war upon them. The Ro- 
mans and the Britons took part with the 
Picts ; and by such an overwhelming force 
the Scots were entirely subdued, and almost 
exterminated. Their country was then 
divided between the Picts and Britons. 

"The surviving Scots dispersed themselves 
wherever chance led them, through the 
iEbudae, (the Hebrides) Ireland, Scandina- 
via, the Cimbric Chersonesus (now Den- 
mark, Sweden and Norway) and were 
every where humanely received by the 
inhabitants. Their priests, likewise, and 
monks, who were then held in the high- 
est honour, were severely treated by the 
Picts, though they themselves professed 
the Christian religion, being chased into all 
the surrounding regions. In the course of 
their dispersions, several of them happened 
to land upon the island of lona, one of the 
JEbudse, and being there collected into a 
monastery, transmitted to posterity the great 
fame of their sanctity and erudition." (Bu- 
chanan, book iv. chap. 52.) Mr Aikman in 
a note, justly remarks, that the above "af- 
fords at least something like a reason for St 
Columba settling in lona, and making it the 
chief seat of the Culdees in after time."* 

It is impossible to say what was the state 
of religion in these circumstances. The 
Christians would suffer in common with 
the rest of their countrymen, and such as 
survived, would be dispersed along with 
them. The Picts soon found their error in 
expelling their neighbours the Scots ; for 
the Romans brought them into bondage, 
which they could never do while they.and 
the Scots were united. This bondage they 
found so grievous and disgraceful, that they 
invited the Scots to return from their dis~ 

* The edition of Buchanan which I use is Mr 
Aikman's translation. 1827. 



vi 



INTRODUCTION. 



persion, promising to assist them to recover 
their country from the Britons. They 
obeyed the invitation, and brought with 
them a great number of adventurers from 
Ireland, the Hebrides, from Denmark, and I 
other northern nations, which mixed multi- j 
tude became the ancestors of the present j 
Scots. The Romans, from their necessities 
at home, could afford little aid to their allies 
the Britons, who after a furious bloody war | 
M ere finally defeated, and driven back with- 
in their old boundary. The land thus re- 
covered was parcelled out among the Scots 
and their foreign auxiliaries. The Irish 
got a good portion of that which lay nearest 
their own country, which they called Gal- 
loway after one of the counties in Ireland. 

I have introduced a little of our civil 
history, in order to show the effect 
which the new state of things had on the 
church and its ministers. Many of the 
adventurers who came with the Scots from 
their dispersion, at least those from Scan- 
dinavia, must have been heathens. Fergus, 
the heir of the Scottish kings, who had 
taken refuge there, and who was invited 
back as king of the Scots, was killed in the 
war ; his heir was a child, and the child's 
maternal grandfather became viceroy. It 
was under him that the country was re- 
covered, and peace established. He was a 
noble Briton, but in consequence of the 
marriage of his daughter to Fergus, and 
some difference with his own government, 
he had attached himself to the fortunes of 
the Scots ; and perhaps his ideas of Chris- 
tianity were derived from what he had seen 
in south Britain, where religion was always 
better endowed than in the north part of 
the island. Be this as it may, he was the 
first to give it a legal endowment in Scot- 
land. " The viceroy, in order to check by 
proper institutions, that licentiousness which 
had spread so widely by the long continu- 
ance of war, ordained that the monks and 
teachers of Christianity should be recalled; 
and, lest they should be burdensome to the 
poorer classes, he appointed them annual 
stipends from the fruits of the earth, which, 
although small even then, yet to the mode- 
ration and temperance of these pious men, 
appeared sufficiently ample." Buchanan, 
Book v. chap. 10. 



Thus about the middle of the fifth cen- 
tury, Christianity, under that form which 
we may now call the church of Scotland, 
obtained a pecuniary endowment along with 
a legal establishment. The motives of 
Graeme, for such was the name of the vice- 
roy, appear to have been laudable. All the 
arguments that were ever used on behalf of 
a legal provision for public teachers will 
forcibly apply to this case. The Scots had 
been in exile, and on their return had been 
engaged in furious warfare for nearly 
twenty years. The spirit of Christianity 
must have been almost extinct among them, 
if so much as the profession of it remained ; 
and there were now incorporated with them 
a number of heathens from other countries. 
The gospel was the last thing that such a 
people would think of seeking for them- 
selves. It was the business of the Culdees 
and other ministers to have gone among 
them preaching the word ; but they had 
been scattered through Ireland, the He- 
brides, and other places, where perhaps they 
found themselves comfortable, and they 
had no inclination to leave their favourite 
retirements. Be this as it may, the viceroy 
found it necessary to recall them, which he 
could not do with a good grace, unless he 
gave them a promise of provision for their 
support. The country was in a state of 
the most wretched poverty, having been 
laid waste by fire and sword. The fields 
were uncultivated; and, in short, the peo- 
ple were reduced to the necessity of plun- 
dering their neighbours to save themselves 
from starvation. Supposing Gramme to 
have been a Christian himself, and really 
desirous of propagating the gospel, he could 
not have done less than provide for the 
support of the ministers whom he invited 
to come and teach his people, at least till 
the gospel had again got such a footing 
among them, as to produce the proper 
effect of teaching Christians to support 
their teachers as the Lord hath ordained. 

But perhaps the viceroy was only a 
Christian politically, and had no higher obj ect 
in view, in recalling the monks and other 
teachers, than to keep the common people 
in order, which is the only use that states- 
men as such have been accustomed to make 
of religion. His object was to check by 



IN TROD 

proper institutions the licentiousness of the 
people. Nothing can so effectually check 
licentiousness as the gospel, faithfully 
preached and cordially received, of which 
we have abundant evidence in the present 
age from the success of missionaries in 
Africa, the South Sea Islands, and else- 
where. But statesmen generally do not 
understand this, and do not believe it. Un- 
acquainted with the spirit of Christianity, 
and the divine power in the word of truth 
that converts the soul, and renews men 
from sin to holiness, they can do no better 
than set up an image, or external form of 
the Christian religion, consisting of institu- 
tions of various kinds, such as schools, col- 
leges, monasteries, parish churches, and an 
order of clergy, endowed by the state to in- 
struct and watch over the morals of the 
community. It must in justice be acknow- 
ledged, that such institutions, at least some 
of them, have been the means of promoting 
and maintaining the true religion, when 
really pious Christians have been connect- 
ed with them. But as the system origi- 
nated in worldly policy, its tendency is to 
reduce Christianity to a worldly standard, 
and such has always been the consequence. 
That it was so in the church of Scotland 
we shall see in the sequel. 

While they had no public provision made 
for their support, the Culdees and other 
preachers were very exemplary in the dis- 
charge of their religious functions. Those 
who were most distinguished for piety and 
talent were chosen to superintend the ad- 
ministration of divine ordinances; to see that 
the preachers generally attended to then- 
duty, and that their own conduct was be- 
coming their profession. These superin- 
tendents were called Scotorum Episcopi, or 
Bishops of the Scots ; from which some 
modern writers strongly maintain that the 
church of Scotland was originally episco- 
pal . They might as well give that designa- 
tion to the church in Philippi, in which 
I there were more bishops than one. Every 
' thing depends upon the meaning which we 
affix to the word. In the scripture sense, 
every overseer or pastor of a church is a 
bishop; and I think our reformers commit- 
ted a great mistake in not retaining the name 



ACTION. vii 

and giving it to every one of their ministers. 
If they had done this, the prelates would have 
been driven to assume some other designa- 
tion than the simple New Testament one, 
which, applied to them exclusively, gives 
them an undue advantage in the esteem of 
all those with whom names have more 
weight than things. These Scots bishops, 
however, had no diocese assigned to them ; 
but exercised their functions generally 
throughout the kingdom. They assumed 
no lordship over their brethren; but by 
admonition and example, laboured to excite 
every one to diligence in the work of the 
ministry. Dr Jamieson endeavours to 
make it appear that their church govern- 
ment was substantially Presbyterian ; and 
it does appear to have been more like that 
than diocesan episcopacy ; but I think the 
distinction which they made in the rank of 
their ministers not quite consistent with 
perfect Presbyterian parity. 

The overseers, or superintendents, were 
not at first regarded as a distinct and supe- 
rior order of clergy ; but they were fairly 
put in the way of becoming so. The word, 
clergy, itself had not yet come into use 
among them ; but they had raised a part of 
their teachers above the rest, the evil con- 
sequences of which might not appear while 
they were all equally dependent on the 
good will of the people ; but a foundation 
was laid for the encouragement and gratifi- 
cation of the ambition of the clergy when 
they had the wealth of the world at their 
command. At first, however, they were 
not elated by the honour conferred upon 
them, nor did they regard themselves as 
above the proper duties of their callino-. 
" This way of instructing the people," says 
David Buchanan, "and ffovernino- the 
church by Culdees, did continue for many 
years under God's mercy; the ministry of 
God's church not being yet become a busi- 
ness of gain, and of worldly pomp and pride ; 
so these Culdees and overseers of others, 
had no other emulation but of well doing ; 
nor striving, but to advance true piety and 
learning." 

The measure of making some of the mi- 
nisters of the church overseers of others, 
has no countenance from scripture, ex- 



Vlll INTROD 

cept in relation to the apostles, or evan- 
gelists, such as Timothy and Titus, to 
whom the apostles gave a special commis- 
sion for particular purposes. It was an 
innovation upon the divinely instituted or- 
der of evangelical churches. Yet we can 
easily see how the Christians were led into 
it, and how, for the time, it would appear 
expedient, if not absolutely necessary. Knox 
and his colleagues had recourse to the very 
same expedient, at the beginning of the 
Reformation. From the incompetence of 
a large proportion of the parochial clergy, 
it was found necessary to appoint a certain 
number of persons properly qualified as su- 
perintendents. The incompetence of the 
clergy then, was the consequence of the 
great ignorance in which Popery had held 
both priests and people for ages ; and though 
that had not been the condition of the early 
Christians in Scotland, they suffered many 
disadvantages of another kind. Perhaps 
few even of the pastors possessed an entire 
copy of the scriptures, which existed only 
in manuscript, and the price of a copy 
would be equal perhaps to hundreds of 
pounds of our money ; and many of the 
pastors would not be able to read them in 
the original, or in Jerome's Latin transla- 
tion which was then coming into use. It 
is possible that pious Christians might edify 
one another, and even preach the gospel, 
from the mere recollection of the word 
which they had heard and believed ; but the 
ministry of such persons must have been 
extremely deficient, at least there was great 
danger of its being so. It is as much as we 
could expect in these circumstances, that 
each superintendent possessed a copy of the 
scriptures, which he could carry round the 
country, for instructing and confirming the 
people, and refreshing the memories of the 
pastors. I make these remarks not to justify 
the innovation, but to account for it. Many 
of the converts and churches in different 
parts of the world, in the first century, must 
have been as illiterate as the Scots were in 
the fourth, yet we do not find that they 
set one class cf ministers over the rest. 
Those indeed who enjoyed the ministry of 
apostles and evangelists had the advantage 
of their superintendence. When they were 



UCTION. 

all become extinct, their writings were left 
to supply their place ; and they are perfectly 
sufficient for the purpose, — able to make the 
man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished 
for every good work, which implies being 
perfectly qualified for the ministry of the 
gospel. The apostles never contemplated 
such a state of things in any church, as 
would make it lawful to depart from the 
order and government which they appoint- 
ed, or to have recourse to human expedi- 
ents on any immergency whatever. The 
proper measures for supplying what was 
Avanting, would have been to multiply copies 
of the scriptures, to have the people gene- 
rally taught to read; that at least every 
church should have a Bible, and some able 
to read it distinctly. By such means, with 
prayer and spiritual conference, our Chris- 
tian ancestors might have had all their 
wants supplied. But by this time all the 
churches near the seat of empire had greatly 
fallen away both from purity of faith and 
holiness of life ; and Scotland was not 
exempt from the contagion of their example. 

But at the period to which these remarks 
refer, Scotland was behind both the eastern 
and western churches in the march of ambi- 
tion. The preachers were upon the whole 
faithful, men who laboured with much dili- 
gence and success. Those whom the vice- 
roy recalled from exile, after the disasters 
above mentioned, were of the same charac- 
ter, and, no doubt, many of them, the same 
persons who had preached to the Scots be- 
fore the breaking up of the kingdom. They 
entered on their labours anew with the 
same zeal and fidelity as before. The pro- 
vision made for them by the state had not 
yet operated to secularise their thoughts 
and pursuits. " And such was the happi- 
ness of those days," says David Buchanan, 
" that a very small proportion did content 
the churchmen, setting wholly their minds 
on the conscionable discharge of their call- 
ing, which they did, preaching God's word 
carefully, truly, and simply, instructing the 
people in the fear of God, and so gaining 
their souls to their Maker and Redeemer." 

Such was the character of the first bishops 
in Scotland who had a legal provision for 
| their support; but the provision, small as it 



INTRODUCTION. 



IX 



was, must have been a temptation to worldly 
men who became their successors ; for we 
are informed in the same paragraph, what 
took place in the course of time. "The 
virtuous civil magistrate was the secondary- 
cause of this good behaviour of churchmen, 
who by his authority kept them in order> 
and by his example taught them to dis- 
charge their duty faithfully, and live dis- 
creetly; but as soon as the civil magistrate 
left them to themselves, then they neglect- 
ing their calling, set their minds on ambition 
and avarice, and consequently upon all evil, 
thinking of nothing less than of that they 
were called to." This must have been a 
new generation of men, who succeeded to 
the faithful band formerly mentioned ; and 
they must have been men who got them- 
selves into the priests' office, not that 
they might win souls to God, but obtain a 
provision for themselves. This was the 
unavoidable consequence of the second de- 
viation of the church of Scotland from New 
Testament order, that of accepting a pecu- 
niary state endowment for their ministers. 
This was letting the world into the church, 
and the next step will be having the world 
set over it. In fact, the king had already 
become virtually its chief pastor, when he 
was obliged to superintend the superin- 
tendents, and keep them to their duty. 

All this time, and down till about the 
close of the fifth century, the church of 
Scotland was quite independent of the Bi- 
shop of Rome, and of every other diocesan 
bishop. They had indeed no religious con- 
nection with Rome whatever, any more than 
they had with Jerusalem or Antioch. They 
professed to have received the gospel from 
disciples of the apostle John, which, could it 
be proved, would connect them with the 
eastern, rather than the western, church ; 
but they acknowledged no relation or sub- 
jection to the one or the other. They had 
indeed an order of monks, and some super- 
stitious observances, which became almost 
universally prevalent in both the east and 
the west; but these were most probably 
derived from their heathen ancestors, and 
not from Romish Christians. Indeed they 
suffered such oppression from the Roman 
soldiers, that they would regard with jeal- 



ousy any thing that came from the head of 
the empire. There is no fact in the ancient 
history of Scotland better established, than 
the absolute independence of its church of 
all foreign jurisdiction, up to at least the 
middle of the fifth century. This is proved 
even by popish authors, who labour to show 
that about this period, the Pope sent a bi- 
shop to the Scots, who established a new 
order in their church ; and if he did not 
subject it to Rome, brought it into some de- 
gree of conformity with what was after- 
wards called the mother and mistress of all 
churches. 

This missionary from Rome was Palla- 
dius, the reputed father of prelacy, or dio- 
cesan episcopacy, in Scotland, about whom, 
and whence he came directly into Scotland, 
there has been much controversy, a summary 
of which may be seen in Dr Jamieson's 
History of the Culdees. By one account, 
he was sent by Pope Celestine into Britain, 
to oppose the Pelagian heresy; and having 
been very successful, the king of Scots, 
whose subjects either had, or were in dan- 
ger of falling into the same error, invited 
him to come and put it down among them 
also. Another account says, he went first 
into Ireland, and came from thence into 
Scotland, where he finally remained. In 
the parish of Fordun in the Mearns, there 
are said to be the remains of a chapel which 
bears his name, and a well, which by abbre- 
viation, they call Paldy's well. There is 
also a fair held there annually, which they 
call Paldy's or Paddy's fair; hence the 
familiar designation of Irishmen to this day, 
from which the popular belief must have 
been that he came from that island. 

Whencesoever he came, he settled him- 
self down, it seems, among the Scots, and so 
far ingratiated himself with them that they 
consented to his re-modelling their church, 
and to receive new governors in the shape 
of diocesan bishops or prelates. Hector 
Boece, as quoted by David Buchanan, thus 
writes ;— " Palladius was the first of all that 
did bear the holy magistrature among the 
Scots, being made bishop by the great pon- 
tiff or bishop ; for till then, by the suffrages' 
of the people, the bishops were made of the 
monks or Culdees." There are a host of 

B 



X 



INTRODUCTION. 



authorities to the same effect, with which 
I need not encumber this short sketch of 
our ancient ecclesiastical history. 

We are now come to that point of which 
I said, the church having taken the world 
into it, would soon have the world set over 
it. This took place soon after Palladius 
had got what is above called, "The holy \ 
magistrature," that is, lordship over the 
ordinary bishops or pastors. This was not 
the state, or civil magistrate, set over the 
church, for Palladius was a churchman ; 
but by this time, and much more after- 
wards, churchmen were worldly men 
in the worst sense. They were active 
agents of the god of this world, while 
they gave themselves out as servants of 
Christ. They did the devil's work in God's 
name, and thereby prevailed more effectu- 
ally and extensively in seducing the people, 
and keeping their souls in ignorance, and 
in bondage to the devil, than if they had 
openly appeared as his agents. The Man 
of sin had now got a footing in Scotland, 
and his power in it continued to increase for 
centuries ; for it was at least five hundred 
years after this before he got the whole 
kingdom entirely under his feet. 

I do not mean the above reflections to 
apply to Palladius personally, but to the 
system which he established, and the ma- 
chinery which he set agoing. I find nothing 
recorded to the prejudice of his personal 
character. Indeed the pope was too good a 
politician to send a notoriously wicked 
man on such a mission. His memory was 
held in great veneration, and, as Dr Jamie- 
son tells us, there is in the church-yard of 
Fordun, a house which is still called saint 
Palladius' chapel, where an image of the 
saint was kept, and to which pilgrimages 
were made from the most distant parts of 
Scotland. This, however, affords no evi- 
dence that he was really a holy man. It 
fell to churchmen almost exclusively to re- 
cord the lives of their great men ; and for 
the credit of their order, they made them 
models of sanctity. Some of them at this 
early period may have been so. Buchanan 
says, "that under Palladius' instructions, 
many persons sprung up illustrious alike 
for the purity of their doctrine, and the 



sanctity of their lives, in particular, saint 
Patrick, Servanus, Ninian, and Kentigern." 
Book v. chap. 16. With regard to these 
worthies, Mr Aikman, in a note, gives the 
following information : — 

" St Patrick, the tutelary saint of Ireland, 
was born at Nenothur, near Alcluid, or 
Dumbarton, now thought to be Old Kilpa- 
trick, near Glasgow. When only thirteen 
years of age, he was taken prisoner by the 
Irish, and sold as a slave to Moluc, one of 
their kings. After four years' captivity, he 
j was ransomed by his parents, and being 
educated at home, went first to France, and 
afterwards to Rome, whence he was sent 
by pope Celestine to Ireland." — " His first 
and greatest care was to teach the Irish the 
use of letters, as the prime means of making 
their conversion permanent." " St Ninian 
was descended of a noble family in Gallo- 
way, and received his education at Rome. 
He is said by Bede to have converted the 
southern Picts. He founded a monastery 
at Whithorn, and erected a church, which 
being the first that was built of stone, re- 
ceived the significant name of Candida casa. 
I St Servanus, or St Serf, lived within the 
i hermitage of Culross,* and was afterwards 



* The legendary history of this saint is some- 
what curious. I shall give a sketch of it, not as 
historical fact, but as a specimen of the idle tales 
with which the monks amused themselves and 
imposed on the world. It is taken from the 
| " Orygnale Cronykil" of Scotland, from Fergus 
son of Eric, down to his own time, by Andrew 
I Winton, prior of the Inch of Lochleven. 

QuHEN,the thrid (Popp) John was dede, 

Sanct Serf sevyn yer held that stede. 

He was of lif a hal y man : 

The kyng's son of Canaan. 

His fader's landes, of heritage, 

Fel til Mm be clere lynage, 

And lauchfiil leil, before al other. 

That gaf he til his yonger brother, 

All swylk cumbyr he forsuyk. 

And til haly lif hym tuke. 

1 I shall translate what follows into English 
I prose, which will be easier for myself, and I 
I suppose more pleasant to the reader. When 
: setting out on his travels, without any fixed 
! destination, so far as appears, God sent an angel 
to be bis companion and counsellor. They came 
first to Alexandria ; then to Constantinople ; 
then to Rome; when the papal chair having be- 
come vacant, St Serf was chosen to fill it, which 
he did for seven years ; when the angel told him 
it was time to go somewhere else. He called the 
people of Rome together, and preached a fare- 
well sermon (the first, I suppose, and the last of 
the kind, that ever pope preached.) Having 
, taken leave, with the people's blessing, he and 
j the angel came to France ; then to England ; 



INTRODUCTION. 



xi 



sent by St Palladius to Orkney. St Ken- 
tigern, or St Mungo, i. e. the kind, or cour- 
teous, or according to the Rev. T. Mac- 
courty, in the Statistical Account of Penny- 
cuik, vol. x. p. 419. dear friend, was the 
disciple of St Servanus. He laboured 
chiefly among the inhabitants of Strath- 
clyde, and is considered the founder of the 
diocese of Glasgow, to whom its cathedral 
is dedicated." Others derive his name from 
the familiar address of his master Servanus, 
who used to call him Man ga, which in old 
French, signifies, my boy. These we must 
all take for saints, seeing the pope made 
them such ; and they were no doubt instru- 
ments of promoting such Christianity as 
they had received; that is, a creed tolerably 
orthodox, for they held the fundamental 
doctrines of Christianity, and were firmly 
opposed to Pelagianism, the great heresy of 
the day; and a system of worship and 
church government in which divine institu- 
tions were corrupted by the inventions of 
men, comparatively few and imperceptible 
at first, but which, in the course of ages, 
smothered the truth altogether. 

Though the Scots generally submitted to 
the new state of things, it was by no means 
universally so. The Culdees retained their 
old institutions, and observed their former 
practices, both in educating and setting 
apart men for the ministry of the gospel ; 
and they acquired a great degree of import- 
ance and influence by the arrival of St 
Columba, about the middle of the sixth cen- 

where he was joined by a company of a hun- 
dred, who took ship with him and came to 
Scotland. He arrived on the Forth ; and after 
a variety of incidents which the poet relates with 
great minuteness, he settled at Culross, of which 
he received a gift from the king of the Picts, 
together with the Inch or island in Lochleven. 
As a specimen of his miracles, I give the fol- 
lowing, which, lest I should weaken it by a 
translation, I shall give in the very words of the 
poet. 

This haly man had a ram, 

That he had fed up of a lam ; 

And oysit him til folow ay, 

Quherevir he passit in his way. 

A theyf this scheppe in Achren stal, 

And et hym up in peces small. 

Quheu St Serf his ram had myst, 

Quha that it stal was few that wist : 

On presumpcion nevirtheles, 

He that it stal arstyt was. 

And till St Serf syne was lie broucht, 

That scheppe he said that he stal noucht , 

And tharfor for to swer ane athe, 

He said that he walde nocht be laythe. 

But sone he worthit rede for schame; 

The scheppe than bletyt in his weyme ! 



tury, and the establishment of a seminary 
in lona, or Icolmkill, whence, as Dr John- 
son says, " savage clans and roving barbar- 
ians derived the benefits of knowledge, and 
the blessings of religion." Columba was a 
native of Ireland, and he came from that 
island with twelve companions, who estab- 
lished themselves in lona, where, as we 
have seen, a number of Culdees had taken 
refuge, on the dispersion of the Scots two 
centuries before. There was probably still 
a community of them there, who would 
gladly receive such an accession as the saint 
brought them. 

This small island now became, and it con- 
tinued for centuries, famous for learning and 
piety ; and it sent out many, in successive 
ages, to preach the gospel in Scotland, Ire- 
land, and the north of England. I shall 
here introduce from Dr Jamieson an account 
of the doctrines which they held and taught, 
by which it will appear that the religion of 
that portion of our ancestors who adhered 
to them, was substantially protestant, a 
thousand years before the protestant Refor- 
mation. " The doctrine of the Culdees, as 
far as we may judge from that of Columba, 
was at least comparatively pure. As he 
was himself much given to the study of the 
Holy Scriptures, he taught his disciples to 
confirm their doctrines by testimonies 
brought from this unpolluted fountain ; and 
declared that only to be the divine counsel 
which he found there. His followers, as 
we learn from Bede, would receive those 

Swa was he taynctyt schamfully, 
And at Sanct Serf askyt mercy. 

It seems very wonderful, that a sheep, after 
being eaten up in small pieces, should be able to 
bleat in a man's belly ; but there is nothing 
miraculous in the story, if we can believe that 
St Serf, in his travels, learned the art of ventri- 
loquism, which is a very ancient species of im- 
posture. He that could speak out of the ground 
and cause his speech to whisper out of the dust, 
Isa. xxix. 4. could easily cause a sound of bleat- 
ing to come as out of a man's stomach. A little 
knowledge of the arts and sciences gave the 
priests a vast advantage over the ignorant popu- 
lace ; and such advantage they are not ashamed 
to use at the present day. The Jesuits having 
learned that a great proportion of the south sea 
islanders have embraced Christianity, have 
lately sent missionaries to gain them to popery ; 
and they have taken with them a good supply 
of electrical machines and galvanic batteries, by 
which they will make it appear that they can 
work miracles. 



xii 



INTRODUCTION. 



things only, which are contained in the 
writings of the prophets, evangelists, and 
apostles ; diligently observing the works of 
piety and purity. Hence, it has been said, 
that for several generations, with the errors 
which at that time prevailed in the church 
of Rome, they seem not to have been in the 
least tainted. 

" They observed a certain rule in their mo- 
nasteries, composed, as it is said, by Colum- 
ba himself, and sometimes denominated the 
Rule of lona. For a considerable time before 
this era, many truly pious men, knowing their 
obligation to separate from the world, had, 
from human weakness, interpreted the divine 
precept in a sense which it was never meant 
to bear ; and if they did not retire singly to 
solitudes and caves, yet viewed it as most 
subservient to the interests of religion to form 
regular monastic societies. But their mode 
of life was very different from that of the 
generality of those who have been called 
monks in later ages. According to Bede, 
after the example of the venerable fathers, 
they lived by the labours of their hands.' 
When giving the account of Aidan, who 
was one of them, he says, " He neither 
sought nor regarded any of the things of 
this world. All the gifts which were con- 
ferred on him by kings, or by the rich of 
this world, he immediately distributed, with 
the greatest cheerfulness, to the poor who 
came in his way. So far was his mode of 
living removed from the indolence of our 
time, that he required of all his associates, 
whether clergy or laity, that they should 
give themselves to meditation, either by 
reading the Scriptures or by being at pains 
to learn the psalmody." These are the 
words of Venerable Bede, who no doubt 
thought that meditation, and getting psalms 
by heart, was a sufficiently active life for 
monks ; and, indeed, if the Culdees did no 
worse, they were much better employed 
than the generality of monks in later times. 
But, I think, what they are above praised 
for, ought to be placed among their errors 
and corruptions. Monkery, in its best form, 
is a human invention, derived from heathen- 
ism ; and so far from being subservient to 
the cause of Christianity, has always tended 
to corrupt it. Dr Jamieson proceeds : — 



" We know, that, although their succes- 
sors, in later ages, lived together, and had 
some things in common, their wives and 
children, or their nearest relations, after the 
death of any of them, divided their proper- 
ty, and even claimed the offerings which 
had been made at the altar. This is men- 
tioned with regret by a Romish writer. 
But it shows that they had not, like the 
monastic bodies of subsequent ages, formed 
any idea of aggrandizing their order, or en- 
riching the particular monasteries belonging 
to it." Their having altars in their churches, 
was another deviation from New Testament 
purity, probably also derived from the 
Druids, though they would think themselves 
authorised by the law of Moses to erect 
altars. They ought then also to have had 
sacrifices, for by the law of Moses, the altar 
was nothing without the sacrifice. 

" So far were they from reckoning the 
connubial relation inconsistent with their 
character, that it seems to have been held 
in honour. For, even in the later period of 
their existence as a society, they, in some 
places at least, like the priests under 
the law, succeeded by inheritance. From 
the work last quoted, we learn that, in the 
church of St Andrews, the Culdees came 
into office hereditarily. In Ireland, also, 
where this body had great influence, there 
was a hereditary succession in the bishop- 
ric of Armagh, for fifteen generations. The 
Culdees at St Andrews, however, were not 
permitted, after they had entered into this 
monastic establishment, to keep their wives 
in their houses. But, perhaps, this ordi- 
nance was not framed, till through the in- 
creasing influence of that system of super- 
stition which forbids to marry, they were 
forced to yield to the tide of popular preju- 
dice in favour of celibacy. This is the 
more probable, as Alexander Myln, preben- 
dary and official of Dunkeld, says, that the 
Culdees, who, ' after the usage of the eas- 
tern church, had wives, abstained from them 
when it came to their turn to minister.' 
This brings us down to a late period of their 
history, when they were far gone in confor- 
mity to Rome, and not far from their ex- 
tinction. We can scarcely imagine a greater 
deviation from the New Testament order 



INTRODUCTION. 



XJll 



than the hereditary succession of their bi- 
shops. This reduced the church to the rank 
of a mere worldly kingdom, and prepared 
it for entire submission to the Roman yoke.' 
The Doctor concludes his view of their doc- 
trine and practice as follows : 

" Although it appears that they observed 
a certain institute, yet, in the accounts given 
of them, we cannot overlook this remark- 
able distinction between them and those so- 
cieties which are properly called monastic, 
that they were not associated expressly for 
the purpose of observing this rule. They 
might deem certain regulations necessary 
for the preservation of order : but their 
great design was, by communicating instruc- 
tion, to train up others for the work of the 
ministry. Hence it has been justly observ- 
ed, that they may more properly be viewed 
as colleges, in which the various branches 
of useful learning were taught, than monas- 
teries. These societies, therefore, were in 
fact the seminaries of the church, both in 
North Britain and Ireland. As the presby- 
ters ministered in holy things to those in 
their vicinity, they were still training up 
others, and sending forth missionaries, 
whenever they had a call, or any prospects 
of success." Hist. Cold. pp. 29 — 33. with 
the authorities in the margin. 

In the above account of the doctrine of 
the Culdees, the reader will be surprised to 
find so little of that which we commonly" 
understand by Christian doctrine. We 
have nothing said of their religious belief, 
farther than that St Columba taught his 
disciples to take the scriptures alone for 
their guide ; and while they continued to 
follow his counsel, I think, we ought to in- 
fer that they were sound in the faith ; and 
the reason why historians take no notice 
of this subject, must be, that there were no 
controversies about articles of faith, after 
Pelagianism was put down. The hierarchy 
established by Palladius, and the Culdees, 
must have been agreed on points of doc- 
trine, however much they differed on 
the subject of discipline, and the proper 
time of keeping Easter. The last article 
makes a great figure in history, because 
there was a great controversy about it ; but 
as the articles of Christian doctrine are 



scarcely, if at all, mentioned in the history 
of these times, in Scotland, I think, we may 
safely infer, that, on these points, all parties 
were agreed, and that upon the whole, they 
were sound in the faith. The church of 
Rome herself, during the first five or six 
centuries, was as orthodox as three creeds* 
could make her ; and had the honour of 
maintaining the truth of the gospel against 
both the Arian and Pelagian heresies. Nay, 
she holds the truth still, though, in some 
instances, very absurdly expressed, in the 
said three creeds ; but she has neutralized, 
and in fact condemned it, in a fourth, com- 
piled in the sixteenth century, by Pope 
Pius IV. and the council of Trent. Before 
this, she was, in a great measure, canoni- 
cally orthodox, while her priests, and even 
popes, held every variety of religious opi- 
| irion, except the truth of the gospel which 
the creeds were meant to express. 

The establishment by St Columba of a 
seminary in lona was highly favourable to 
the cause of literature both in Scotland and 
England. How far it tended to promote 
evangelical religion, does not clearly appear. 
The form of sound words, and the image 
of Christian worship, are often long retained 
after the living spirit of the gospel is gone ; 
and nothing proves more clearly the fact of 
its departure than an overweening attach- 
ment to superstitious practices, and an 
observance of rites and seasons which God 
has not ordained. When the apostle Paul 
found the churches in Galatia observing 
days, and months, and times, and years, he 
expressed his fear that he had laboured 
among them in vain. These things were 

* These are, the Apostles', the Nicene, and the 
Athanasian. The church of England retains 
all the three as orthodox. The church of Scot- 
land retains only the first, which is appended to 
the Shorter Catechism. It is undoubtedly a 
composition of great antiquity ; but it cannot be 
traced to any of the apostles. Indeed it was 
not ascribed to them till near four hundred year* 
after Christ. See Lord Kings History of it, Uh 
Ed. -p. 27. He quotes a passage from a sermon 
falsely ascribed to St Augustine, ; n which the 
creed is divided into twelve articles, and the 
article which each apostle contributed is distinctly 
mentioned. Thus, Peter said, " I believe in 
God the Father Almighty ;" John, " Maker of 
heaven and earth ;" James, " And in Jesus 
Christ his only son our Lord,'' &c. &c. With 
such ridiculous fictions idle churchmen amused 
themselves, and imposed on the world. 



XIV 



INTRODUCTION. 



an evidence of their declining 1 in their spiri- I 
tual state, and departing from the faith. 
Long before this period of our history, we 
find our Christian ancestors stickling about 
the proper time of keeping Easter, when 
they ought to have rejected it altogether as j 
an observance which God had not required. 
In the time of St Columba, the controversy 
was revived, and after a keen contest the 
eloquence of those who favoured the church 
of Rome prevailed. St Columba yielded, 
whether from conviction, or from some 
other cause, we are not told; " and the Pope 
found in the Abbot of Iona himself, a sedu- 
lous and devoted convert to the new lunar 
cycle." RusseVs Prelim. Diss, to Keith's 
Scottish Bishops, p. lxxv. 

About the same time the feast of Christ- 
mas was introduced to our ancestors. " The 
vulgar persuasion is," says Buchanan, " that 
these festivities celebrated the birth of 
Christ, when, in truth, they refer, as is suf- 
ficiently evident, to the lascivious rites of the 
Bacchanalia, and not to the memory of our 
Saviour's nativity." It is probable that this 
was originally the Gothic pagan feast of 
Yule, or Zul, so called in Scotland to this 
day; see Dr Jamiesorfs Scottish Dictionary 
on the word, Yule. We know the Popes 
instructed their missionaries not to abolish, 
but rather adopt the heathen rites of the 
people among whom they introduced Chris- 
tianity, and adapt them to Christian wor- 
ship. This was the source of innumerable 
corruptions ; and with regard to this festival, 
it not only opened a door for all manner of 
licentiousness, but also bound the churches 
to the acknowledgment of a thing as true 
which never has been proved, — that Christ 
was born on the 25th of December, which 
rests on no credible authority. Our neigh- 
bours in the south condemn our reformers 
for rejecting this holiday. With much 
more reason we wonder at their retaining it. 

There was another subject, which, if not 
• of equal importance, was far more harmless, 
and was very keenly controverted. This 
was nothing less than the manner in which 
the priests should have their heads shaven. 
St Austin, who was sent to England by the 
Pope, to convert the heathen Saxons, who 
had obtained a settlement there, was deter- 



mined that every consecrated head in this 
island, should be clipped and shaven exactly 
according to the Roman fashion. " Such 
was the rage for introducing this more fa- 
shionable tonsure into all parts of Britain 
and Ireland, that learned missionaries were 
appointed to preach on its importance, and 
to illustrate by regular argument, and ap- 
peals to scripture, its powerful efficacy in 
furthering the everlasting welfare, as well 
as the earthly happiness of the whole Chris- 
tian priesthood. But all the zeal and la- 
bours of Austin were in vain when opposed 
by the firm faith of our northern Presby- 
ters. These worthy sons of our ancient 
church expressed their utter abhorrence of 
so gross an innovation — declared boldly that 
they would continue to shave the crown of 
their heads agreeably to the exact pattern 
which they had all along followed, and 
which, they were satisfied, possessed the 
high authority of St John the apostle, and 
of St Polycarp the bishop ; and that how- 
ever compliant the Saxons might be under 
their Romish metropolitan, and however 
fickle the Britons might prove in regard to 
the pernicious novelty with which their 
steadfastness was thus menaced, the dis- 
ciples of Ninian, Palladius, and Columba, 
would be found ready to resist unto death. 
But the power of fashion is of all things the 
most seducing and delusive. Even grave 
divines are not at ail times proof against its 
fascinating advances. The demure monks 
of Iona, accordingly, were at length pre- 
vailed upon to shave like other priests ; for 
we find they adopted the new tonsure 
much about the same time that they ad- 
mitted the new calendar as their future 
guide to the canonical Easter." RusseVs 
Dissertation as above, p. lxxvii. 

This writer presents the pleadings of 
both parties in a burlesque fonn ; and, 
indeed, in the present state of public 
opinion, it is difficult to speak of such a 
controversy with gravity ; but, I have no 
doubt, it was to our fathers a very serious 
matter. They did right to resist foreign 
authority even in the trifling matter of cut- 
ting their hair; and when this was imposed 
upon them as a part of their religion, they 
would have done right had they resisted 



INTRODUCTION. 



XV 



even to death. Had they done this, and 
had every one cut his hair according to his 
own taste, showing the thing - to be a matter 
of indifference, we would have admired 
their intrepidity. But they sink to the 
standard of mere children, when they set 
up a fashion of their own as of indispensa- 
ble religious obligation. It seems to us im- 
possible that minds which could entertain 
such a notion, could understand, or be un- 
der the influence of the sublime truths of 
the gospel; just as children who can take 
pleasure in toys, prove themselves unfit for 
the higher branches of education. 

These were the things which occupied 
the minds of Christian pastors as early as the 
sixth century ; from which it is evident 
that the state of genuine Christianity must 
have been very low, notwithstanding the im- 
posing rites of worship which began to be 
practised. Indeed the spirit of the gospel al- 
ways declined in proportion to the increase of 
such rites; and, as we shall see in the sequel, 
the church of Scotland, like every other 
national church in Christendom, added one 
piece of mummery to another, till her rela- 
tion to the Christianity of the Bible could 
scarcely, if at all, be discerned. 

~V\ bile the church of Rome was making 
encroachments by one superstitious inven- 
tion after another, the Scots were so often 
engaged in war with their neighbours, that 
they could not give proper attention to 
subjects of religion. They left these things 
to their priests, and quietly acquiesced in 
what they were pleased to impose. Yet 
they sometimes carried their zeal for Chris- 
tianity with them into the wars, of which 
there is an instance recorded by Buchanan, 
in the sixth century. The Saxons, who 
invaded England, and greatly annoved the 
south of Scotland, were heathens. The 
Scots having obtained a signal victory over 
them, drove them to their ships. As many 
as got on board escaped to Germany. " Of 
those who were left, they who continued 
pertinaciously to adhere to their errors were 
put to death; the rest saved their lives by 
a pretended profession of Christianity." 
Buclu, book v. chap. 25. The Scots who 
were guilty of this must have been Chris- 
tians only in name. About the same time, 



a considerable addition was made to the in- 
come of the clergy, by donations from the 
pious king, Convallus, which Buchanan re- 
lates in the following concise, but very ex- 
pressive terms. " He enriched the priests 
with donations and other provisions, more 
with good intention than happy success." 

The Scots, however, did not tamely sub- 
mit to all St Austin's encroachments. His 
mission from the Pope was only to the 
heathen Saxons, now masters of England, 
having- driven the Britons into ^Yales ; but 
he assumed authority over all the Christians 
in the island. Buchanan thus introduces 
him to his readers, in his usual concise and 
pointed style. " In this reign, (that of 
Aidanus) an ambitious monk named * Au- 
gustine came to Britain, sent by Gregory 
the Roman pontiff, who, while he taught a 
new religion, greatly deteriorated the old ; 
for he did not so much inculcate the pre- 
cepts of Christianity, as the Romish cere- 
monies. The Britons had at first heard the 
gospel from the disciples of John the evange- 
list, f and were now instructed by monks 
who were learned and pious. But the mis- 
sionary, intent only upon reducing all un- 
der the dominion of the bishop of Rome, 
proclaimed himself sole archbishop of Bri- 
tain — introduced a dispute, neither neces- 
sary nor useful, about the day of celebrating 
Easter, by which he mightily disturbed the 
church, and so loaded her ritual, already 
degenerating into superstition, with new 
ceremonies, and lying wonders, that scarcely 
a vestige of true piety remained/' Book v. 
chap. 36. 

* He is called Augustine, or Austin the monk, 
to distinguish him from another saint of the. 
same name, who belongs to a period two centu- 
ries earlier, who, as a divine, was distinguished 
above all the fathers of his age. Luther was 
a monk of his order ; and was happily directed 
to study his writings, which were partly the 
means of opening his eyes to the truth of the 
gospel and the errors of popery. Of Augustine 
the monk I have nothing so favourable to record. 
But there is a tradition, that he was so amazing- 
ly successful in converting the Saxons to such 
Christianity as he taught them, that they came 
in such crowds to baptism, that he could not pos- 
sibly baptize them individually, but consecrated 
a whole river at once, and took an instrument 
such as bleachers use, and sprinkled them en 
masse. I do not give this as a well authenti- 
cated fact ; but as a tradition which I have read 
somewhere. 

f He has onlv their own word for this. 



XVI 



INTRODUCTION. 



Referring to this period Mosheim ob- 
serves, " The ancient Britons and Scots per- 
sisted long in the maintenance of their reli- 
gious liberty, and neither the threats nor 
the promises of the legates of Rome, could 
engage them to submit to the decrees and 
authority of the Roman pontiff, as appears 
manifestly from the testimony of Bede." 
The aversion of the ancient Britons and 
Scots to the rites and doctrine of the Ro- 
mish church is strongly manifested in an 
extract of a letter from Laurence, who suc- 
ceeded Augustine as bishop of Canterbury, 
A. D. 605, to the Scots who inhabited 
Ireland, preserved by Bede. In this epistle 
he says, " When the see apostolic sent us to 
these western parts, to preach to the pagan 
nations, and we happened to come into this 
island, which is called Britain, we held both 
the Britons and Scots in great esteem for 
sanctity, before we knew them, believing 
that they conducted themselves according 
to the custom of the universal church. But 
after we became acquainted with the Bri- 
tons, we still imagined that the Scots had 
been better. We have, however, learned 
from bishop Dagan, who came into this 
aforesaid island, and from the abbot Colum- 
ban in France, that the Scots no way differ 
from the Britons, in their behaviour. For 
bishop Dagan, coming to us, not only re- 
fused to eat with us, but even to take his 
repast in the same house in which we were 
entertained." Bede, lib. 11. cap. 4. This 
Dagan came from the monastery of Ban- 
gor, in Ireland, to be bishop to the Scots, 
and evidently treated the votaries of Rome, 
not excepting the bishop of Canterbury 
himself, as if they had been actually excom- 
municated. He viewed them as men with 
whom he was not so much as to eat, nay, 
as even communicating pollution to the 
place where they did eat." JamiesorCs 
Hist. Culd.p. 221. 

From the fact thus established, of the 
mutual dislike of one another, and the aver- 
sion of the Scots to receive any of the Ro- 
man rites, we have another proof of the in- 
dependence of the Scotish church down to 
the seventh century. Had they regarded 
the Pope as head of the universal church, 
and of course their own ecclesiastical supe- j 



rior, they must have submitted to his de- 
crees without calling them in question. 
But they acknowledged no such headships 
they were as independent of Rome, as Rome 
was of them; and they would not recog- 
nise the jurisdiction of the bishops who 
came to England with the Pope's commis- 
sion. Unhappily, however, they had con- 
ceded the tonsure, and the time of keeping 
Easter, to the persuasion, or importunity 
of the Romanists. This encouraged far- 
ther encroachment, and prepared the way 
for complete submission to Roman autho- 
rity. 

While thus maintaining the fact of the 
independence of the church of Scotland, 
and her extreme aversion to receive any of 
the Romish rites, it is but fair to admit that 
the corruptions which by this time prevail- 
ed in the Scotish church, ought not to be 
entirely charged upon the Romanists, but 
ascribed to the depravity of her own mem- 
bers, not excepting the clergy, who, as we 
shall see by and by, had become very pro- 
fligate. Yet, as is often the case, amidst all 
the corruptions of their church, they mani- 
fested great zeal for the truth. Thus Fer- 
chard, one of their kings, who began his 
reign in 622, proving himself unworthy of 
the crown, the nobles conspired, and took 
him by force, in order to bring him to trial 
for his crimes. " Many heavy charges were 
preferred against him, particularly, he was 
accused of the Pelagian heresy, contempt of 
baptism, and the other sacred ordinances, 
from which, when he could not clear him- 
self, he was thrown into prison, where, that 
he might not longer be exposed to contempt, 
he put himself to death, in the fourteenth 
year of his reign." Bucli. book v. cli. 39. 
At this early period, it seems, heresy was 
regarded by our ancestors, as a crime pun- 
ishable by the state, even in the person of 
their king. 

Notwithstanding much prevailing corrup- 
tion, the Culdee seminaries continued to 
send out ministers to preach the gospel, or 
what they took for it, who were instrumen- 
tal in propagating Christianity, not only in 
Scotland, but also in the north of England. 
At the request of Oswald king of Northum- 
berland Donald IV. king of Scotland " sent 



INTRODUCTION, 



XV 11 



him teachers distinguished for their piety 
pad learning, whom he received with great 
kindness and liberality. Nor did he think 
it a mean office in a king, to interpret to his 
people, in their public assemblies, the ser- 
mons of the preachers, which, being deli- 
•vered in the Scotish language, were not 
sufficiently understood by them. All this 
is distinctly recorded by Bede." In the 
next reign but one, "after the Scotish 
monks had disseminated the knowledge of 
the Christian religion widely through Eng- 
land, and so instructed the English youth 
in letters, that they appeared sufficiently 
capable of preaching the gospel to their 
countrymen, a spirit of envy towards their 
instructors arose, in proportion as they im- 
agined themselves their equals in learning ; 
and their disinclination towards the Scots 
proceeded so far, that they forced them to 
return to their own country ; which affront, 
though it disturbed the concord of the king- 
doms, yet, such was the moderation of those 
who sustained the wrong, that they re- 
strained both, nations from decided hostili- 
ties." Buck book v. ch. 41, 42. This shows 
how much Christianity was regarded as a 
national affair, when they were ready to go 
to war to avenge an affront offered to their 
missionaries. 

Eugenius VII. who had a peaceful reign 
of seventeen years, paid great attention to 
the affairs of religion. He was the first 
that ordered the records of the kingdom 
to be preserved in the monasteries. His 
successor followed his example, not only in 
preserving peace, but in endowing monas- 
teries. These measures tended much to 
increase the importance and wealth of the 
clergy. Yet after all this the following 
testimony is born by Buchanan on behalf 
of the ancient or Culdee bishops. After 
king Kenneth had subdued the Picts, and 
reduced both nations to one, "the episcopal 
see, which the Picts had established at 
Abernethy, he transferred to the royal fane, 
which posterity have rather chosen to call 
St Andrews* But the ancient Scotish 



* This was an ecclesiastical seat of great uote, 
several centuries before this period. The fol- 
lowing account of its origin is given by Keith 
in his " Introduction to the See of St Andrews.'' 



bishops, elected from the monasteries, where 
the objects of contentidn then were not 
honour and rank, but holiness and learning, 
exercised their functions every where as 
opportunity offered, without envy and with- 
out strife, for there were as yet no rich be- 
nefices attached to the office." B. vi. chap. 



u All our historians do observe, that some of 
the relicks of the apostle St Andrew, were 
brought into Scotland, and that in process of 
time, he became its tutelar saint, as we now 
speak. How the Picts, as well as the Scots, 
came to bear so great devotion to St Andrew, 
will be known by looking into the beginning of 
the second book of Archbishop Spottiswood, or 
into the account given of it by Mr Martin, in 
his Reliquice Divi Andrece, which, however like 
to a legend it may appear to be, 1 shall take the 
liberty here to transcribe, from a copy that lies 
in the Advocates' library, Edinburgh. 

" Regulus, a Greek monk living at Patrse, a 
city of Achaia, (by whom the relicks of St An- 
drew the apostle were preserved and kept,) 
about the year 370, was warned by a vision by 
night, (three nights before the emperor Constan- 
tine came to the city, with purpose to translate 
these relicks to Constantinople) to go to the 
shrine in which the relicks were kept, and to 
take out thereof the arm bone, three fingers of 
the right hand, a tooth, and one of the lids of 
the apostle's knees, which he should carefully 
preserve and carry with him to a region towards 
the west, situate in the utmost parts of the 
world. Regulus, at first troubled with the 
strangeness of the vision, after a little time re- 
solved to obey. So putting the relicks in a box, 
he went to sea, taking copartners with him, 
Damianus a presbyter, Gelasius and Cubacu- 
lus, two deacons, eight hermits, and three devout 
virgins, whose names are expressed in sundry 
ancient records, says For dun, lib. ii,cap. 59, &c. 

" After long storms, the ship was at last 
driven into the bay, near the place where the 
city of St Andrews now stands, and there split 
asunder upon the rocks. But Regulus and his 
company were all brought safe to shore, having 
nothing left them but the relicks, which they 
were careful above all things to preserve. Pier-- 
gustus, king of the Picts, (in whose dominion 
the shire of Fife, and all the low country of 
Scotland then was-;) came to visit them in 
the. place where they were settled, (now St 
Andrews;) it was then a forest for wild 
boars, and was called in the country lan- 
guage Muckross, i. e. a land of boars, from 
muck, a sow, and ross a promontory of land or 
island. The king changed the name into Kil- 
rimont (q. d. King's mount,) and gave to Re- 
gulus and his company all the land of that fo- 
rest, and erected a church, called to this day St 
Rule's or Regulus's church. Regulus lived 
here thirty two year's." 

I insert* the above not as a piece of authentic 
history, but as a specimen of the silly fictions 
which were imposed on the world. This was 
no doubt meant to give the see of St Andrews 
the honour of a miraculous origin ; but I would 
rather call it a theftous one, if the things which 
Regulus stole from the church at Patrse were 
of any value. 

C 



xviii 



INTRODUCTION. 



5. This must relate to the elective Cul- 
dee bishops only, who seem to have had but 
a small, if any share of the endowments ; 
for in the reign of Constantine II. and only 
a few years after what is above related, we 
read, that " the king first turned his atten- 
tion to the correction of the public disci- 
pline, and, by severe laws, brought back 
to their ancient frugality the order of the 
priests, who, corrupted by their fat livings, 
had left off preaching the gospel, and devot- 
ed themselves to hunting, hawking, and 
courtly pomp." JB. vi. chap. 7. It is im- 
possible that the two passages I have quoted 
can refer to the same persons, or the same 
class or order of ministers. The last quo- 
tation must relate to the beneficed clergy 
and their dependents, and the first, as I have 
said, to the Culdees, or perhaps only a por- 
tion of them, who remained faithful amidst 
the corruption that surrounded them. 

This corruption was greatly increased by 
the almost constant intercourse, which, 
sometime before this period, had begun to 
be kept Avith Rome. The richly beneficed 
ecclesiastics possessed the means of travel- 
ing to that city, It became the fashion to 
do so ; and their carnal minds were fasci- 
nated by the wealth and splendour in which 
the church appeared there. Though the 
Scotish church was not yet subject to the 
Pope, he found means by his influence in 
Scotland, to effect the preferment of such 
of the clergy as were, or were expected to 
be, subservient to his views. Indeed, a 
journey to Rome became the direct road 
to ecclesiastical dignity in Scotland ; and 
those who were exalted by this means were 
of course bound to promote the interest of 
Rome among their own flocks. The Pope 
also had agents in Scotland, who laboured 
with much zeal to bring the Scots into en- 
tire conformity, which they would have ef- 
fected much sooner than they did but for 
the opposition of the Culdees, who accused 
them of withdrawing the people from obe- 
dience to Christ, and subjecting them to the 
bishop of Rome ; that they forbade the 
marriage of priests, extolling celibacy as a 
state of peculiar sanctity ; that they taught 
prayers for the dead, and set up images in 
churches; and that they had introduced 



rites and ceremonies, unknown to the purer 
times, and contrary to Christ's institutions. 
For such faithful contending, some of the 
Culdee divines were excommunicated at 
Rome as heretics, for which David Buchan- 
an refers to the third volume of the coun- 
cils. This was an impudent assumption of 
authoritative jurisdiction, to which the Pope 
had no title, any more than the Culdees had 
to excommunicate him. But he knew that 
having done the thing, it would be estab- 
lished as a precedent, and would afterwards 
be used as an argument to prove the right 
of the see of Rome to universal jurisdiction. 

I have said, that Constantine, king of 
Scotland, endeavoured to effect a reform of 
the abuses which now prevailed. For this 
purpose he called a convention of the states 
at Scoone, in which it was ordained, that 
churchmen should reside within their pro- 
per charge ; that they should forbear med- 
dling with secular affairs ; that they should 
diligently instruct the people, and set them 
a good example ; that they should not keep 
hawks, hounds, and horses for pleasure ; 
that they should carry no weapons, nor be 
pleaders in civil causes, but content them- 
selves with their own proper emoluments. 
These enactments show how the clergy had 
been thrusting themselves'forwai'd into all 
sorts of business, civil as well as religious. 
There were certain fines imposed on those 
who should transgress the above regula- 
tions; but all this went for nothing; for 
Gregory who ascended the throne a year or 
two after Constantine's death, gave the 
clergy higher immunities than ever; he 
granted them exemption from all temporal 
jurisdiction, so that they might do what 
they pleased without fear of punishment. 
He exempted them also from all taxes and 
imposts; and constituted them judges of all 
matrimonial causes, of all testimentary 
deeds, and, in short, of every thing that 
related to conscience and good faith between 
man and man. He confirmed to them also 
the right of tithes; gave them power to 
make laws, to try, at their own instance, 
Avithout the concurrence of any temporal 
judge, heretics, blasphemers, and such like,- 
and as they were the sole judges of what 
was heresy, and what blasphemy, they 



INTRODUCTION. 



xix 



would easily affix one or other of these to 
any person who offended them, and thus 
they acquired almost absolute dominion 
over the persons and the property of the 
people. In addition to all this, it was 
' ordained, that future kings, at their corona- 
tion, should swear to maintain to the clergy 
all these privileges. 

We now find ourselves in the middle of 
the tenth century, which, from the gross 
ignorance, and besotted superstition that 
prevailed during it over all Europe, has been 
called the age of lead. There was still, 
however, light enough in Scotland to enable 
some of the priests to maintain the lawful- 
ness of their having wives. There was in- 
deed a bishop of the name of Barnet who 
publicly pleaded for this in a national coun- 
cil. But ultimately they were all obliged, 
practically at least, to yield to the prevail- 
ing superstition in favour of celibacy. The 
clergy now engrossed all the honour and 
esteem of the people. No other class or 
rank in society was reckoned of any account, 
not even royalty itself, in comparison of the 
sacred order ; insomuch that king Constan- 
tine III. voluntarily resigned his crown, 
and went to be a monk at St Andrews, 
where he lived five years. David Buchanan 
informs us, that notwithstanding the pre- 
vailing idolatry and superstition, there were 
still some godly men who preached that 
Christ was the only propitiation for sin, 
and that his blood only could cleanse from 
the guilt of it. I am sorry this author does 
not refer to any authority by which the 
fact might be ascertained. I have looked 
through whole centuries of history, without 
finding a single note of a sermon, or any 
information as to the doctrine which the 
Culdees preached in these dark ages. I do 
not however doubt the assertion, that their 
preaching was evangelical as above stated ; 
for nothing but the vital influence of the 
truth in their Own hearts, could have kept 
them from the moral contagion of the cor- 
rupt atmosphere around them. Teachers 
of fatal error, or, which is much the same, 
who give but a heartless assent to the 
truth, possess no principle that will enable 
them to withstand the allurements of cor- 
ruption ; so they will sooner or later fall in 



with the current. But it is admitted by all 
our historians, that in the worst times, there 
were a few faithful men, who kept them- 
selves apart from the corrupt mass, neither 
accepting nor seeking church preferment, 
who yet went preaching wherever they had 
an opportunity. This must have been the 
effect of the gospel believed by them ; and 
therefore I infer that it was the gospel 
which they preached. 

I shall now introduce an example of the 
working of the corrupt system which was 
now established, not only in Scotland, but 
in all western Europe. Kenneth III. king 
of the Scots, who had been, upon the whole, 
one of the best and most prosperous of their 
kings, when advanced in life, had a son and 
heir who was too young to succeed to the 
crown. Hitherto, and for many ages, the 
crown had been elective, with this limita- 
tion, that none were eligible but princes 
descended from Fergus, the founder of their 
monarchy. On the death of a king, there- 
fore, his heir did not succeed as a thing of 
course. If the nobles thought him incapa- 
ble from infancy or any other cause, they 
chose some other of the royal line, whom 
they thought better qualified to govern them. 
There was at this time an accomplished and 
popular prince of the name of Malcom, son 
of Duff, one of their former kings. Ken- 
neth kne w that he was likely to be preferred 
before his son ; accordingly he got him taken 
out of the way privately by poison. The 
thing was done so secretly that the king 
was not suspected, and probably would never 
have been suspected, had he not overdone 
his affectation of sorrow for the loss of 
Malcom, and at the same time laboured 
with all his might to procure an alteration 
of the law, so that his son might succeed 
him, under guardians, if he were not come 
of age. He obtained this change in the 
constitution of the kingdom, but it occa- 
sioned much discontent, and many bad con- 
sequences followed. 

" The king having thus, by iniquity, se- 
cured, as he thought, the throne to his 
posterity, yet could not obtain for himself 
peace of mind; for although he behaved 
towards every person with the utmost cour- 
tesy and appearance of benevolence, per- 



XX 



INTRODUCTION. 



formed towards a great many acts of pecu- 
liar kindness, and so governed the kingdom, 
that he appeared deficient in no duty of a 
good king, yet his soul, disturbed by a 
consciousness of his crime, permitted him 
to enjoy no solid or sincere pleasure; in 
retirement the thoughts of this unholy deed 
rushing upon his recollection, tormented 
him; and in sleep, visions full of horror, 
drove repose far from his pillow. At last, 
"whether in truth an audible voice from 
heaven addressed him, as is reported, or 
whether it was the suggestion of his own 
guilty mind, as often happens to the wicked 
in the silent watches of the night, he seemed 
thus to be admonished : — ' Dost thou think 
that the murder of the innocent Malcoin, 
perpetrated secretly by thee with the most 
consummate villany, is either unknown to 
me or can remain longer unpunished ? Even 
now, snares are spread for thy life, which thou 
canst not escape. Nor shalt thou leave, as 
thou imaginest, a stable and a secure throne 
for thy posterity. They shall inherit an 
agitated and tempestuous kingdom.' Terri- 
fied by this dreadful apparition, the king, 
early in the morning, hastened to the bishops 
and monks, to whom he unfolded the agita- 
tion of his mind, and his repentance. But 
they, instead of directing him to the true 
remedy in the gospel of Christ — for they 
had already much declined from ancient 
piety and learning — enjoined upon him the 
absurd and fallacious propitiations invented 
by designing wretches for the sake of gain, 
and rashly complied with by the simple and 
uninstructed — that he should enrich by 
magnificent gifts churches and monasteries ; 
that he should visit the sepulchres of the 
saints, kiss their relics, and expiate his sins 
by masses and alms ; and above all, that he 
should treat the priests and monks with 
greater reverence than ever he had hitherto 
done. Nor did the king omit to perform 
any of these pious fooleries, believing that 
he would derive from them relief to his 
wounded conscience." Buch.b.v'i. chap AO. 

It is in cases like the above that the 
malignant poison of popery appears. It 
teaches sinners to make atonement for the 
greatest crimes, by gifts to churches, by 
superstitious and idolatrous rites, such as 



worshipping dead men's bones, and by pay- 
ing respect to the clergy. Sin must ever 
appear a small matter to those who are 
taught to believe that it can be purged by 
such means ; and wicked men will not be 
restrained from any crime they desire to 
commit, when they know that they can 
purchase not only impunity, but pardon at 
so easy a rate. It turned out, however, 
that retribution overtook the wretched 
king in the course of his penances. " In 
the course of his devotional exercises, hav- 
ing come to Mearns, to worship the body 
of St Palladius, he turned aside to visit the 
neighbouring castle of Fettercairn, then, as 
we are informed, remarkable for its build- 
ings." Here, the lady of the castle, from 
an old grudge, had him assassinated. Ibid 
chap. 41. 

From this time wealth beyond measure 
began to pour into the church. The piety 
of kings and nobles came to be estimated in 
proportion to their gifts to the church dur- 
ing their lives, or their bequests at their 
death. In the eleventh century, king Mal- 
com Canmore, and his queen, Margaret, who 
has been canonized as the patroness of 
Scotland, distinguished themselves as friends 
of the church. Margaret was an Anglo- 
Saxon princess, but was educated on the 
continent, and was accustomed to more 
splendour of ritual than Scotland could yet 
afford. She was offended by what appeared 
to her " certain erroneous practices," which 
she laboured to correct. She had frequent 
conferences with the clergy for this purpose, 
in which the king was her interpreter. The 
arguments of kings and queens have usually 
great weight with such persons as the bulk 
of the Scotish clergy now were ; and we 
cannot be surprised that those of Margaret 
prevailed, especially as her object was to 
increase the importance of their order. Her 
confessor, who wrote an account of her life, 
says, " In some parts of Scotland there were 
certain persons who were accustomed to 
celebrate masses, I know not by what bar- 
barous rite, contrary to the universal prac- 
tice of the church. The queen, with holy 
zeal, was at the greatest pains to annihilate 
this custom, that no one of the Scotish na- 
tion might presume to observe it." The 



INTRODUCTION. 



XXI 



rites of the church were thus brought to 
more exact conformity with those of Rome ; 
and bishops who had hitherto had only a 
general oversight of the church, without 
particular sees, or any lordly title, were 
now raised to the dignity of lord bishops, 
each with a particular diocese, of which at 
first there were only four, St Andrews, 
Glasgow, Whithorn, and Mortlach, or Aber- 
deen. 

It appears from Buchanan, that both 
Malcom aud his queen were persons of ex- 
emplary character, notwithstanding their 
superstition. " He," the king, " lived holily 
himself, and excited others to temperance 
and equity, by his example ; in which, it is 
believed, he was much assisted by the ad- 
vice and admonitions of his inimitable queen, 
a woman remarkable for her uncommon 
piety. She indeed omitted no office of 
kindness towards the poor, or the priests ; 
nor was her mother, Agatha, or her sister, 
Christian, at all behind her in any religious 
duty ; and seclusion being then esteemed 
among the principal institutions of piety, 
both of these ladies, leaving the tormenting 
cares of the world, shut themselves up in a 
convent of nuns." Malcom created two 
additional bishopricks, Moray and Caith- 
ness, " procuring for them bishops, who, 
as the times went, were pious and learned." 
He built, at great expense, a magnificent 
cathedral at Durham — for the north of Eng- 
land then belonged to Scotland — and another 
at Duiifermline, and transferred the abbot 
of the monks at Durham to the see of St 
Andrews. 

It is pleasant to read of the piety of kings 
«uid queens, in such barbarous times as 
those to which this part of our history 
relates; but, I fear, however uncharitable 
it may seem, we ought to make a large 
abatement from that which is ascribed to 
Malcom Canmore and Margaret his queen. 
Buchanan indeed speaks in unqualified 
language of the queen's piety ; but her life 
was to him a story of four centuries old. 
He had no record on which he could de- 
pend, but what had been composed by some 
churchman or other; and we know that, 
in their esteem, almost all piety was made 
to consist in devotion to the church, — in 



bestowing wealth on it, and being obedient 
to the priests. Margaret's zeal for bringing 
the church to greater conformity with that 
of Rome, was quite enough to exalt her 
fame for piety. Her mother and sister are 
described as equally pious with herself, and 
the proof of it is, that they left the torment- 
ing cares of the world, and shut themselves 
up in a convent of nuns, which, if tried by 
the scripture standard, will be found no 
piety at all. Malcom, himself, though a 
brave and active prince, was utterly illiter- 
ate. " Although he could not read, he used 
often to turn over the leaves, and kiss the 
prayer books, and books of devotion which 
he heard his wife say were dear to her." 
Fordun, lib. v. chap. 23, as quoted by Aik- 
man, in a note to Buchanan. Malcom's 
devotion in kissing the books which he 
could not read, would be regarded, and 
celebrated by the monks, as the most ex- 
alted piety. 

Malcom was succeeded by his brother, 
Donald Bane, who reigned only a few 
months ; then by his natural son Duncan, 
who reigned a year and a half; then by his 
three sons in succession, Edgar, Alexander 
I. and David. Edgar made only one addi- 
tion to the splendor of the church : to wit, 
the monastery of Coldingham, dedicated to 
St Ebb, the virgin, afterwards changed to 
St Cuthbert. Alexander rebuilt the church 
of St Michaels at Scoon, and changed the 
company of priests there into a monastery 
of monks. In crossing the firth of Forth, 
having been driven by a tempest on the 
island of Inchcolm, where he almost perish- 
ed for hunger, and for many days, had no 
food either for himself or companions, ex- 
cept what they received from a devout 
solitary hermit, he, likewise, founded a 
church there, in memory of St Columba, to 
which he added what they call canons, and 
endowed it with lands to maintain them. 
He, besides, bestowed large donatives and 
lands on St Andrews, which was rich enough 
before. He completed the abbey of Dun- 
fermline, which his father had begun, and 
greatly increased its revenues. 

But in munificence to the church, David, 
the last of Malcom's sons who reigned, ex- 
ceeded all who had gone before. " He ex- 



XXII INTRO! 

ceeded the iiberality of his father and rela- 
tions, in increasing the revenues of the 
ecclesiastics, a liberality to be pardoned 
rather than praised. He rebuilt the monas- 
teries that had gone to decay through age, 
or been destroyed by the ravages of war, 
besides founding a great number of new 
ones. To the six bishopricks that previ- 
ously existed, he added four, Ross, Brechin, 
Dunkeld, and Dumblaine ; and in order to 
provide for the annual support of these sees, 
he reduced the succeeding kings almost to 
poverty, by consecrating the greater part of 
the royal lands to the support of monks. * 
Joannes Major," continues Buchanan, " a 
man of great name in theology when I was 
a boy, after having praised this king for his 
other actions, in a grave, and I wish a less 
true oration, blamed his profuse donations 
to the monasteries ; and I, too, am the more 
astonished at such immoderate profusion of 
the public money, and patrimony, because 
St Bernard, in these very times, inveighed 
in the keenest discourses, against the priests 
and monks, for the immoderate expense of 
their luxury, who notwithstanding, might 
have been termed moderate compared with 
those of our day. But the fruit which fol- 
lowed, showed what was the nature and 
influence of such donations ; for, as in bodies 
distended by corpulence, the activity of the 

* Spots wood controverts this. " The bestow- 
ing of six score thousand franks," says he, that 
is the highest estimate of his donations) cannot 
be called an immoderate profusion. He was 
certainly a most wise king, and knew well his 
own work, and could proportion his gifts to his 
revenues." But Spotswood was archbishop of 
St Andrews, primate of all Scotland, a privy 
counsellor to king Charles I. and chancellor of 
the kingdom. Xarge sums bestowed on the 
church, would have little magnitude in his eyes. 
But a hundred and twenty thousand franks was 
a large sum in those days ; and it must have 
been the sum spent in building and repairing 
churches and monasteries, exclusive of the lands 
set apart for their permanent endowment ; the 
value of which in coin could not then be properly 
estimated. The archbishop's statement is how- 
ever corroborated by the fact, that David's suc- 
cessor did not find the crowa so impoverished 
as to hinder him from following the pious exam- 
ple ; for he built three or four monasteries ; and 
his successor added to the number. It may be 
alleged, indeed, that the passion for building 
churches, in those days, was like the desire of 
certain stimulants to the human constitution, in 
the present day. Those who love them must 
and will have them, though they cannot afford 
to purchase any thing else. 



members is destroyed, so the sparks of ge- 
nius, oppressed by luxury, languished in 
the monasteries, literature was extinguished* 
piety degenerated into superstition, and, as 
in an uncultivated field, the seeds of every 
kind of vice sprung up rankly." Book vii. 
chap. 27, 28. The above was written about 
the time of the reformation. The author 
must have been a witness of the wealth 
and luxury of the clergy in his time, which 
must have continued to increase till the 
reformation swept it away. 

David was succeeded by his grandson 
Malcom IV. who, in order, as he thought, 
to serve God more acceptably made a vow 
of perpetual celibacy. " He applied him- 
self strenuously to the family practice of 
building churches and endowing monaste- 
ries, in which, had his life been spared, he 
would far have exceeded his predecessors. 
He died in the year 1165, in the twenty- 
fifth year of his age, and the twelfth of his 
reign." 

So flattered and so pampered, the clergy, 
as might have been expected, became intol- 
erable for their pride and insolence. Thus 
we read in the reign of Alexander III. the 
next but one to the last mentioned. The 
king " had his internal tranquillity disturbed 
by the arrogance of the priests and monks, 
who, enriched by the former kings, began 
to grow licentious by long repose, and to 
exceed, or equal in magnificence the nobi- 
lity, whom they already surpassed in wealth. 
At which the young nobles feeling indig- 
nant, behaved to them harshly and with 
contempt, and they, in consequence, com- 
plained to the king of the affront. He, 
however, either believing the injuries not so 
serious as the priests wished them to appear, 
or probably, not thinking them unmerited, 
treated them lightly; on which they in- 
stantly, in great wrath, excommunicated the 
whole land, except the royal family, and 
threatened to retire to Rome ; but, the king- 
recollecting what disturbances Thomas a 
Becket, the ringleader of ecclesiastical am- 
bition, had lately occasioned in England, 
recalled them when about to set out on 
their journey, and ordered the nobility to 
satisfy, not their ambition only, but even 
their arrogance/' Ibid. chap. 64. This 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxiii 



was the fruit of the profuse liberality of the 
Scotish kings to the clergy. It was to have 
the clergy set over themselves ; for here the 
king was compelled to yield to the humour 
of the priests. He might have suffered 
them to go to Rome, and have thought him- 
self well quit of them; but such was the 
hold they had of the superstitious minds of 
the people, that the king knew, that they 
would rise in a body, and take part with 
the priests, and destroy him. It is neces- 
sary to keep this state of things in remem- 
brance, in order to understand what an 
arduous undertaking the reformation was. 

Matters were now tending rapidly to an 
entire subjection of the church of Scotland 
to the pope of Rome. The Scotish kings 
possessed a good deal of land in England, 
for which, as English noblemen, they owed 
subjection, and did homage, to the English 
king. This, a long time afterwards, sug- 
gested the idea, that the kings of Scotland 
should do homage to the king of England, 
for Scotland itself, as well as for their 
English estates, which would have reduced 
Scotland to the rank of an English pro- 
vince, and her king to a mere viceroy. 
But an attempt was first made, to have the 
church of Scotland subjected to that of Eng- 
land. The thing was proposed at a meet- 
ing of the two kings, William of Scotland 
and Henry I. of England, when the latter 
urged the former, with the Scotish clergy 
who were with him, to acknowledge the 
archbishop of York as their metropolitan ; 
which, however, was not conceded. The 
next year the attempt was renewed ; and a 
cardinal of high rank was sent from Rome 
in order to promote the claims of the Eng- 
lish archbishop. He summoned all the 
Scotish bishops to appear before him in 
Northampton ; and their obedience to such 
a summons showed that they were already 
under some measure of subjection to Rome ; 
at least, willing to become so. " The as- 
sembly being met, and all ranked in their 
places, the cardinal, who had a seat some- 
what higher than the rest, made a long 
speech in commendation of humility and 
obedience, showing what excellent virtues 
these were, and how much to be desired of 
men of spiritual profession ; whereof when 



he talked a while, he came in the end to 
persuade the clergy of Scotland to submit 
themselves to the primate of York : which 
he said was a thing very convenient for 
them, and would turn greatly to their ease 
and commodity, for having no superior 
amongst themselves, nor metropolitan to de- 
cide controversies that possibly might hap- 
pen, there could none be fitter than their 
neighbour the archbishop of York, a prelate 
of great respect, and one whose credit in 
the church of Rome might serve thein to 
good use ; therefore besought them to lay 
aside all grudges and emulations, and dis- 
pose themselves to live in all times after, as 
members of one and the same church." 
Spotsivood, page 38. 

There was not one of the Scotish bishops 
who had the spirit to reply to such a humi- 
liating proposal; because, it seems, they 
were afraid to offend the cardinal. But a 
young canon, or clerk, of the name of Gil- 
bert Murray, made a speech on the occasion. 
It is given by Petrie, from an old MS. 
register of Dunk eld, and quoted by Dr 
Jamieson, from whom I take it. It is wor- 
thy of being inserted, as showing how Scot- 
land took precedence of England in both 
religion and learning. Spotswood gives 
only an abstract of it, and omits entirely 
that part that refers to the English nobility 
coming to Scotland to learn to read. 

(< It is true, English nation, thou mightest 
have been noble, and more noble than some 
other nations, if thou hadst not craftily 
turned the power of thy nobility, and the 
strength of thy fearful might, into the pre- 
sumption of tyranny, and thy knowledge of 
liberal science into the shifting glosses of 
sophistry ; but thou disposest not thy pur- 
poses as if thou wert led with reason, and 
being puft up with thy strong armies, and 
trusting in thy great wealth, thou attempt- 
est, in thy wretched ambition and lust of 
domineering, to bring under thy jurisdiction 
thy neighbour provinces and nations, more 
noble, I will not say, in multitude and 
power, but in lineage and antiquity ; unto 
whom, if thou wilt consider ancient records, 
thou shouldst rather have been humbly 
obedient, or at least laying aside thy ran- 
cour, have reigned together in perpetual 



XXIV 



INTRODUCTION. 



love ; and now with all wickedness of pride 
that thou showest, without any reason or 
law, but in thy ambitious power, thou seek- 
est to oppress thy mother the church of Scot- 
land, which from the beginning hath been 
catholic and free, and which brought thee, 
when thou wast straying in the wilderness 
of heathenism, into the safeguard of the 
true faith, and way unto life, even unto 
Jesus Christ, the Author of eternal rest. 
She did wash thy kings, and princes, and 
people, in the laver of holy baptism; she 
taught thee the commandments of God, and 
instructed thee in moral duties; she did 
accept many of thy nobles, and others of 
meaner rank, when they were desirous to 
learn to read, and gladly gave them daily 
entertainment without price, books also to 
read, and instruction freely; she did also 
appoint, ordain, and consecrate thy bishops 
and priests ; by the space of thirty years 
and above, she maintained the primacy and 
pontifical dignity within thee on the north 
side of the Thames, as Beda witnesseth. 

" And now, I pray, what recompense 
renderest thou now unto her, that hath be- 
stowed so many benefits on thee ? Is it 
bondage ? or such as Judea rendered unto 
Christ, evil for good ? It seemeth no other 
thing. Thou unkind vine, how art thou 
turned into bitterness? We looked for 
grapes, and thou bringest forth wild grapes ; 
for judgment, and behold iniquity and cry- 
ing. If thou couldst do as thou wouldst, 
thou wouldst draw thy mother the church 
of Scotland, whom thou shouldst honour 
with all reverence, into the basest and most 
wretched bondage. Fie for shame ! what 
is more base, when thou wilt do no good, 
to continue in doing wrong? Even the 
serpents will not do harm to their own, 
albeit they cast forth to the hurt of others ; 
the voice of ingratitude hath not so much 
moderation ; an ungrateful man doth wrack 
and massacre himself, and he despiseth and 
minceth the benefits for which he ought to 
be thankful, but multiplieth and enlargeth 
injuries. It was a true saying of Seneca, (I 
see) The more some do owe, they hate the 
more ; a small debt maketh a grievous en- 
emy. What sayest thou, David ? it is true, 
They rendered me evil for good, and hatred 



for my love. It is a wretched thing, (saith 
Gregory) to serve a lord that cannot be 
appeased by whatsoever obeyance. 

" Therefore, thou church of England, 
doest as becomes thee not; thou thinkest 
to carry what thou cravest, and to take 
what is not granted. Seek what is just, 
and thou shalt have pleasure in what thou 
seekest. And to the end I do not weary 
others with my words, albeit I have no 
charge to speak for the liberty of the church 
of Scotland, and albeit all the clergy of 
Scotland would think otherwise, yet I dis- 
sent from subjecting her, and I do appeal 
unto the apostolical Lord, unto whom im- 
mediately she is subject; and if it were 
needful for me to die in the cause, here I 
am ready to lay down my neck unto the 
sword. Nor do I think it expedient to 
advise any more with my lords the prelates ; 
nor if they will do otherwise, do I consent 
unto them ; for it is more honest to deny 
quickly what is demanded unjustly, than to 
drive off time by delays, seeing he is the less 
deceived, who is refused betimes." There 
are a few sentences in Spotswood's abstract 
which are omitted in the above ; the most 
important is the following, for it contains a 
direct reply to one of the cardinal's argu- 
ments : — " For the controversies which you, 
my lord cardinal, say may arise among our- 
selves, we have wise and learned prelates 
who can determine the same ; and if they 
should be deficient in their duties, we have 
a good and religious king, who is able to 
keep all things in frame and order, so that 
we have no necessity for any stranger to be 
set over us." 

" The appeal made by Murray, to the 
pope," says Dr Jamieson, " may perhaps be 
viewed as a proof, that the church of Scot- 
land acknowledged complete subjection to 
Rome. But this seems to have been the 
first instance of an appeal being formally 
made to the papal see. As it was the act 
of a single person, it is to be observed, that 
even he had the highest sense of the liberty 
and independence of his mother church. 
He doubtless thought that they were shut 
up to it, and considered it as the least of two 
evils." In short, it was to escape the bond- 
age of England, their ancient enemy, that 



INTRODUCTION. 



XXV 



the Scots threw themselves into the arms 
of Rome. The pope soon settled the dis- 
pute, by sending a bull to king- William, by 
which he took the Scots under his protec- 
tion, and declared them free from all foreign 
jurisdiction, except that of his own see. 
And the legate, who had shown so much 
zeal for the archbishop of York, was very 
well pleased to get the church of Scotland 
brought under subjection to his own mas- 
ter. Indeed, though the idea does not seem 
to have occurred to any of the authors 
whom I have consulted, I cannot help 
thinking, that the cardinal legate and young 
Murray understood one another; that in 
order to ingratiate himself and his master 
with the church of England, the legate 
made his speech, recommending the subjec- 
tion of the Scotish church to the archbishop 
of York, while Murray, with great show of 
zeal for the independence of his church, in- 
sinuated the necessity of subjecting it to 
Rome, In his appeal to the pope at the 

i conclusion of his speech, he actually asserts 
its subjection to the Apostolic Lord ; which, 
so far as appears, was the first time such an 
assertion was made in an assembly of Scot- 
ish clergy ; and which he would not have 

1 ventured to make unless he had been sure 
of good support. That the archbishop of 
York suspected collusion of some kind ap- 
pears from a sentence of obscure Latin, which 
he addressed to Murray, when he had fin- 
ished his speech, which Spotswood trans- 
lates : — " He was set on to speak by some 
others of greater note." At any rate Mur- 
ray was well rewarded for what he did. 
He was soon made dean of Murray, and 
great chamberlain of Scotland, and after- 
wards bishop of Caithness. He died anno 
1245, and has been canonized. Jamieson's 
Culdees, p. 245. 

Thus at last, without a struggle, the 
church of Scotland submitted to the yoke 
of the triple tyrant ; she became an integral 
part of the great mystical Babylon ; and be- 
came so identified with the church of Rome, 

| in respect of rites, ceremonies, and adminis- 
tration, that it is not necessary to relate the 
remainder of her history very minutely, 
seeing it would be almost the same as that 
of any of the other kingdoms that gave their 



power to the beast. The Scots would not 
have surrendered their independence so 
tamely, had they not been gradually pre- 
pared for it, by the luxury aud ambition of 
the clergy, the natural consequence of the 
rich endowments of their churches and 
monasteries, which enabled them to live in 
idleness, and devolve the duties of the min- 
istry on poor and illiterate mercenaries, by 
whom the people were rather corrupted 
than instructed in useful knowledge. There 
were still witnesses for the truth among the 
Culdees ; but the faithful even among them 
by this time were few ; great efforts were 
made to have them suppressed altogether ; 
and this was effected not so much by force 
as by the allurement of rich benefices, which 
were pressed upon them, and which they at 
last consented to accept. We know how 
Charles II. got Leighton, and one or two 
more godly men, to accept of bishopricks, in 
order to make episcopacy palatable to the 
Scots ; so in the twelfth century great pains 
were taken to persuade the leading Culdee 
pastors to accept of dignities in the church. 
Some new bishopricks were erected for the 
very purpose; and many of the parochial 
ministers of the Culdee order Avere induced 
to resign their charges, on being allowed 
to retain their stipends for life ; and their 
places were filled by persons of true Roman 
character. 

" Various means," says Dr Jamieson, 
" were employed for suppressing the Cul- 
dees, who were viewed with so jealous an 
eye by the votaries of the papal chair, and 
who had all along presented so powerful a 
barrier to its influence. This was first at- 
tempted in an artful manner. * It is obser- 
vable,' says Sir James Dalrymple, 'that the 
Romish church did advance very warily, 
and by slow steps, endeavouring to gain the 
Culdean abbots to their party, by promoting 
them to bishopricks to be erected, and by 
preserving to the Culdees (possessed of pa- 
rochial churches) their benefices for their 
lifetime, and making the suppression of these 
churches in favour of the new erected Ro- 
man abbacies, only to take place after the 
incumbent's death: and frequently these 
concessions bear the consent of the presby- 
ter or churchman incumbent, with the 

D 



xxvi 



INTRODUCTION. 



reservation of his own right during his life- 
time.' " 

But the great plan devised for the over- 
throw of the Culdees, was the introduc- 
tion of the canons regular. These had heen 
erected into a permanent order in the 
eleventh century. Being patronised by the 
pope, they were devoted to the interests of 
the church of Rome, and zealous for the 
extension of the authority of their ghostly 
father. They acquired credit with the 
superstitious, as having more appearance of 
sanctity than the Culdee presbyters ; espe- 
cially as they lived in celibacy, while the 
honest Culdees laid no claim to the gift of 
continence. They affected far greater pomp 
in their worship. No sooner were these 
canons introduced at St Andrews, than 
matters assumed an appearance of what 
was deemed religion in those days, which 
had been quite unknown before. Their 
prior at St Andrews ■ wore, in all public 
meetings, and in solemn services upon fes- 
tival days, the pontifical ornaments, viz. a 
mitre, gloves, ring, cross, crosier, and sandals 
or slippers, as the bishops; and in parlia- 
ment had the precedence of all abbots and 
priors.' The very design of their introduc- 
tion into those places, where the Culdees 
had formerly had the power, was the esta- 
blishment of this species of religion." Jam. 
Culd.p. 251. 

Up to the twelfth century, there was no 
such thing as a papal ambassador or legate 
received in Scotland. Many states of less 
note possessed this mark of subjection to the 
See of Rome, long before this period ; but 
so far as appears, the pope, sent none to 
Scotland till the year 1 1 25 ; and though the 
king (St David) and some of the nobles and 
clergy, paid him respect, and had no objec- 
tion to receive him in his legantine charac- 
ter, he found the great body of the people so 
decidedly against him, that he ventured no 
farther than Roxburgh, not far from the 
border of the kingdom, whence he thought 
it prudent to retrace his steps. But now, 
towards the end of the same century, having 
acknowledged the pope as head of the 
church, his legates were received and en- 
tertained as a thing of course. They called 
meetings of the clergy when and where they 



pleased, presided in them in the name of 
the pope, and directed their procedure as 
was agreeable to themselves, or according 
to the will of their master. Thus in 1188 
we find a cardinal legate calling a convo- 
cation in Perth, at which all priests who 
had taken orders on Sunday were deposed, 
which was virtually declaring ordination, 
or taking of orders, to be a profane or 
worldly business ; which was not a step 
they would have taken for its own sake. 
There is no reason given by the historian ; 
(Spots wood,) but the church of Rome has 
a reason for every thing it does ; and I have 
no doubt, their reason for this measure was 
to get quit of the more godly and unsub- 
missive of the priesthood, who having re- 
garded their ordination as a religious ser- 
vice, would prefer having it done on the 
Sabbath. The same convocation out of 
their great zeal for Sunday added twelve 
hours to it. " They decreed that every 
Saturday from 12 o'clock should be kept 
as a holy daj ; and that all people at the 
sound of the bell should address themselves 
to hear service, and abstain from all handy 
work until Monday morning." Hence the 
practice which continues to this day, of 
shutting schools and certain public offices, 
at 12 o'clock on Saturdays. There is no 
reason given for this enactment any more 
than for that which made ordination un- 
lawful on Sundays ; but no doubt they had 
a reason for it. In Popish countries, Sa- 
turday is specially devoted to the service 
of the Virgin Mary. The Scots were not 
yet trained to worship her with proper de- 
votion ; and a positive enactment was ne- 
cessary to make them pay at least external 
respect to her day as well as to the Sabbath. 

The following is a proof of the abject 
bondage to which the kingdom was now 
reduced. Alexander the Second had sent 
some supplies to assist his ally, Philip king 
of France, in a war against John king of 
England. It was a war which the pope 
himself had instigated, in order to humble 
King John, who had quarrelled with him, 
and whose kingdom was under an interdict ; 
but John having made his submission, and 
laid his crown at the feet of the pope's legate, 
was received into favour, and the other 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxvii 



kings prohibited from invading- England, 
which now belonged to the patrimony of 
St Peter. Waldo, the pope's legate in 
Scotland, affected to find the king guilty of 
making too free with church property in 
raising his supplies for France, or not suffi- 
ciently prompt in withdrawing them, laid 
the kingdom under an interdict, by which 
religious rites were suspended, and the j 
whole nation reduced to mourning. After 
the death of King John, and some political 
changes, the interdict was removed by two 
English bishops, who had the legate's com- 
mission to that effect. But Waldo pre- 
tended that the clergy were not included in 
the absolution thus granted ; wherefore he 
summoned them to appear before him in 
Alnwick. Thither, bishops, abbots, and 
other beneficed clergy, were obliged to 
appear and pay large sums for absolution, 
or abide the consequence of being summon- 
ed to Rome to answer for their sins there. 
A few preferred the latter alternative, < 
which must have been a grievous tax upon 
them ; but the greater part chose rather to 
pay the money down, 

But this was not enough to satisfy the 
avarice of the legate. Professing great con- 
descension to the inferior clergy, and not 
wishing to put them to the expense of a 
long journey, he appointed two fit persons 
to go through the country, to meet them in 
the chief towns, or other convenient places, 
to take their confessions, and grant absolu- 
tion. These inquisitors, for so they may 
be called, made every priest swear that lie 
would truly and honestly confess his sins 
to them. We may be sure that most of them 
had many sins to confess ; and these being 
carefully written down, were turned to evi- 
dence against them, that they deserved to 
be deprived of their livings, and otherwise 
punished, unless they satisfied the legate 
by a pecuniary fine. By such means great 
sums were extorted ; besides paying- which, 
the poor priests were obliged to walk bare- 
footed to the principal church of the place, 
in the most abject manner to beg absolution. 

Such oppression was too much for Scot- 
land to bear tamely, degraded as she was. 
The bishops of Glasgow, Murray, and 
Caithness, went to Rome, to complain of 



Waldo's extortion, for which the pope 
called him to account ; and as he could not 
clear himself, be was ordained to pay a 
heavy fine to his holiness, by which he 
divided the spoil with him, but the Scots 
got no redress ; and the three bishops had 
to confess their sin in making the complaint, 
before they got absolution for themselves 
See Spotswood, pp. 42, 43. from whom I 
have abridged this narrative. The thing 
took place in 1218. What oppressions must 
not our fathers have suffered, during- the 
three hundred years that elapsed from 
that time to the Reformation ! for in propor- 
tion as the priests were oppressed by their 
superiors, they would be obliged to oppress 
the common people. 

Another measure which tended to rivet 
the yoke of Rome more firmly about the 
neck of the Scots, and to efface from their 
minds every thing like genuine Christianity, 
was the introduction of certain orders of 
monks, hitherto unknown in Scotland. 
These were Dominicans, Franciscans, and 
others, whom the bishop of St Andrews 
brought from France, and who settled down 
like locusts upon the country. They dif- 
fered in some doctrinal points from one an- 
other : but they were all agreed in upholding 
the interest of their common father the 
pope. They professed extraordinary auste- 
rity of manners and sanctity of life ,• weaned 
the affections of the people from their for- 
mer pastors ; and even gained so much 
upon the good graces of the king and 
nobles, as to get monasteries built and en- 
dowed for them in different parts of the 
kingdom. About the same time the pope 
found out, that no hands but his own could 
convey to a bishop the proper spirit of his 
office. It then became necessary that they 
should travel to Rome for consecration, 
which they were obliged to do, at a vast 
expense to themselves, and greatly to the 
profit of the holy see. 

From this time we may date the total 
extinction of the light of the gospel in 
Scotland. It may have continued to shine 
in some sequestered spots, but there are no 
visible traces of it. The wars between 
Bruce and Baliol soon followed. Edward 1. 
King of England, revived the claim of su- 



XXV111 



INTRODUCTION. 



periority over Scotland, and on Baliol's 
consenting to acknowledge this, and do 
homage to the crown of England for Scot- 
land, he got himself appointed King of Scots. 
But finding that his subjects despised him 
for the concession he had made, he was 
obliged to rebel against Edward who had 
made him king. Edward invaded, and after 
immense bloodshed, subdued Scotland; 
and carried away all the records and monu- 
ments of her independence that he could 
lay his hands upon ; which is one reason 
why the materials of Scotish history prior 
to that period are so scanty. Sir William 
Wallace was almost the only man of note 
who did not submit to the English yoke ; 
but he was betrayed, carried to London, 
and executed. Robert Bruce, after an 
arduous struggle, effected deliverance, ex- 
pelled the English, and recovered the king- 
dom to himself and his posterity, who hold 
it to this day. But from the invasion of 
Edward to the dawn of the Reformation, 
Scotland was little better than a great 
human slaughter-house. Christianity seem- 
ed to have no more influence upon the cha- 
racter of the nobles and people generally, 
than it has upon savages who have never 
heard of it. Bruce himself was guilty of 
the murder of his friend Cumin, who indeed 
had sought to injure him ; and he was after- 
wards very sorry for what he had done ; 
but his compunction was not so much for 
the murder itself, as for its being perpetrat- 
ed in a church, for which he had to make 
confession to the pope ; and then as an 
atonement for his sin he ordered that after 
his death, his heart should be taken from 
his body, and buried in Jerusalem ; which 
one of the Douglases undertook to do ; but 
on his journey, hearing that there was a 
war in Spain, he, as from a natural in- 
stinct, could not deny himself the pleasure 
of joining in the fray, where he lost his life ; 
and the king's heart found its way back to 
Scotland. If the wisest and best prince of 
his age, as Robert was acknowledged to be, 
had such absurd views of religious and 
moral obligation, what must have been 
the condition of the great body of the peo- 
ple, who, instead of being instructed, were 
blinded and hardened in their sins by a vi- 



cious and luxurious priesthood ? Indeed 
we find nothing in Scotland, from this time, 
that deserves the name of religion, till we 
come to the period when Knox commences 
his history, Anno 1422. 

The following is a short sketch of the 
state of the church at that period, which 
was within a year or two of the commence- 
ment of the reign of James I. " Having 
cleared the other parts of the kingdom of 
the most obnoxious nuisances, James next 
endeavoured to reform the ecclesiastical 
order. But the priests would not be cor- 
rected by the magistrate; for seizing the 
time when the sovereigns were engaged in 
wars, the priesthood, throughout all Europe, 
had by degrees withdrawn themselves from 
their jurisdiction, professing obedience to 
the Roman pontiff alone, and he, in return, 
indulged their vices, and cherished their 
licentiousness, that by the power of their 
order, he might have the monarchs more 
subservient to his will. Wherefore, the 
king resolved, by the only method remain- 
ing, to oppose their tyranny. As he per- 
ceived he had not the power to amend what 
was past, or to expel unworthy men from 
the honours they already enjoyed, he 
thought it best to provide for the future, 
and bent his whole attention to establish 
schools, supporting them liberally, that they 
might be seminaries for all ranks, and 
thence, as from a fountain, might issue 
whatever was to be great or excellent in 
any department of the state." " The 
monks, as they had degenerated from the 
simplicity and parsimony of their predeces- 
sors, so they had wholly withdrawn their 
attention from the culture of the mind to 
the care of the body. Nor was learning 
less despised among the other descriptions 
of priests, because their livings, in general, 
were either bestowed upon the most Avorth- 
less members of noble families, men who 
were unfit for any other employment in life, 
or were intercepted by the fraud of the 
Roman see; and almost all the benefices 
were considered as sinecures for services, 
and those frequently not the most honour- 
able. 

" To such evils was added another, per- 
haps the principal source of the corruption 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxix 



of ecclesiastical discipline — the orders of 
mendicant friars. They, at the first, by 
their pretensions to sanctity of life, easily 
imposed upon the people, who heard them 
more willingly than their parish priests, or 
curates, whose minds and bodies were 
equally gross. The curates, as they grew 
rich, grew lazy, and turning negligent about 
their duty, bargained with the friars, i. e. 
brethren, as they chose to be styled, for an 
annual salary, to deliver a few harangues to 
the people during the year; while they 
themselves resorted to cities, where they 
chanted idle songs, like magical incanta- 
tions, of the meaning of which they were 
totally ignorant ; nor did one of them ever 
look near his charge, except when the tithes 
were to be collected. By degrees they even 
withdrew from chanting at certain hours in 
the cathedral, which, although a light, was 
a daily labour, and hired some poor under- 
lings to perform their functions of singing 
masses and reading prayers, only officiating 
in a certain task of psalms, ordered on par- 
ticular days, when they played together in 
a kind of liollow murmuring, now contend- 
ing in alternate verses, and now with a 
chorus introduced between the acts, and 
exhibited a sort of tragedy, which closed 
with a representation of the death of Christ. 
The hireling friars durst neither offend their 
employers, on whom their living depended, 
nor could they bear their insolence and 
their avarice. Wherefore, they fixed upon 
a middle course, in order to force them to 
pay their stipends; they inveighed often 
sharply against the luxury and licentious- 
ness of the priests, and, after raving suffi- 
ciently to terrify them, and conciliate the 
people, they — prudently recollecting that 
they also were in sacred orders — concluded 
by teaching, that whatever abuses there 
were in the conduct of the priests, the order 
of priesthood was sacred and inviolable ; nor 
had the civil magistrate any power of pun- 
ishing them, for they were responsible only 
to God, and to the pope, who had almost 
equal power with God. As the avarice of 
the friars, however, increased with their 
luxury, and they could not hope for any 
great revenue from their usual employments, 
.they prepared a new species of tyranny for 



themselves, by turning their discourses to 
the merit of works of supererogation. 
Thence arose purgatory, and the purifica- 
tion of the souls whom the popes chose to 
detain there, by the sacrifice of the mass, 
the sprinkling of holy water, by alms, offer- 
ings, indulgences, pilgrimages, and the wor- 
shipping of relics. By the exercise of these 
scandalous corruptions, the friars claimed 
to themselves the empire of both the living 
and the dead." Buchanan, B. x. chap. 38. 
39. 

In order to correct such flagrant abuses, 
James established schools, and gave great 
encouragement to learning, with the view 
of getting learned men promoted to benefi- 
ces. He was himself one of the most learned 
and accomplished men of his age ; and had 
he been suffered to live, would have greatly 
improved the state of his kingdom. But 
he was barbarously murdered in the prime 
of life ; and his heir being- an infant, all 
things fell again into confusion. By this 
time, however, the doctrines of Wickliffe 
had been extensively propagated in Eng- 
land, and had found their way into Scot- 
land, together with copies of his translation 
of the scriptures, by which were sown the 
seeds of that reformation, in which the 
author of the following history bore so pro- 
minent a part. 

It was at one time a matter of doubt, and 
even of public controversy, whether Knox 
had really written a history of the re- 
formation in Scotland. At least it was 
doubtful whether that which bare his name 
Avas really of his writing ; for it contained 
certain anachronisms which threw discredit 
upon it. If we find in the body of a work, 
without any note of distinction, a relation 
of events which are known to have hap- 
pened after the reputed author's death, we 
naturally conclude, that the book must be 
the composition of another person. This 
was the predicament in which Knox's 
history stood before the publication of it 
from the manuscript in the library of Glas- 
gow college. The publication of this edi- 
tion, says Dr M'Crie, removed all doubts 
as to Knox's being the author. It was 
found to have none of the anachronisms 
which made the former editions suspected. 



XXX 



INTRODUCTION. 



Crawford, in his life of Knox, prefixed j bloode, and remainis alyve to this day, in 
to the edition above mentioned, says, " The the yeir of God 1566 yeirs, to the glorie of 
first mention I have seen concerning this God, to the grit honour of this natioun," &c. 
history, is in a letter from Sir Thomas Ran- If further evidence were wanting, it is to 
dolph, ambassador from queen Elizabeth to be found in the records of the general as- 
Scotland, to Sir William Cecil, dated at sembly ; for at their first meeting after 
Edinburgh, 23d September, 1560, which I Knox's death, his servant Richard Banna- 
copied from the original, in which letter tyne, who was his amanuensis, gave in a 
are these words. ' I have tawlked at large supplication, in which he stated, that Mr 
with Mr Knox concerning his historic As j Knox had completed his History of the 
mykle as ys wrytten thereof shall be sent Reformation up to the year 1564, as was 
to your honour, at the comynge of the j known to their wisdoms. But " of things 
lords embassadors by Mr John Woode, He j done sinsyne, nothing by him is put in that 
hath wrytten only one booke. If you lyke form and order that he has put the former, 
that, he shall contynue the same, or adde j Yet not the less there are certain scrolls 
onie more. He sayethe, that he must have j and papers, and minutes of things, left to 
farther helpe, then is to be had in thys j me by him, to use at my pleasure ; whereof 
countrie, for more assured knowledge of : a part were written and subscribed by his 
thyngs passed, then he hathe hymself, or own hand, and another by mine at his corn- 
can come bye here ; yt is a worke not to j mand, which, if they were collected and 
be neglected, and greatly to be wyshed that gathered together, would make a sufficient 
yt sholde be well handled." declaration of the principal things that have 

From this passage it is put beyond all occurred since the ending of his former 
doubt, that in 1560, Knox had written one j history in the year aforesaid/' He states 
book of his history ; and this must have j that these papers would be lost, or rendered 
been the second, containing an account of useless if put into the hands of persons not 
matters in which he himself had borne a j acquainted with them as he was ; that he 
conspicuous part. We can scarcely suppose could not afford to arrange them at his own 
that he required information from England expense, as it would require long time ; but 
with regard to these things. But he informs that he would undertake the work if the 
us in a note preceding his preface to the 1 Assembly would appoint him a suitable 
second book, that he had been induced by pension. They accepted his offer, and ap- 
the persuasion of friends, — " divers of the pointed him forty pounds a year. But no- 
godlie," — who " earnestlie requiret, that thing farther on the subject is on record, 
such personis as God raisit upe in the mid- See Crawford's Life of Knox, as above, 
dest of darkness to oppone themselfis to the Knox's history was first printed in Lon- 
same sould not be omitted, we obeyet their don, in 1586, as appears by the following, 
requiest, and have maid a schorte rehersall which Crawford quotes from Calderwood's 
of all suche matteris as concerne religioun, MS. history. " February, 1586, Voultrol- 
frome the deyth of that notable servand of ! Her, the printer, took with him a copy of 
God, Mr Patrik Haumiltoun unto the foir- \ Mr Knox's History to England, and printed 
said yeir," i. e. 1558. We can easily under- j twelve hundred of them; the stationers, at 
stand why he wished for information from the archbishop's command, seized them, the 
England with regard to many things that 18th of February ; it was thought, that he 
occurred during that period. And in the would get leave to proceed again, because 
following sentence in the first book, we the council perceived, that it would bring 
find that it was written at least six years the queen of Scots in detestation." At this 
after the second. He is speaking of his period it was no doubt a most desirable 
friend lt that notable man Mr George Buc- thing to queen Elizabeth, to get Mary queen 
quhanan," who, " be the mercifull provi- of Scots exposed in as odious a light as pos- 
dence of God escaipit, albeit with grit sible ; but she and her council were willing 
difficultie, the rage of thaime that socht his \ to forego even this, rather than to have the 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxxi 



free and independent sentiments of Knox 
published in England. This edition was 
never finished; but imperfect copies of it 
got abroad, one of which came into the 
hands of our indefatigable Wodrow, who 
compared it, so far as it went, with the 
Glasgow manuscript, and found an entire 
agreement between them, as appears by his 
letter to bishop Nicolson, dated Glasgow, 
Sept. 1st, 1701, in which he says, " I have 
now procured the old copy of Knox's His- 
tory, in a large 12mo ; it is marked at the 
beginning and the end, going no farther 
than the fourth book ; it is probable it never 
had the fifth. In all things it j umps (agrees) 
with our manuscript, particularly in those 
places challenged by the author of the Fun- 
damental Charter, and disagrees with the 
ordinary editions in the passages excepted 
against." 

The first that professes to be an entire 
edition was published in London, in Folio, 
by David Buchanan, A. D. 1644, from 
which a reprint was made in Edinburgh, in 
quarto, the same year. Who this David 
Buchanan was, I do not know ; but he ap- 
pears to have been a man of respectable 
talents and learning.* He has a very long 
Preface, rather heavily written, as was the 
manner of his age. He is quoted, and re- 
spectfully mentioned by Dr Jamieson in his 
History of the Culdees ; and I have availed 
myself of information derived from his pre- 
face, as the reader will have seen in the 
preceding pages of this Introduction. In 
his edition there are a great many deviations 
from the original, but whether he used an 
interpolated copy, or made interpolations 
himself, cannot now be ascertained. Wod- 
row was at the pains to compare his edition 
with the MS. in Glasgow college ; and in 
his letter to bishop Nicolson, above men- 
tioned, he points out the difference between 
them, in a great number of instances of both 



* In Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, under 
the article David Buchanan, we i*ead, "a native 
of Scotland." His works are, " Historia Hu- 
mana? Animas, Paris, 1636, 8vo. Histoire de 
la Conscience, 1638, 12mo. A short view of 
the present condition of Scotland, Lond. 1645, 
4to. Relation to some passages wherein the 
Scots are particularly concerned, Lond. 1646, 
\2mo." I have no doubt this is the same person. 



omission and addition : and remarks as 
follows : — " You see how 'far the MS. and 
the old copy jump (?*. e. the copy of 1586.) 
How Mr Buchanan has overlooked the old 
copy, which, no doubt, was to be had in 
his time, I cannot account for. Howbeit, 
the agreement of the MS. and the old copy 
seems to me another strong presumption of 
Knox's being the author of the History, 
especially if I add that the old copy was 
printed a little after Knox's death." 

Among Buchanan's omissions is the fol- 
lowing very striking passage in the Glasgow 
manuscript, which must have been also in 
the old copy, and it sufficiently accounts 
for the suppression of the book by autho- 
rity, under such an arbitrary reign as that 
of Elizabeth. It is probable that Buchanan 
durst not venture to insert it in his edition, 
lest it should meet the fate of the former 
one, for Charles I. was as tenacious of the 
sacred and inviolable character of princes 
as Elizabeth was. Speaking of Mary, the 
queen,p.74,75,Knox says, " Lat men patient- 
lie abyid, and turn unto thair God, and then 
sal he eyther destroy that hure in hir 
whurdome, or els he sal put in the hairtis 
of a multitude to tak the same veangeance 
upoun hir that lies bein tane of Jesabell and 
Athalia, yea and of utheris of quhome pro- 
phane histories mak mentioun, for gritter 
abhominatioun was nevir in the nature of 
ony woman than is in hir, quhairof we have 
but sein onlie the buds, but we will efter 
taist of the ryip frute of her impietie, if God 
cutte not hir dayis schort." 

The present edition will be printed ver- 
batim from that which was taken from the 
Glasgow college manuscript, which Br 
M'Crie recommends as the only complete 
one worthy of being consulted. The ortho- 
graphy will be modernized ; a translation of 
the words not now in common use will bo 
given inclosed [ ] and such of David 
Buchanan's interpolations as contain use- 
ful information shall be inserted as marginal 
notes. It was at first thought to have 
made David Buchanan's edition the ground 
of the present one, corrected according to 
the Glasgow MS. copy: but on a closer 
examination, the differences were found so 
numerous as to exclude all hope of making 



XXX il 



INTRODUCTION. 



a correct edition otherwise than by adopt- 
ing- the correct copy. 

The manuscript so often mentioned, was 
as Crawford informs us, presented to Glas- 
gow college by Mr Robert Fleming-, minis- 
ter, first at Rotterdam, and then to the 
Scots congregation in London, who from 
his acquaintance with prophecy, was able 
to point out the era of the French revolu- 
tion, a hundred years before it happened. 
He derived the manuscript from his grand- 
father, Mr James Fleming, who was married 
to one of Knox's daughters, and was an 
intimate friend of Mr John Knox, minister 
of Melross. "It is probable, that this ma- 
nuscript is written with the hand of this 
last named Mr John Knox, by a writing 
upon the beginning of the MS. signed by the 
said Mr John Knox, which writing cannot 
be distinguished from that of the history. 
This seems the oldest and most valuable 
copy of the history now extant ; of it the 
above named Mr Fleming gives the follow- 
ing account, in the preface to his practical 
discourse occasioned by the death of king 
William, printed at London, 1702, page 14. 
That his grandfather, Mr James Fleming, 
having married a daughter of Mr John 
Knox the reformer, came to be possessed of 
some of his manuscripts ; and that especially 
by the means of Mr John Knox the younger, 
minister of Melross in the Merse, a relation 
of the former, though I know not, says he, 
how near, who was my grandfather's inti- 
mate friend; that among other papers, I 
found a manuscript copy of Mr Knox's His- 
tory, which I sent to the library of Glas- 
gow, that it might not be lost ; that I sent 
along with it a loose leaf,* being the title 
page of an imperfect work, which seemed 
to be written with the same hand as the 
MS. History was, though I could not posi- 



* This loose leaf is dated 1581. I have 
compared it with the MS. history ; and the 
difference is not greater than that of the same 
hand at different times or with a different pen. 



tively assert this ; that if it was the same 
hand that wrote both, it was a plain evi- 
dence, that the author, at least the writer 
of the history, was not the reformer, but the 
younger Mr Knox, seeing the former died 
in the year 1572, and the other was alive 
nine years after. Therefore to unriddle 
all that was dark in this matter, I told that 
I could help with something traditional 
that way, viz., that I understood from my 
father, that Mr Knox the reformer had be- 
gun a history of this kind, and left large 
materials behind him for completing it ; and 
that the latter Mr Knox had perfected the 
work, pursuant to the order of the General 
Assembly in the year 1573 or 1574, so far 
as it was to be found in this MS." This 
tradition is not perfectly satisfactory ; for 
Richard Bannatyne states plainly, that 
Knox had not only begun, but " perfectly 
ended at the year of God, 1564." It is pro- 
bable that Mr Knox of Melross assisted 
Richard in arranging the papers that he 
spoke of for completing the history, and 
then took a copy of the whole with his own 
hand. The minute of the Assembly re- 
quires the appointment of " some learned 
men to support Richard Bannatyne, to put 
the said history, that is now in scrolls and 
papers, in good form, with the aid of the 
said Richard," which implies that he should 
have literary aid as well as pecuniary pro- 
vision. The author of Iconographia Scotica, 
gives a portrait and a short account of the 
life of this Mr Knox, who, he says, was no 
way related to the reformer ; but being of 
the same name and profession, and being 
contemporaries, writers have often mistaken 
the one for the other. 

I have only to inform the reader farther, 
that the fifth book is not in the Glasgow 
MS. It is probably the production of 
David Buchanan himself ; at least it can- 
not be traced higher than his edition. 

W. M'GAVIN. 

March, 1830. 



LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 



I shall col tent myself with a very short 
sketch of the Life of the Author of the 
following 1 history. His public life is em- 
bodied in his own work, from his first ap- 
pearance as the friend and companion of 
the martyr Wishart, till within a short pe- 
riod of his death. And for his birth, edu- 
cation, private life, and correspondence, the 
reader is referred to Dr M'Crie's excellent 
work, which furnishes the fullest informa- 
tion on the subject. 

If those men whom Providence has des- 
tined to be instructors and benefactors to 
their fellow-creatures, had some presage of 
future eminence in their infant counte- 
nance, as Moses seems to have had, there 
would be no subsequent controversy about 
the place of their birth, their parentage, or 
education, as every circumstance of their 
early life would be observed and carefully 
recorded. But in this, as in other respects, 
the future is wisely concealed from human 
eyes. Persons born in the middle and 
lower classes of society, are known only 
within a small circle at first; and before 
they can distinguish themselves by any 
great enterprise, they are often placed in 
situations where no one knows who were 
their parents, or where they were born. 
Every one, if he pleased, might leave on 
record some account of himself; but per- 
sons of distinguished merit are the last to 
think that the world would care for their 
early history; or, by the time that they 
have become distinguished, their hands are 
so full of important business, that they 
have no time to think, much less to write 
about their childhood and youth, which 
they remember to have been vanity. 

Kuox died in the year 1572, aged sixty- 
seven; so that he must have been born in 
1505. The place of his birth is not cer- 
tainly known, but it is generally agreed to 
have been in or near Haddington. There 
is nothing known with certainty of his an- 



cestors, except what he relates in his his- 
tory as having said to the earl of Both- 
well : " My great-grandfather and father," 
says he, " have served your lordship's pre- 
decessors, and some of them, (meaning his 
ancestors) have died under their standards." 
" These words," says Crawford, *' seem to 
import that Mr Knox's predecessors were in 
some honourable station under the earls of 
Both well, at that time the most powerful 
family in East- Lothian." But every man 
in Scotland must have had honourable an- 
cestors, if that is to be inferred from the 
simple fact of having died under the stan- 
dard of some powerful chieftain. David 
Buchanan, the first editor of Knox's en- 
tire history, affirms that his father was a 
brother's son of the house of Ranferly in 
Renfrewshire, and the fact of his connex- 
ion with that family is admitted by Dr 
M'Crie, who informs us that his mother's 
name was Sinclair, which name he some- 
times affixed to private letters instead of 
his own, in times of danger and persecution. 

He who has risen by his own merit to 
the first rank in society, and to a con- 
spicuous place in the history of his coun- 
try, may give himself little concern about 
the rank of his parents, provided they have 
honourably filled the place, however low, 
which Providence assigned to them. But 
that Knox's parents were not of the lowest 
rank, appears from their being able to give 
him a learned education, which must have 
incurred considerable expense. He was 
put to the grammar school of Haddington, 
and afterwards sent to finish his education 
at the university of St Andrews. There is 
a fact not mentioned by any of his bio- 
graphers, except by the writer of this, in a 
note to the late edition of the Scots Wor- 
thies. " In the records of the university of 
Glasgow, anno 1520, John Knox appears 
in the list of matriculated students, when, 
if it was our Reformer, he must have been 
e 



XXXIV 



LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 



fifteen years of age, a proper enough time 
for his appearing in that character; and 
this was probably an intermediate step be- 
tween his leaving the grammar school, and 
going to St Andrews, for there is no doubt 
of his having studied there." It is pro- 
bable enough that he might spend a part of 
his youth with his friends in Renfrewshire, 
and that they would give him the advan- 
tage of attending a seminary so near at hand. 

At St Andrews, he was the fellow-stu- 
dent of the afterwards celebrated George 
Buchanan ; and it was well for both, that 
they had for their preceptor John Mair, or 
Major, a man who was considerably in ad- 
vance of his neighbours, in useful know- 
ledge and liberal thinking. Knox, while 
very young, received the degree of Master 
of Arts, and before he left the university, 
he became a teacher of scholastic theology, 
which Melchior Adam us, as quoted by 
Crawford, says he did with great authority, 
and was in some things more happy than 
his master ; and David Buchanan adds, that 
he was advanced to church-orders before 
the time usually allowed by the canons. 
At this time he was a mere popish priest : 
but he had acquired too much light to 
suffer him to remain in the darkness of 
the cloister. 

He has not recorded particularly the 
progress of his mind from darkness to 
light, or what were the means which Pro- 
vidence made use of for the purpose of 
leading him to embrace the truth. He 
must have been familiar with the vulgate 
scriptures, if not with Wickliff's transla- 
tion into English ; and we are informed by 
Adamus, already cited, that he carefully 
read over the writings of Augustine and 
Jerome, and found in them another kind of 
theology than that which had been long 
taught by the schoolmen. Both these 
great authors are still regarded as saints by 
the church of Rome, though she has long 
abandoned the doctrines which they taught. 
It was from Augustine that Luther, who 
was a monk of his order, learned a purer 
theology than was taught by the church; 
and Knox seems to have derived benefit 
from the same source. But he must have 
been early and intimately acquainted with 



trie Holy Scriptures, as .appears from the 
ready extemporaneous use which he made 
of them, in preaching and in argument ; 
and he yielded the most profound sub- 
mission to their authority as supreme in 
all matters of faith and worship. The first 
sermon he preached, and for which he 
had little time to make preparation, was 
from a difficult passage in the book of 
Daniel, which he handled and applied 
as any protestant would do at this day. 
He is said to have profited much from the 
preaching of some who had embraced the 
truth before him, such as Thomas Guilliam, 
John Rough, and George Wishart, whose 
names and labours are recorded in the his- 
tory. The progress of his mind to a clear 
perception of the truth was gradual, and 
not very rapid. " It was about the year 
1535," says Dr M'Crie, " when this favour 
able change in his sentiments commenced , 
but, until 1542, it does not appear that he 
professed himself a Protestant." They 
must have been seven } r ears of serious and 
deep reflection ; and, perhaps in proportion 
to the slowness with which his mind yield- 
ed to the truth, was the firmness with 
which he afterwards held it. 

After leaving college, we find him em- 
ployed as tutor to the families of Ornris- 
ton andLangniddry, having his residence 
chiefly with the latter. His sentiments 
were known to be hostile to the established 
religion, and he was on that account in 
danger of suffering death at the stake, as 
many others had done, particularly his 
friend and father in the gospel, George 
Wishart, on whose character and suffer- 
ings he dilates with much interest in the 
history. The rage of his enemies increased 
on the death of Cardinal Beaton, in which 
certainly Knox had no hand ; but to save 
his life, he took refuge with those who had 
effected it, in the castle of St Andrews ; 
from which circumstance a great hue and 
cry has been raised against him, as becom- 
ing the voluntary companion of murder- 
ers. That can scarcely be called volun- 
tary which a man is obliged to do to save 
himself from being burnt to death ; but in 
point of fact, Knox did not look on those 
| men as murderers, but as the executioners 



LIFE OF JOHN KNOX, 



XXXV 



of righteous judgment upon a murderer, and j 
therefore he felt no scruples about making 
a common cause with them. They kept ! 
the castle as long as they could ; but were I 
compelled at length to surrender to the 
French, who broke faith with them, and 
sent some to prison, and others to the gal- 
leys. It was Knox's lot to be confined to 
the latter, in which he suffered a rigorous : 
captivity of nineteen months; aud it is un- 
certain by what means he obtained deliver- 
ance. 

Knox never approved of Henry VIII.'s j 
reformation of the church of England; for 
though that monarch threw off the autho- 
rity of the pope, he retained many popish 
errors in doctrine, worship, and government. J 
Henry died about the time that Knox ob- I 
tained freedom from the galleys. He then i 
went to England, expecting a more tho- I 
rough reformation in the reign of Edward 1 
VI. under the administration of Cranmer. 
He was not entirely disappointed ; but 
there was not so much improvement there 
as he desired and expected. He was ap- 
pointed to preach in different places, and 
had a sort of stated residence in Berwick, 
where he diligently improved his time and 
talents ; and formed an attachment, which, j 
afterwards, issued in a happy marriage. I 
"He spared neither time nor bodily 
strength," says Dr M'Crie, " in the instruc- 
tion of those to whom he was sent. Re- 
garding the worship of the popish church 
as grossly idolatrous, and its doctrine as 
damnable, he attacked both with the ut- 
most fervour, and exerted himself in draw- 
ing his hearers from them, with as much 
eagerness as in saving their lives from a 
devouring flame or flood. Nor were his 
labours fruitless : during the two years that 
lie continued in Berwick, numbers were, 
by his ministry, converted from error and 
ignorance, and a general reformation of 
manners became visible among the soldiers 
in the garrison, who had formerly been 
noted for turbulence and licentiousness." 

He was afterwards removed to Newcastle, 
and placed in a sphere of still greater useful- 
ness. He was appointed one of king Ed- 
ward's chaplains in ordinary. He was con- 
sulted about a revisal of the Book of Com- 



mon prayer ; and he had .influence to pro- 
cure some improvement of it. " These al- 
terations," says Dr M'Crie, " gave great 
offence to the papists. In a disputation 
with Latimer, after the accession of Queen 
Mary, the prolocutor, Dr Weston, com- 
plained of our countryman's influence in 
procuring them. " A runagate Scot," said 
he, " did take away the adoration or wor- 
shipping of Christ in the sacrament, by 
whose procurement that heresy was put 
into the last communion book ; so much 
prevailed that one man's authority at that 
time. In the following year he was em- 
ployed in revising the Articles of Religion, 
previous to their ratification by parlia- 
ment." 

Knox had the honour of preaching before 
the king, and the much greater honour of 
refusing, first a city living, and then an 
English bishoprick, which, together with 
his reasons for doing so, gave high offence 
to his majesty's council, in which were 
several bishops, who, no doubt, regarded 
his conscientious scrupulousness as a reflec- 
tion upon themselves. They told him they 
were sorry that his judgment was contrary 
to the common order ; and, with his usual 
honest bluntness, he replied, he was sorry 
that the common order was contrary to 
Christ's institution. He appears to have 
perfectly understood the difference between 
a mere preacher of the gospel, and one who 
was pastor of a church. The sphere of th Q 
former is the world of mankind as sinners ; 
the latter includes the oversight of a com- 
pany of Christians, professing separation 
from the world ; and one great object of the 
pastoral office is to watch over them, and 
take care that separation from the world be 
strictly maintained. Knox delighted to 
preach to Englishmen as sinners, whether 
papist or protestant ; but he would not in- 
cur the responsibility of a pastoral charge 
over a congregation of them as Christians, 
because the law of the land would not 
suffer him to maintain their separation 
from the world. This is plainly expressed 
in his own words. He said, there were 
many things that needed reformation, with- 
out which, in his opinion, ministers could 
not discharge their office conscientiously in 



xxxvi 



LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 



the sight of God ; for no minister, according" 
to the existing 1 laws, had power to prevent 
the unworthy from participating- of the 
sacraments, which was a chief point of his 
office. 

He remained in England, and even con- 
tinued to preach for several months after 
the accession of Mary to the throne. That 
lady Avhom, not without good reason, he 
usually called Jezebel, soon procured the 
repeal of all the statutes that had been 
made in favour of the Reformation. Po- 
pery was re-established, and all who re- 
fused to conform were liable to suffer death 
as heretics. Still Knox manifested no 
disposition to leave his post. It was not 
till after it was known that his enemies 
were actually in search of him, that he was 
persuaded to leave the kingdom, by the ur- 
gent entreaty ofhis friends, and contrary to 
his own mind; for never, said he, could he 
die in a more honest quarrel, than by suf- 
fering as a witness for that truth of which 
God had made him a messenger. This 
step, though reluctantly taken, was evi- 
dently his duty, though it has been ob- 
jected against him that he was too ready to 
take himself out of the way of danger. 
True courage consists in confessing the 
truth at all hazards, and suffering for it 
when that cannot be avoided without com- 
mitting sin. But when it can be avoided 
by night, Christ not only permits but com- 
mands it. " When they persecute you in 
one city, flee ye to another." Had Knox 
at that time been brought to trial, he would 
certainly have been committed to the 
flames, as many others were. But he was 
preserved for nearly twenty years longer 
labour in the service of his Master. It 
was some time, however, before his own 
mind was reconciled to his flight. He 
could scarcely acquit himself of what must 
have at least had the appearance of cowar- 
dice : and he was afraid that it might ope- 
rate as a discouragement to the faithful few 
whom he had left behind him. His feel- 
ings on this occasion are strongly expressed 
in some of the private letters which he 
wrote at the time, from which Dr M'Crie 
has given very interesting extracts. 

He arrived at Dieppe in France in Jan- 



uary, 1554, from whence he travelled to 
Switzerland. "A correspondence," says 
Dr M'Crie, " had been kept up by some of 
the English reformers and the most noted 
divines of the Helvetic church. The lat- 
ter had already heard, with the sincerest 
grief, of the overthrow of the reformation 
in England, and the dispersion of its friends. 
Upon making himself known, Knox was 
cordially received by them, and treated 
with the most Christian hospitality. He 
spent some time in Switzerland, visiting 
the particular churches, and conferring 
with the learned men." He afterwards 
w r ent to Geneva, where he became acquain- 
ted with Calvin, a man of a kindred spirit, 
whose friendship he enjoyed till the death 
of that eminent reformer and divine. Here 
he fixed his residence till Providence found 
employment for him elsewhere. 

During the heat of the persecution in 
England many protestants fled for their 
lives, and took refuge in different places on 
the continent where the reformation had 
been embraced. Frankfort, an imperial city 
in Germany, had done so. A number of 
the exiles had found an asylum there, 
where there was already a congregation of 
French protestants. By permission of the 
magistrates, the English got the joint use 
of the place of worship which had been 
allotted to the French, with liberty to con- 
duct the service in their own language ; 
but on condition that their mode of wor- 
ship should differ as little as possible from 
that of the French congregation ,• and that 
they should avoid the use of certain cere- 
monies which were practised in England. 
Some of these ceremonies, and the dresses 
in which they were performed, were so 
much akin to popery, that the magistrates 
dreaded a breach of the peace, if they were 
again to be exhibited within the walls of 
their city. " The offer," says Dr M'Crie, 
" was gratefully accepted by the English, 
who came to an unanimous agreement, that 
in using the English liturgy they would 
omit the litany, the audible responses, the 
surplice, with other ceremonies, which in 
those reformed churches, would seem more k 
than strange, or which were superfluous and 
superstitious." Knox accepted an invita- 



LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 



XXXV 11 



tation to be one of the pastors of this 
church, to which he repaired, and " com- 
menced his ministry with the universal 
conseat and approbation of the congrega- 
tion." 

Jt might have been expected, that now 
he would be suffered peaceably to pursue 
the work of his vocation as a Christian pas- 
tor. He could not conscientiously accept 
that office in the church of England ; but 
his objections did not apply to a congrega- 
tion of Englishmen, in a foreign country, 
untrammelled by antichristian statutes. 
This congregation consisted only of men 
who were suffering exile for the sake of 
the truth. It must therefore have been a 
church as thoroughly Christian as perhaps 
any since the days of the apostles. Knox 
must have had upon the whole much satis- 
faction in their fellowship, and in minister- 
ing to them, though at first he found con- 
siderable difference of opinion among them, 
and some strife about the use of the litur- 
gy, which has been England's great idol 
ever since the Reformation. Knox suc- 
ceeded in effecting a compromise, by which 
the most objectionable parts of the liturgy 
were laid aside, and some things added 
suitable to their own circumstances. The 
whole church was thus brought to a hap- 
py agreement, they gave public thanks to 
God for it; and joined in the celebration of 
the Lord's Supper, as a pledge of union, 
and the burial of all past offences. By 
effecting a compromise, I do not mean that 
Knox made any sacrifice of principle. He 
j was not inimical to the use of a liturgy, 
i provided it were purged of error and super- 
I stition. Nay, he and John Craig, by ap- 
pointment of the General Assembly, in 1565, 
composed a book of prayers, for the use of 
the church of Scotland, as related by Cal- 
derwood. This was printed and prefixed 
| to the metre version of the Psalms ; and I 
suppose it was the original of what I de- 
; scribed as Knox's liturgy, in a note to the 
j history, p. 107 

But the English church in Frankfort 
was not suffered long to enjoy peace and the 
benefit of Knox's ministry. The persecu- 
tion still raged in England, and other suf- 
ferers were driven to seek refuge abroad. 



Among those who came to Frankfort was 
Dr Cox, a very high churchman, who had 
been preceptor to king Edward VI., and 
probably had a hand in revising the litur- 
gy as directed by that pious young prince. 
He could not endure that a word of the 
sacred composition should be omitted in 
public worship. Accordingly, the first 
sabbath that he and the other new comers 
were in church, they began, in the ortho- 
dox English fashion, to repeat the words of 
the prayer after the minister, to the dis- 
turbance of the congregation. No remon- 
strance would prevail on them to forbear. 
They were determined, they said, "to do as 
they had done in England ; and they would 
have the face of an English church." 
" The Lord grant," said Knox afterwards, 
"they may have the face of Christ's 
church." This was the consequence of the 
half-measures, or compromise, to which 
Knox had consented, or rather had recom- 
mended. He had done so, I believe, in 
perfect sincerity, and without any sacrifice 
of principle, as I have just observed; but 
had he been enough enlightened to dis- 
card set forms of prayer altogether, as the 
church of Scotland did at a subsequent 
period ; and had he and his co-pastors been 
content to pray as the Holy Spirit gave 
them utterance, they would not have suf- 
fered the unreasonable, nay, the wanton in- 
trusion of such men as Dr Cox, who, see- 
ing so much of the form of " an English 
church," must of course have regarded it as 
a monster without having also " the face" 
of one. Had they exhibited nothing but 
the divine simplicity of New Testament or- 
der and worship, they would have had no 
attractions at all for such sticklers for 
ceremonies, who would have formed a 
church for themselves, or have sought for 
one elsewhere. 

A breach was now made which it was 
impossible to heal. The intruders found 
little difficulty in gaining a party to their 
side, among- those who had still a lingering 
affection for the English forms; but the 
presence and the influence of Knox formed 
a mighty obstacle to their carrying all 
things as they desired. In order therefore 
to get quit of him, a scheme was devised, 



XXXV111 



LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 



which, for downright diabolical treachery, ' 
has scarcely a parallel in the history of any 
vrorldly kingdom, and only one in the his- 
tory of the church, of which our Saviour 
himself was the victim. Soon after leaving 
England, Knox wrote a faithful admoni- 
tion to the people of that kingdom, which 
will be found in the Appendix to this vol- 
ume. In this he wrote in very strong 
terms of condemnation of Mary the English 
queen, and of her husband's father, the em- 
peror of Germany, calling them enemies of 
Christ and his church. Frankfort, was in the 
emperor's dominions, and though Knox had 
committed the crime, such as it was, while 
not a subject of his, some of his new breth- 
ren went to the magistrates of the city, 
with the book in their hands, pointed out 
the obnoxious words, and accused Knox of 
high-treason against the emperor, his son 
Philip, and Mary queen of England. Hap- 
pily the Lutheran magistrates had more of 
the Christian spirit than these English suf- 
ferers for the truth. They saw the insi- 
dious treachery of the thing ; but they 
could not protect the delinquent, should j 
the emperor demand him, or require him | 
to be delivered up to his enemy the queen 
of England. They therefore sent a private 
communication by a friend of his own, in- 
forming him of the charge laid against him, 
and advising him to leave the place; which 
might have made them liable to a severe 
reckoning, had their connivance at his es- 
cape come to the knowledge of the em- 
peror. 

He returned to his favourite retreat at 
Geneva; and soon afterwards, ventured to 
take a journey to England. His first ob- 
ject was to visit his wife and friends in 
Berwick, from whom he had been absent 
two years ; and while with them, he heard 
such an account of the state of matters in 
Scotland, that he was encouraged to take a 
journey thither. He began to preach in 
Edinburgh in the house where he lodged, 
and he was heard with intense interest by 
all who could get access, including some of 
the nobility and gentry of rank. From 
this period he was constantly employed in 
different parts of the country, of which he 
has given an account in the history. The 



clergy became dreadfully alarmed when they 
heard of his preaching, and at the rapid 
progress of the reformed doctrines. He 
was summoned to appear before a conven- 
tion of them in Edinburgh ; and he deter- 
mined to obey the summons ; which, when 
his enemies understood, they durst not 
meet him. and the convention was not 
held. He, however, kept the appointment ; 
and on the very day on which he was to 
have been put on his trial, he began preach- 
ing again in Edinburgh to greater audien- 
ces than he had had before. 

While thus busily employed at home, 
he received an invitation from the English 
church in Geneva to be one of their pas- 
tors. This church consisted of some of his 
former flock, who had left Frankfort the 
year before, and come to settle in Geneva, 
where they had liberty to worship God 
without being subject to the yoke of the 
ceremonies. It must have been very grati- 
fying to him to receive this public testi- 
mony of his integrity from those who were 
best acquainted with his conduct in Frank- 
fort, and the cause of his leaving it. Per- 
haps it was on this account that he so rea- 
dily accepted the invitation. To the friends 
who had pressed him to remain in Scot- 
land, he said, "Once he must visit that 
little flock which the wickedness of men 
had compelled him to leave." At the same 
time he gave them to understand, that if 
his services were again required at home, 
he would not be backward to return. He 
proceeded to Geneva with his wife and her 
mother, then a widow, in July, 1556. 

He was no sooner gone than his enemies, 
the clergy, renewed their summons, and 
they had the courage to meet for his trial, 
when they knew he would not appear. 
They condemned his body to the flames, 
and his soul to damnation ; but as both 
were beyond their reach, they had to 
content themselves with burning his effigy 
at the cross of Edinburgh. This gave 
occasion to " The Appellation," one of bis 
most spirited productions, which is in the 
Appendix. 

Knox remained two years in Geneva in 
great peace and comfort, and had two sons 
born to him there. But his heart was still 



LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 



xxxix 



in Scotland. In a letter to some friends 
in Edinburgh, March 16th, 1557, he says, 
(I quote from M'Crie), "My own motion 
and daily prayer is, not only that I may 
visit you, but also that with joy I may end 
my battle among you. And assure your- 
self of that, that whenever a greater number 
among you shall call upon me than now 
hath bound me to serve them, by his grace 
it shall not be fear of punishment, neither 
yet of the death temporal, that shall im- j 
pede my coming to you." The same year 
lie received an invitation to return, signed 
by some of the Scotish nobility. His cor- 
respondence on the occasion is recorded by 
himself in the history ; and indeed from 
this period, the history of the Reformation, 
is so much the history of Knox himself, 
that I need add little more here. In little 
more than a year after his arrival, the Re- 
formation was embraced by persons of all i 
ranks throughout the kingdom ; the protes- 
tant church was organized and established ; 
and ministers were appointed to all the prin- 
cipal cities. Knox was appointed to Edin- 
burgh, where, after great labour and many j 
vicissitudes, he ended his days in peace, and 
great spiritual comfort, the 24th of No- 
veniber, 1572. As he was laid in the grave, j 
the Regent of the kingdom pronounced his 
eulogium in these memorable words, " Here 
lies he who never feared the face of man." 

I cannot do better than conclude with 
the following summary of his labours and 
sufferings, by his excellent biographer, 
Dr M'Crie. No man of the age has done ; 
more important service to the cause of I 
literature and historical truth than he has ' 
done, by presenting to the world the true 
character of one to whom, above every 
other, -we are indebted for both the civil 
and religious privileges which we have so 
long enjoyed. 

" He died in the sixty-seventh year of 
his age, not so much oppressed with years, 
as worn out and exhausted by his extraor- 
dinary labours of body and anxieties of 
mind. Few men ever were exposed to 
more dangers, or underwent such hard- 
ships. From the time that he embraced 
the reformed religion, till he breathed his 
last, seldom did he enjoy a respite from 



these, and he emerged from one scene of 
difficulties only to be involved in another, 
and a more distressing one. Obliged to 
flee from St Andrews to escape the fury of 
Cardinal Beaton, he found a retreat in 
East Lothian, from which he was hunted 
by Archbishop Hamilton. He lived for 
several years as an outlaw, in daily appre- 
hension of falling a prey to those who 
eagerly sought his life. The few months 
during which he enjoyed protection in the 
castle of St Andrews were succeeded by a 
long and rigorous captivity. After enjoy- 
ing some repose in England, he was again 
driven into banishment, and for five years 
wandered as an exile on the continent. 
When he returned to his native country, it 
was to engage in a struggle of the most 
perilous and arduous kind. After the Re- 
formation was established, and he was 
settled in the capital, he was involved in a 
continual contest with the court. When 
he had retired from warfare, and thought 
only of ending his days in peace, he was 
again called into the field, and, although 
scarcely able to walk, was obliged to re- 
move from his flock, and to avoid the 
hatred of his enemies by submitting to a 
new banishment. Often had his life been 
threatened; a price was publicly set upon 
his head, and persons were not wanting 
who were disposed to attempt his destruc- 
tion. No wonder that he was weary of 
the world, and anxious to depart. With 
great propriety it might be said, at his de- 
cease, that he rested from his labours." 

The people of Scotland were very tardy 
in doing justice to the memory of our Re- 
former. Indeed his character was not pro- 
perly appreciated till the appearance of 
Dr M'Crie's book. He had suffered so 
much from the false representations of po- 
pish and high church writers on the one 
hand, and from admirers of queen Mary 
on the other, that he was generally regard- 
ed as a sort of religious Mohawk, who was 
to be remembered only for the mischief he 
had done to our ancient cathedrals, the 
ruins of which were looked upon, and 
pointed out to travellers, as so many mon- 
uments of his ruthless fury. I well re- 
collect the astonishment that was express- 



xl 



LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. 



ed by many persons, well informed on 
other points, when they read Dr M'Crie's 
narrative of his life, and the exhibition 
of his real character, to find that he 
was a gentleman, a scholar, and a warm 
hearted benevolent Christian, distinguished 
above any man of his age for the union of 
two things, which are but too rarely, in 
any age, united in the same mind, the love 
of his Saviour, and the love of his country, 
in relation to both her religious and civil 
interests. The current of public opinion 
was now turned in his favour; and people 
began to talk of some public testimony of 
respect for his memory. But this would 
probably have terminated in mere talk, but 
for the well directed zeal of the reverend 
Dr M'Gill, professor of divinity in Glas- 
gow university, to whom this city "is 



indebted for the honour it has acquired by 
Knox's monument. He was the first to 
bring the subject before the public; and by 
most persevering activity, aided by the 
good offices of some of the most influen- 
tial citizens, and of many friends to the 
cause at a distance, a sufficient sum was 
obtained for erecting the column and sta- 
tue, which surmount the fir park to the 
north of the city. The ceremonial of lay- 
ing the foundation, and circumstances con- 
nected with it, were published at the time, 
in a fugitive form. I think it worth 
while to put them into a more permanent 
shape, by making them a supplement to 
this short sketch of the Reformer's Life. 

W. M'Gavin. 

Glasgow, Jan. 1831. 




ETUIS' CTT.EZ) -4T &Zj4SG0W 1823. 
_PuZlis7z£ct by Ulackie- XuZZartori & C? Glasgow. 



CEREMONIAL 

AT LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE 

; OF "\i> 

KNOX'S MONUMENT. 

DRAWN UP 

BY JAMES CLELAND, ESQ., LLD. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC WORKS IN GLASGOW, 

AND DEDICATED AS FOLLOWS. 



f 



The Rev. THOMAS M'CRIE, D.D. 

THE LEARNED BIOGRAPHER OF JOHN KNOX, 

THIS ACCOUNT OF THE CEREMONIAL 

WHICH TOOK PLACE 

AT LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE 

OF A 

MONUMENT 

TO THE 

GREAT SCOTTISH REFORMER, 

13, IN TESTIMONY OF RESPECT FOR WORTH AND GREAT TALENTS, 

INSCRIBED 
BY HIS MOST OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANT, 

THE EDITOR. 



I 
I 



ACCOUNT OF CEREMONIAL, &c. 



It having occurred to the Rev. Dr MacGill, 
Professor of Theology in the university of Glas- 
gow, that a monument should he erected in 
some prominent part of the city, to the memory 
of John Knox, the great Scottish Reformer, he 
communicated the idea to a few friends, who 
highly approved of it. After the number of 
subscribers had become considerable, a general 
meeting was held, resolutions were passed for 
carrying on the design, and a committee of 
management was appointed. And as the un- 
dertaking was, even to the most remote degree, 
unconnected with party feeling, its friends con- 
sisted of all parties, religious and political, who 
revered the great principles of the Reformation. 

Mr Thomas Hamilton, an eminent architect 
in Edinburgh, with that liberality for which he 
is distinguished, presented a plan for the ac- 
ceptance of the subscribers. The design, a 
Doric column, surmounted by a colossal statue, 
requiring a prominent site, the merchants' 
house, in the handsomest manner, gave per- 
mission to erect the monument in their park, 
which adjoins and overlooks the cathedral. 

That the erection of the first monument in 
Scotland to the memory of its great Reformer, 
should be held in remembrance, it was thought 
advisable to lay the foundation stone with ap- 
propriate solemnity, in presence of the sub- 
scribers, and that the Rev. Dr MacGill, the 
pious, learned, and intrepid defender of the 
principles of the Reformation, and the pro- 
jector of the monument, should be requested to 
lay the foundation stone ; and farther, that the 
celebrated Dr Chalmers, formerly of St John's 
church, in this city, should be requested to 
preach a sermon on the occasion, and the vene- 
rable Dr Burns, the highly respected minister 
of the Barony parish, to offer up prayers for 
the success of the undertaking. These gentle- 
men having politely complied with the request 
of the committee ; the following may be con- 
sidered as an outline of the ceremonial. 



* Professor Jardine has been uniformly attached to 
the principles of the Reformation. When that learned, 
distinguished, and highly respected character, had en- 
tered on his fiftieth year as Professor of Logic iu this 
university, a very nattering compliment was paid to 
him by a number of gentlemen who had been his stu- 
dents. A jubilee dinner was given him in the Town 
Hall, on the 5th of May, 1824. William Mure, Esq. 



MEETING OF SUBSCRIBERS. 

At half past twelve, on Thursday, the 22d of 
September, 1825, upwards of 300 of the sub- 
scribers met in the Trades' Hall, from whence 
they went in procession to St George's church. 
Dr MacGill, who headed the procession, was 
supported by Mr Monteith of Carstairs, M. P., 
and the venerable Professor Jardine.* These 
gentlemen were followed by a great number of 
town and country clergymen belonging to the 
established church, and to the secession and dis- 
senting churches — then followed the architect, 
the committee, and the subscribers. 

SERMON. 

Having arrived in the church, which was 
crowded to excess, the Rev. Dr Chalmers 
preached from Jeremiah vi. 16. " Thus saith 
the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and 
ask for the old paths, where is the good way, 
and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for 
your souls." 

The sermon f was brilliant, nervous, and 
powerful — learned in historical research — ele- 
gant in style — and delivered with all the im- 
pressiveness of the most impassioned eloquence. 
— The collection in aid of the subscription fund 
amounted to L.83 12s. lOd. 

When divine service was ended, the proces- 
sion moved along George's street, Duke street, 
and Ladywell street, to the merchants' park, in 
the same order that it came from the Trades' 
Hall, preceded by three operatives, carrying an 
inscription plate, bottles, &c. and by the office- 
bearers of St John's lodge, in their new clothing 
and jewels, prepared for the purpose. This 
ancient lodge, instituted in the year 1051, con- 
sisting of the freemen master masons in the 
city, very handsomely made offer of their ser- 
vices to do honour to the occasion. 

The interest shown at this ceremonial was 
of no ordinary nature — the streets through 



of Caldwell, chairman, and Viscount Glenorchy, crou- 
pier. The meeting consisted of 208 gentlemen, many of 
whom came from a great distance to do honour on the 
occasion. The chairman was a student iu the pro. 
fessor's first class. 

f The committee respectfully requested Dr Chalmers 
to print the serraoD. 



•xliv 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



which the procession passed, were so crowded, 
that it was with difficulty the subscribers could 
move along, every window was filled with spec- 
tators, and the house tops were in full requisi- 
tion. When the procession had reached the 
merchants' park, and commenced its progress to 
the summit through the winding Avalks, skirted 
with young planting, the scene was truly mag- 
nificent. In looking down to the church-yard, 
in front of the cathedral, the eye beheld proba- 
bly ten thousand persons, whose continued 
shouts of approbation rent the air. To the 
most uninformed spectator, the sight must have 
been interesting ; but to him who could bring 
into recollection, the many important transac ■ 
tions which had taken place in that venerable 
edifice, previous to the Reformation, and since 
that ever memorable period, the scene was 
grand beyond description. 

On arrival at the site of the monument, the 
committee of management, the masons, Dr 
Chalmers, &c. ascended a platform, and as soon 
as the subscribers had occupied the places as- 
signed them, silence was proclaimed, when Dr 
Burns, offered up a very suitable and impres- 
sive prayer as follows 



We worship and adore thee, O Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, the One only the living and 
the true God. We come unto thee in the name 
of Jesus Christ our Lord, the only Mediator 
between God and man, and our advocate with 
the Father. We thank thee for thy distin- 
guished goodness to the human race, in sending 
thy well-beloved Son into the world to seek and 
to save that which was lost. We thank thee 
for his condescending to assume our nature, for 
the depth of his abasement, the perfection of 
his obedience, the merit of his death, his tri- 
umphant resurrection, and ascension into 
heaven, where he ever reigns at thy right hand, 
having all power in heaven and earth committed 
unto him. We thank thee that when he as- 
cended up on high, he received gifts for men, 
that the Lord God might again dwell amongst 
us. We thank thee that he commanded his 
gospel to be preached in the world, and that it 
has been published in our land. We thank 
thee that when our forefathers were sunk in 
paganism and savage barbarity — and, after- 
wards, under the Christian name, were almost 
wholly overwhelmed with idolatry, supersti- 
tion, and tyranny, that thou, O Lord, hadst 
mercy upon us, and didst visit us with the pure 
light of evangelical truth. We thank thee that 
the gospel has been long faithfully preached in 
our land, visibly accompanied with the Holy 
G host sent down from heaven. We thank thee 
that we have the Bible put into our hands, 



translated into a language which we all under- 
stand ; that we are permitted and encouraged, 
and by the means of education afforded us, are 
enabled to read it : and we thank thee that we 
are permitted to worship thee according to 
the dictates of thy word and of our own con- 
sciences, none disturbing us or making us 
afraid. Truly the lines have fallen to us in 
pleasant places, and we have received a goodly 
heritage of the Lord our God. 

We thank thee for the happy constitution of 
civil government under which we live, by 
which the rights of the crown and the liberty 
of the subjects are equally secured. We pray 
that the choicest blessings of heaven may de- 
scend upon the head of our beloved sovereign 
King George. Long may he sway the sceptre 
over a free, a united, a religious, and a grateful 
people. Bless all the members of the royal 
family : may they be endowed with every gra- 
cious and princely virtue ; and may one of that 
illustrious house never be wanting to support 
and to defend the Protestant constitution in 
church and state in these happy lands. Do thou 
bless all inferior rulers and magistrates under 
our king and over us ; may they be a terror to 
evil-doers, but a praise and protection to them 
that do good. May the high court of parlia- 
ment, always when assembled, be under the 
guidance of thy good Spirit, in enacting wise 
and salutary laws for advancing thy glory, se- 
curing and perpetuating the blessings of pure 
and undefiled religion among us, and for main- 
taining the rights, the liberties, and the religion 
of our country. May we ever remember, that 
to whom much is given much will be required ; 
and may we all be careful, lest by abusing our 
privileges, we provoke thee to throw us back 
under the dominion of ignorance, superstition, 
and tyranny. Bless the magistrates of this 
city, and those who sit in council with them ; 
may they enjoy the respect, the support, and 
the gratitude of the whole community over 
which they are placed. Bless the church 
which thou hast established amongst us. Bless 
all the ministers of the different denominations 
who faithfully preach Christ and him cruci- 
fied ; may it be their study to strengthen each 
other's hands, striving together for the faith of 
the gospel, — seeking only who shall love God 
most and serve him best ; and bless the whole 
of our fellow-subjects of every rank and in 
every situation. 

And now, Lord, we pray for a blessing on 
our present undertaking, in erecting an ho- 
nourable monument to the memory of our great 
Reformer, John Knox ; a man raised up by 
thee, and endowed with those qualities which 
peculiarly fitted him for being a distinguished 
instrument in the arduous work of delivering 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



xlv 



this nation from spiritual thraldom and civil 
tyranny. Every time that we and our pos- 
terity look to this patriotic monument, may our 
hearts rise in gTatitude to thee for the blessings 
we enjoy. May we be duly sensible of our 
inestimable privileges, both civil and sacred, 
and carefully improve them. May our liberty 
never degenerate into licentiousness, nor our 
gratitude abate ; but may we be as eminent for 
the holiness of our lives, as we are distinguished 
by our national blessings. — Hear these our 
prayers, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, 
and to thy name be the praise now and for 
evermore. Amen. 

At the conclusion of the prayer, Mr Rodger, 
a member of the committee of management, 
deposited in the foundation stone, a glass bottle, 
hermetically sealed, containing specimens of the 
gold, silver, and copper coins of the reign of 
George IV., and another glass bottle, contain- 
ing six Glasgow newspapers, viz. Journal, 
Herald, Courier, Chronicle, Free Press, and 
Scots Times ; a Scotish Almanack, and a Glas- 
gow Directory. 

The following extracts from Cleland's An- 
nals of Glasgow, and statistical tables, were also 
inclosed in glass bottles, viz. Population tables 
for Glasgow, progressive from the days of Knox 
to the present time. Periodical division of 
the city into parishes, from the year 1592, 
when it was formed into two parishes, till 
the year 1820, when it was divided into ten 
parishes. A list of the names of all the pres- 
byterian parochial clergymen who had been 
settled in Glasgow, from the Reformation to 
this time, with the dates of induction. An out- 
line of the famous General Assembly, held in the 
cathedral of Glasgow, on 21st November, 1638. 
Declinature and protestation by the dignitaries 
of the church of Scotland, against the sentence 
of the assembly. Comparative state of society 
in Glasgow, at various periods from the Refor- 
mation to this time. Excerpts from M'Crie's 



Life of Knox, and a list of the subscribers to 
the monument. 

Mr Cleland, a member of the committee of 
management, then read the inscription which 
was on a metal plate, as follows : — 

To testify gratitude for inestimable Services 
In the cause of Religion, Education, and Civil Liberty, 
To awaken AdmiratioD 
Of that Integrity, Disinterestedness, and Courage, 
■Which stood unshaken in the midst of Trials, 
And in the Maintenance of the highest objects, 

FINALLY, 

To Cherish unceasing Reverence for the Principles and 
Blessings of that Great Reformation, 
By the influence of which our Country, through the 
Midst of Difficulties, 
Has risen to Honour, Prosperity, and Happiness, 
This Monument is Erected by Voluntary Contribution, 
To the Memory of 
JOHN KNOX; 
The Chief Instrument, under God, 
Of the Reformation of Scotland. 



By the Favour of Almighty God, 
The Foundation Stone was laid by 
STEVENSON MACGILL, D.D. 
Professor of Theology in the University of Glasgow, 
On the 22d day of September, MDCCCXXV, 
And Sixth year of the Reign of our Most Gracious Sovereign, 
GEORGE THE FOURTH, 

In Presence of the Committee of Management, viz 



Henry Monteith, Esq. M.P. 
James Ewing, Esq.* 
Robert Dalglish, Esq. 
James Cleland, Esq.* 
William Rodger, Esq. 
Thomas Hopkirk, Esq. 
Andrew Mitchell, Esq. 
John Mav, Esq. 
William M'Tyer, Esq. 
Robert Hood, Esq. 



Walter Ferguson, Esq. 
William M'Gavin, Esq. Treasurer. 
Benjamin Mathie, Esq. Secretary. 
Thomas Hamilton. Esq. Architect. 
William Warren, Esq. Designer of 

the Statue. 
Robert Fonest, Esq. Statuary. 
John Kerbertson, Esq. Besident 

Architect and Superintendent. 
Mr James Carmichae'., Contractor. 



Which undertaking may the Supreme God bless and prosper. 



SUPER INTENDING COMMITTEE. 
Rev. Dr. MacGill, Convener. 



James Ewing, Esq. 
James Cleland, Esq. 



William Bod 2 er, Esq. 
Thomas Hopkirk, Esq. 



* The university of Glasgow has conferred the degree of Doctor 
of Laws on Mr Ewing and Mr Cleland. 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



INSCRIPTION ON THE MONUMENT. 

(NORTH SIDE.) 

To testify Gratitude for inestimable Services 
In the Cause of Religion, Education, and Civil Liberty, 
To awaken Admiration 
Of that Integrity, Disinterestedness, and Courage, 
which stood unshaken in the midst of Trials, 
And in the Maintenance of the highest Objects. 

FIX ALLY, 

To Cherish unceasing Reverence for the Principles and 
Blessings of that Great Reformation, 
By the influence of which our Country, through the 
ZNIidst of Difficulties, 
Has risen to Honour, Prosperity and Happiness, 
This Monument is erected by Voluntary Contribution, 
To the Memory of 
JOHN KNOX, 
The Chief Instrument, under Gn<i, 
of the Reformation of Scotland, 
On the xxii day of September, MDCCCXXV. 
He died, rejoicing in the faith of the Gospel, 
At Edinburgh on the xxiv of November A.D. MDLXXI1, in the sixty-seventh year of his a 

(east side.) 

Patrick Hamilton, a youth of high rank and distinguished attainments, 
was the first Martyr in Scotland for the cause of the Reformation. 
He was condemned to the flames at St Andrews in 152S, and the 
twenty-fourth year of his age. 

From 1530 to 1540, persecution raged in every quarter ; many suffered 
the most cruel deaths; and many fled to England and the Continent. 
Among these early Martyrs were Jerome Russell and Alexander 
Kennedy, two young men of great piety and Talents, who suffered at 
Glasgow, in 1538. 

In 1544, George Wishart returned to Scotland, from which he had been 
banished, and preached the gospel in various quarters. In 1546, this 
heavenly-minded man, the friend and Instructor of Knox, was also 
committed to the flames at St Andrews. 

(south side.) 

Among the early and distinguished friends of the Reformation should 
be especially remembered Sir James Sandilands of Calder, Alexander Earl 
of Glencairn, Archibald earl of Argyle, and Lord James Stewart, 
afterwards known by the name of " the Good Regent." — 
John Erskine of Dun, and John Row, who were distinguished among 
the reformed Ministers, for their cultivation of ancient and modern 
literature — 

Christopher Goodman and John "Willock, who came from England to 
preach the gcspel in Scotland — 



KNOX S MONUMENT. 



xlvii 



And, John Winram, John Spottiswood, and John Douglas, who with 
John Row, and John Knox, compiled the first Confession of Faith, 
which was presented to the Parliament of Scotland : And also the first 
Book of Discipline. 

(west side.) 

" The Reformation produced a revolution in the sentiments of mankind, 
the greatest, as well as the most beneficial that has happened since the 
publication of Christianity." 

In 1547, and in the city where his friend George Wishart had suffered, 
John Knox, surrounded with dangers, first preached the doctrines of the 

Reformation. In 1559, on the 24th of August, the Parliament of Scot- 
land adopted the Confession of Faith presented by the Reformed 
Ministers, and declared Popery to be no longer the religion of this 
kingdom. 

John Knox became then a Minister of Edinburgh where he continued 
to his death the incorruptible guardian of our best interests. " I can 
take God to witness," he declared, "that I never preached in contempt 
of any man ; and wise men will consider, that a true friend cannot 
flatter ; especially in a case that involves the salvation of the bodies and 
souls, not of a few persons, but of a whole realm." When laid in the 
grave, the Regent said, " There lieth He who never feared the face of 
man ; who was often threatened with dag and dagger, yet hath ended his 
days in peace and honour.''* 



The plate having been deposited over the 
bottles, and the operative and master masons 
having completed their part of the ceremony, 
the Rev. Dr MacGill laid the foundation stone 
with all the honours usual on such occasions, 
pronouncing the masonic benediction. " May 
the grand Architect of the universe, enable us 
successfully to carry on and finish the work, of 
which we have now laid the foundation stone, 
and every other undertaking which may tend 
to the advantage of the city of Glasgow and its 
inhabitants, and may this monument be long 
preserved from peril and decay." 

The foundation stone having thus been laid, 
the subscribers and surrounding multitude gave 
three cheers. Dr MacGill then advanced to a 
table in front of the platform, and addressed the 
subscribers with great eloquence and energy, as 
follows : — 

Mr Ewing, and Gentlemen Subscribers, — We 
have now the happiness of witnessing the com- 
mencement of a monument, to ihe memory of 
that great man, who was the chief instrument 
under God, of the Reformation in Scotland. 
When we united for this purpose, we had ob- 
jects in view of no small importance, as we 



* The total amount subscribed for the monument, 
including L.80 from Mr May for the statue, was 
L.1377 17s. 9d. which being L.71 more than the expen- 
diture, this sum was consigned to the magistrates for 
the purpose of keeping the monument in repair, and 



conceived, to the interests of our country. 
We proposed to pay honour to one of its great- 
est benefactors ; and, in paying to him this debt 
of justice, to cherish admiration of those high 
qualities for which he was distinguished, and 
to keep alive the remembrance of those great 
events and principles, with which his name is 
associated. — Cheers. 

At the period of the Reformation, Scotland, 
like the other nations of Europe, was not only 
involved in all the evils of feudalism and general 
ignorance, but was borne down by a system of 
debasing superstition, imposture, and spiritual 
tyranny. 1 shall not enlarge, gentlemen, on 
the absurd and degrading doctrines and prac- 
tices which were taught and enforced under 
the pretended authority of God — on the frauds, 
exactions, and domination of a corrupt priest- 
hood — nor on the burdens and evils of subjec- 
tion to a distant and foreign jurisdiction. I 
observe only that the great doctrines of the gos- 
pel were unknown or perverted — that wretched 
mummeries and observances, and the worship 
of innumerable saints, came with deadening 
power betwixt the soul and its God and Sa- 
viour, corrupted the first principles of holiness, 



the following functionaries are authorised to superin- 
tend the same, the professor of divinity of Glasgow 
college, the Dean of Guild of the merchants, and the 
Deacon Convener of the trades connected with the 
city.— Ed. 



xlviii 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



and assumed the place of the most important 
duties—that the clergy were ignorant, idle, and 
licentious — that the word of God Avas prohibited 
to the people — that religious services were 
performed in an unknown tongue— that the 
mind Avas wholly subjected to the dictations of 
men— that the avenues to truth were closed — 
and, while the people were perishing for lack of 
knowledge, every declaration of better prin- 
ciples was punished with imprisonment and 
death. 

And ought not deliverance from a state like 
this to be remembered with gratitude to God ? 
And should not he who was the chief instru- 
ment in effecting it, receive the honours of a 
grateful country? (Loud cheers.) And, gentle- 
men, how many blessings accompanied our de- 
liverance from this state of spiritual debase- 
ment ! Then were the treasures of heavenly 
wisdom laid open, and we became acquainted 
with those Holy Scriptures, which are able to 
make us wise unto salvation, through the faith 
which is in Jesus Christ. Then were we 
enabled with the understanding and the heart, 
to offer up a reasonable and acceptable service 
through the only Mediator. Then was the 
mind freed from the tyranny of interested men, 
enabled net only to search the scriptures, but to 
dwell in meditation over its precious truths, 
and to feel all their ennobling and renovating 
influence. Then were all his duties, and prin- 
ciples, and hopes, presented in fulness and 
purity to the simplest Christian, for the guid- 
ance of his purposes and his life. Then did the 
consolations of heavenly truth, come forward 
in all their native power, to heal the broken- 
hearted. The acceptable year of the Lord was 
again preached to mankind ; and the day of the 
Sun of Righteousness, began again to illuminate 
and bless a benighted world! (Cheers.) Well 
might a celebrated historian say of the Reforma- 
tion, " That it rescued one part of Europe from 
the papal yoke, mitigated its rigour in the other, 
and produced a Revolution in the sentiments of 
mankind, the greatest, as well as the most bene- 
ficial, that has happened since the publication 
of Christianity." 

But if this may be said of the Reformation 
generally, much more may it be said of the 
Reformation in Scotland. The evils from 
which it delivered lis were peculiarly great, 
and the change it effected more thorough, scrip- 
tural, and perfect, than in most other nations. 
(Cheers.) Far be it from me to detract from 
the character of the great men of other king- 
doms, from the views by which they were 
guided, or the general excellence of the work 
which they achieved. But if others are al- 
lowed their preferences, so we also may be al- 
lowed ours. And I would conceive myself 



unworthy the place which I now occupy, if I 
did not openly and unequivocally declare my 
conviction, that the Reformation in Scotland — 
which some men have attempted to disparage — 
introduced a system superior to that of most 
other nations ; fitted in a higher degree to pro- 
mote the interests of practical religion, and the 
general welfare of men ; and that the peculiar- 
ities which distinguish it should be hailed as 
blessings of the first order, celebrated with 
gratitude, and sacredly preserved. ( Very great 
cheering. ) 

And while such were the inestimable ser- 
vices rendered by our great Reformer in the 
cause of religion, we find him with the same 
enlightened zeal supporting the interests of 
education and of learning. So far from being 
fearful of the progress of knowledge, he con- 
sidered it as one of the most powerful auxili- 
aries in the great cause to which he was de- 
voted. He was not the man who considered 
ignorance to be the mother of devotion. 
(Cheers.) And as he was the great mean of 
rescuing the Bible from the power of an inte- 
rested priesthood, of laying open its treasures 
to men of every description, so, with his great 
coadjutors, he united to carry into effect the 
same desire, which was expressed by our late 
venerable sovereign, that every man in this 
kingdom should have a Bible, and should be 
able to read it. (Cheers.) — Well directed 
learning, they also knew, would only serve to 
establish the cause of the sacred scriptures — to 
illustrate more fully the certainty of the facts 
which they record — the excellence of the truths 
which they reveal — and the strength of the 
rock on which their authority is founded. 
While, therefore, the very nature of the Refor- 
mation accelerated the progress of knowledge, 
the Reformers in Scotland sought to encourage 
and confirm the spirit which it awakened ; to 
extend the blessing of education to men of every 
order ; and to direct and insure its aid to the 
best interests of men. With these views, they 
required that schools should be erected in every 
parish for instruction in reading, grammar, 
Latin, and the principles of religion: they 
laid down salutary regulations for the univer- 
sities: and they farther recommended, that 
institutions should be formed in every conside - 
rable city for instruction in the higher branches 
of a learned and useful education. For these 
great objects they also pointed out the means of 
a suitable provision : and, with a noble disin- 
terestedness, they proposed, that from those 
funds which the clergy of other nations have 
considered as their own, a large portion should 
be taken for universities, colleges, and parish 
schools. (Great cheering.) In the noise of 
selfish factions, their voice for a time was not 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



xlix 



heard ; yet in one particular, at least, their call 
was at last regarded ; and the establishment of 
parish schools has added another claim to the 
gratitude of their country. — (Loud and con- 
tinued cheering. ) 

" With the prosecution of these high objects, 
gentlemen, it is impossible for me to omit stat- 
ing, that the distinguished man to whom this 
monument is devoted, maintained strenuously 
the principles, and endeavoured anxiously to 
obtain for his country the blessings of civil li- 
berty. — ( Loud cheers. ) — I am sensible that ex- 
pressions and sentiments have occasionally been 
uttered by great and good men, in times of vio- 
lence and oppression, which ought to be received 
with modification, and considered in connection 
witb the circumstances to which they were ap- 
plied. There are points also, connected with 
the general subject, on which enlightened men 
have differed, and which ought to be approached 
at all times with delicacy and caution. But 
with all these allowances, it is never to be for- 
gotten that the blessings of civil liberty are of 
the first class in human life ; and that the great 
men who contributed to obtain and secure 
them, are to be regarded amongst the first of 
, our national benefactors. — (Cheers.) — It is not 
for the free men of a free country to speak with 
indifference of the blessings of a well regulated 
freedom. And to shrink from the expression 
of our love of it, would be to act unjustly to 
ourselves and our country, and, in my estima- 
tion, most injuriously to the constitutional 
monarchy, under which we have the happiness 
to live ; which is one of the greatest safeguards 
of liberty, protecting us most effectually from 
the dominion of foreign foes, while it guards us 
from the disorders of the ambitious, the ex- 
i cesses of the violent, and the oppressions of the 
1 1 powerful. — (Loud cheering.) Maintaining the 
J principles which were afterwards proclaimed 
and established at the great revolution, Knox 
! was the enemy of despotism, both in the 
church and the state. (Hear, hear, hear.) — 
He enforced strongly the duties of obedience to 
I lawful authority, and that mutual respect 
j ; which men of every rank owe to one another. 

I But he also maintained, when the occasion de- 
j manded, in the presence of princes and nobles, 
j of ministers and people, that rulers must rule 

| in the fear of God, that the highest authority 
: j must rule according to the laws, (cheers) — 
' and that the laws must respect equally the in- 
terests of men of every condition. Nay, he 
| maintained that there were occasions, extraor- 

II dinary occasions, and which he defined — when 
1 1 oppressors must be resisted, and sensibly 

! taught that power was intended for good, and 
| not for destruction. Imbued with these prin- 
ciples, there arose, in successive generations, and 



in that church which he assisted to form, those 
men of lofty bearing, of firm contexture, and of 
stern integrity, who withstood the storms of 
persecution, and finally contributed to repair 
the walls, and build up those towers of strength 
and beauty, under the shade of which our 
country now rests in security and honour. 
(Loud cheers.) 

" And now, gentlemen, let me ask you to con- 
sider the circumstances in which these great 
services were done by our illustrious Refor- 
mers. It was when the highest powers of the 
state, as well as those of the church, had armed 
themselves to oppose every approach to the 
principles of the Reformation — it was after the 
amiable and youthful Hamilton, whose appear- 
ance and character would have softened the 
hearts of savages, had finished his short but 
glorious course, by the hands of remorseless 
churchmen — it was only a few days after the 
meek and heavenly-minded Wishart had been 
committed also to the flames. — it was then, and 
on the same spot, where his friend had suffered, 
that Knox first publicly denounced the errors 
and impostures of popery, and with a boldness 
of eloquence which never before had sounded 
in Scotland, made the bulwarks of Antichrist 
to shake from their foundation. Nor was this 
noble and fearless zeal the effect of temporary 
and high- wrought feelings, or of rash and hasty 
determination. It was the deliberate prefer- 
ence of duty to worldly interest. It was the 
determination of a superior mind, devoting 
itself to God, and the highest interests of his 
fellow-creatures. (Loud and continued cheer- 
ing. ) Founded on principle, his zeal was con- 
stant and persevering. The high pitch of his 
soul was sustained throughout the whole of his 
life ; and his resolution stood firm in the midst 
of the severest trials. Compare his conduct 
with that of the greatest men of other nations, 
and say how few can be produced who have 
trodden the path of rectitude with a step so 
firm, resolute, and undeviating. (Cheers.) 

" Hence his influence in the councils of the 
church and the state. And hence it was that 
his eloquence came with such resistless power 
on the minds of his countrymen. It was not 
merely that his cause was great, that the truths 
which he delivered were infinitely important, 
and attended with convincing evidence; nor 
was it only that his judgment was vigorous and 
discriminating, his statements clear, and his 
conception lofty — it was more than all this — 
it was the open sincerity of his character, the 
integrity of his life, the disinterestedness as 
well as the wisdom which distinguished his 
conduct. (Loud and continued cheering.) His 
sentiments were enforced, not only with all the 
pathos of immediate feeling, but with the 
g 



1 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



stronger expression of determined principle. 
His vehemence was accompanied with all the 
strength of self-command, and power of a great 
and upright mind ; nor was the effect of his 
words ever lessened for a moment, by the sus- 
picion that unworthy feelings mingled with 
the urgency of his persuasion. Seldom, ac- 
cordingly, has there appeared in any country, a 
man, who, unaided by adventitious circum- 
stances, produced greater effects on those whom 
he addressed. And hence it was said of him 
by the English ambassador, when writing to 
the great minister of Elizabeth— ' where your 
honour exhorteth us to stoutness, 1 assure you, 
the voice of one man is able to put more life in 
us in an hour, than 600 trumpets blustering in 
our ears.' ( Loud cheers. ) 

" I am not unacquainted with the objections 
which have been made to some parts of the con- 
duct of our great Reformer — that he is accused 
of undue severity of speech — of impropriety in 
the topics which he sometimes introduced into 
the pulpit — of interference with concerns which 
belonged to statesmen more than to him — and 
that the beauty of the buildings devoted to 
popish superstition could not save them from 
the effects of his indignation. On the last of 
these accusations, 1 observe, that he opposed 
the irruptions of popular violence, and called 
upon Protestants to avoid 4 all associations with 
the ambitious, the factious, and the turbulent.' 
That the destruction of popish buildings which 
he approved, was the decree of public authority 
— that this was not extended to churches, and 
was only applied to monasteries, which had 
been the seats of idleness, vice, and debauchery. 
It is true that he addressed Mary, his queen, 
with plainness on subjects connected with the 
public weal and her own best interests — but 
it is denied that in so doing he behaved towards 
her with rudeness or disrespect. His topics in 
the pulpit, and his interference with matters of 
public policy, are to be judged by times and by 
circumstances. He did nothing in these res- 
pects which was not common in that age, not 
only in Scotland, but England, France, and 
other kingdoms of Europe. Yet this forms 
but a small part of his defence. What he did 
was the duty of necessity, dictated by foresight, 
well-founded jealousy, and a just estimate of 
the public interest. The public conduct which 
he reprobated, was connected with the very ex- 
istence of that religion which his country had 
but lately and with the hardest struggles ob- 
tained — it was the conduct of those who were 
conspiring to overturn by nefarious means this 
religion so dear to him and to his country — it 
was the conduct of those who even signed that 
bloody deed which devoted Protestants to mas- 



sacre and extermination — nay, dared to express 
their triumphs in its commencing atrocities ! 

"Who will say that such extraordinary times 
and circumstances did not require and jusify 
extraordinary means? Or who will venture to 
blame the man who, in such circumstances, 
sounded to his country, lulled asleep by artifice, 
the note of warning and alarm ; and at the ha- 
zard of life and comfort, saved religion and its 
friends from destruction, though it should have 
been by a martial deviation from professional 
propriety ? Knox, too, it is to be remembered, 
was no common character. Though not dis* 
tinguished by external rank, he possessed a 
rank of a higher order — that which arises from 
worth and talents, and benefits rendered to his 
country. By his personal excellence he had 
risen to influence among men of every order. 
He was capable of forming a judgment of 
events and of times, better than most men of 
his age. He had also been personally con- 
cerned in establishing that religion which was 
now threatened to be overthrown ; and he had 
himself witnessed and passed through, those 
bloody scenes which were about to be renewed. 
— ( Cheers. ) If indignation at times burst forth 
in language too strong, let us not condemn with 
severity the tincture of alloy which mixes with 
so much that is great and noble. Let us not 
defend every expression and sentiment, which 
either from misapprehension, or high excite- 
ment, he sometimes delivered — but let us look 
to the palliations which accompany the error ; 
and remember, that, with every exception, 
which the most scrupulous and prying jealousy 
can discover — a higher character, or greater 
benefactor to his country, will hardly be 
found, than that distinguished man to whom 
is erecting the monument before us. — The 
learned and eloquent professor concluded amid 
rapturous and long continued cheering. — I 
have now only to offer my thanks to you, Sir, 
and the other gentlemen to whom was intrust- 
ed the duty of carrying forward our design, 
for your invaluable services — and to all the 
subscribers generally, for their uniform and 
friendly support : at the same time, I beg 
leave to express my warmest acknowledg- 
ments for many kind attentions which I have 
personally received ; and humbly to assure 
you, gentlemen, of my best wishes for your 
happiness." 

Mr Ewing, one of the membex-s of the com- 
mittee of management, delivered the following 
reply with that eloquence and energy for which 
he is so very conspicuous. — 

" Dr M'Gill: On the part of the committee, 
whom I have now the honour to represent, 1 
beg to express the pleasure 1 have received from 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



li 



the sentiments contained in your address, — sen- 
timents which have proceeded with great pro- 
priety from you, by whom the doctrines of the 
Reformation have been so long and so faith- 
fully maintained. (Loud cheering.) — Sir, the 
mind that can be insensible to the blessings 
which the country has derived from that mag- 
nificent event in our history, must be either 
blinded by ignorance, or perverted by preju- 
dice. It was at the Reformation that light 
dawned on the human intellect, and dispelled 
the shades of bigotry and superstition. It was 
the Reformation, accompanied with the dis- 
covery of printing and the revival of letters, 
which unlocked the boundless stores of science 
and philosophy. It is to the Reformation 
we owe that system of popular education — 
which has contributed so much to the intel'i- 
gence, the industry, and the morals of Scot- 
land. It is to the Reformation we are in- 
debted for the right of private judgment, and 
that free and happy constitution, which is 
the best birthright — the noblest inheritance of 
Britons. It is the Reformation we have to 
thank for the wealth of the nation, which had 
previously been drained by the rapacity of a 
foreign priesthood. It is to the Reformation 
we must trace the sources of our commercial 
prosperity, for it was in Britain that the arts 
found an asylum, when expelled from other 
lands by the horrors of persecution. — (Cheers.) 
In place of convents, we now behold manufac- 
tories ; in place of dissolute and ignorant monks, 
we behold a virtuous and enlightened clergy ; 
in place of idle mendicants, dependent on mo - 
nasteries, we behold industrious artisans, who 
would scorn subsistence but from their own 
labour. And shall we not hold dear the memo- 
ry of the man who was the instrument, under 
Providence, of achieving such a victory for 
Scotland? (Cheers.) — Shall we wreath the 
laurel, and raise the trophy to the military 
hero, and shall we neglect him who fought 
against the powers of darkness ? Shall we for- 
get him who despised every fear, braved every 
danger, stormed the stronghold of papal ty- 
ranny, and levelled its bulwarks in the dust? 
Forbid it gratitude ! Forbid it justice ! — (Loud 
and continued cheering. ) Sir, I am aware that 
the character of such a man requires no memo- 
rial from us. 1 1 needs not the classic column 
to record its excellence : it needs not the grace- 
ful statue to recall the form in which it dwelt : 
it lives on the page of history : nay, it is regis- 
\ tered in the hearts of posterity. Still, it is a 
I debt which we justly, though tardily pay, it is 
a tribute due from the city where our fore- 
fathers were among the first to suffer in the 
cause, — and the moral influence of such a mon- 
ument, in such a scene, and in such a commu- 



nity as this, may be felt by generations yet un- 
born. — (Great cheering.) You have alluded, 
Sir, to the charge which has been brought 
against the authors of the Reformation, as to 
encouraging the dilapidation of religious edi- 
fices. Permit me to go a little farther than 
you have don? — and, deprecating, as I must do, 
all such acts of vandalism — to say, that the 
original order in 1560, was simply to pull down 
the images and altars, but to be particular in 
doing no farther injury ; so that the mischief 
must be traced to the ebullitions of popular tu- 
mult. It has even been alleged, that the cathe- 
dral, which now stands before us in all the 
beauty of youth — amidst all the venerableness 
of age — whs devoted to destruction by the 
preaching of Knox, and saved by the public 
spirit of our craftsmen : but, it is sufficient to 
state, in refutation, that the event alluded to 
did not occur till seven years after his death. — 
It now remains for me, Sir, to discharge a very 
pleasing part of my duty. I'o yourself, in the 
first place, I have to express the obligations we 
must all feel, as the original projector and the 
ardent promoter of this undertaking. Of the 
resistless eloquence which has this day been dis- 
played, as usual, by Dr Chalmers, in the cause, 
any thing which I could say would only en- 
feeble the force. To Mr Hamilton of Edin- 
burgh, who volunteered his professional skill, 
we are indebted, not only for the architectural 
design, but for much valuable and gratuitous 
advice ; nor can we omit the less prominent, 
but not less useful co-operation of Mr Herbert- 
son, architect of this city. Another gentleman, 
Mr Warren, who holds a family claim to dis- 
tinction in the arts, has afforded us the benefit 
of his taste in drawings. The self-taught and 
retiring genius of Mr Forrest, who is executing 
the statue, only requires opportunity for de- 
velopement, — and the generosity of Mr May, 
who is to defray the expense, stands in no need 
of encomium. Of the committee, it would not 
become me to speak, but it is impossible not to 
particularize two gentlemen, Mr M'Gavin the 
treasurer, of whom it is sufficient to say, that 
he bears the title of " the Protestant/' and Mr 
Cleland, whose services have been invaluable, 
and whose name stands associated, not only 
with the history, but the improvements of the 
city. — (Loud cheering.) To the subscribers, 
who all came forward with an alacrity that 
conferred additional credit on their liberality, I 
am sure I may add, that they will long feel a 
satisfaction in the good work which they have 
enabled us to accomplish." Mr Ewing having 
concluded, the subscribers and the surrounding 
multitude gave three hearty cheers. 

The ceremonial having been finished, the 
subscribers left the ground. The procession 



Hi 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



was guarded from the Trades' Hall to the 
church, and thence to the site of the monument, 
hy a strong posse of police officers, patrole and 
substitutes, under the able direction of Captain 
Graham, superintendent of police. The ar- 
rangements of the police were such, that not- 
withstanding the innumerable crowd of specta- 
tors assembled to witness the interesting spec- 
tacle, not the slightest accident occurred. The 
weather was very propitious, which added 
greatly to the interest of the scene. 

DINNER. 

HENRY MONTEITH, Esq. M. P. Chairman. 
JAMES EWING, Esq. Croupier. 



STEWARDS. 



Robert Dalglish, Esq. 
James Dennistuun, Esq. 
Willia » M'Tyre, Esq. 
James M'Kenzie, Esq. 
James Cleland, Esq. 
William M'Gavin, Esq. 
William Rodger, Esq. 
Alexander M'Grrgor, E 
William Dunn, Esq. 
Robert Grahame, Esq. 
Andrew Mitchell, Esq. 
Robert Hood, Esq. 
Henry Paul, Esq. 
David Todd, Esq. 
James Playfair, Esq. 



I John May, Esq. 
| Gabriel Walker, Esq. 
' Patrick Falconer, Esq. 
I John Wilson, Esq. 

Walter Ferguson, Esq. 

William Liddell, Esq. 
! James Hutcheson, Esq. 
j William Craig, Esq. 

John Alston, Esq. 

William Kippen, Esq. 
| Benjamin Mathie, Esq. 
! George Burns, Esq. 
j John Sommerville, Esq. 
j Allan Buchanan, Esq. 
I David Stow, Esq. 



The chair was supported by the Rev. Dr MacGill, and the 
Rev. Dr Chalmers, and the croupier by John May and William 
M'Gavin, Esquires. 

When the cloth had been removed, the chairman introduced 
the following toasts, with appropriate speeches :— 

The King. 

The Royal Family. 

The British Constitution. 

The Imperial Parliament. 

His Majesty's Government. 

The Duke of York and the Army. 

Lord Melville and the Navy. 

These toasts were drunk with all the honours,— the king with 
enthusiasm. 

The chairman then said, were he more capable 
than he was, it would be presumption in him 
to attempt to draw the character of the dis- 
tinguished individual who formed the subject 
of his next toast, and, indeed, of the business 
during the whole day, (cheers) his talents, his 
intrepidity, his very faults, if he might be 
allowed the expression, were all calculated for 
the times in which he lived, and the great work 
which he carried on to a successful conclusion. 
What could he say, nay, what needed he to 
say, to make every one in that house receive 
with pleasure as a toast, " the great apostle of 
the Scottish Reformation, John Knox." This 
toast was received with the utmost enthusiasm. 

The chairman said, in rising to propose the 
health of Dr MacGill, a gentleman to whom 
we lay under so many obligations, he should 
not find it necessary to say much. He was 
well known to the meeting, and highly regard- 
ed by the community as a man of piety, learn- 



ing, and public spirit, and one who delighted 
"to walk in the good old paths." The chair- 
man said, we owe this meeting to the Reverend 
gentleman, for without his valuable and un- 
ceasing exertions, we should have had no 
monument at this time to the memory of 
Knox. The toast was received with raptu- 
rous and long continued applause. 

Dr MacGill, after returning thanks for the 
honour which had been paid him, spoke in sub- 
stance as follows: — "It was very little that I 
could have done to promote the good object 
which I had the fortune to suggest, had not the 
public received it with approbation, and many 
men of generous minds and public spirit, come 
forward to give it their support. Among 
these, permit me to begin with mentioning 
yourself, Mr Chairman, as the gentleman who 
commenced the subscription, and with that li- 
berality and good will by which your conduct 
has long been distinguished. (Cheers.) — Nor is 
it only the direct advantage which the cause 
thus received which we have to acknowledge, 
but the benefit of your example in removing 
any lurking prejudices or fears which some 
good men might be in danger of entertaining — 
presenting the object as one of general interest, 
in which men of all parties, who valued the 
principles of their religion, and their country, 
might unite, as men possessing common inte- 
rests and a common cause, and sustaining the 
great common character of Protestants and 
Scotsmen. The liberal conduct of the mer- 
chants' house, tended also greatly to promote 
our design, by granting us a site upon their 
grounds, so suitable and so striking, and con- 
nected with a scene so sacred and affecting. 
Nor can I help noticing, with feelings of 
gratitude, the warm and affectionate reception 
given to our object, by the trades' house of this 
city, who, with that attachment to our great 
Reformers, for which they are distinguished, 
were ready to have granted a much higher aid 
than that which was solicited. A similar 
spirit, I must add, pervaded the various incor- 
porations. But who were to take charge of 
subscription papers, and submit to the irksome 
task of application to their fellow-citizens ? 
Money, it is said, is the sinews of war, and it 
Avas equally essential for our object : the same 
good spirit removed also this difficulty. We 
had only to furnish the subscription papers. 
The gentlemen asked to take charge of them, 
gave a cheerful assent ; and with a zeal and 
activity, which I can never forget, fulfilled 
their important but laborious undertaking. 
And I rejoice to think, their task was often 
lightened by voluntary proffers of service, in 
the course of their duty. Their names, though 
too numerous to be specified, will always be 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



liii 



remembere 1 with honour by those who take an 
interest in the monument to Knox. Jn the 
committee of management, appointed by the 
subscribers, the same interest and zeal for the 
cause, seemed to animate every member. M r 
Mathie being cho9en secretary, fulfilled the 
duties of that office, with that attention and 
kindness, which, on many such occasions he dis- 
plays ; and I need scarcely mention, that the 
duties of treasurei', with all their labour and 
trouble, were performed in a manner peculiarly 
calculated to promote our design, when I re- 
mind you, that they were undertaken by him, 
who is so honourably distinguished, as has been 
observed, by the name of " the Protestant." 
Of the members of the superintending com- 
mittee, I ean scarcely say too much. When I 
mention the names of Mr Ewing, Mr Cleland, 
Mr Rodger, and Mr Hopkirk, gentlemen so 
well known for their knowledge and good 
judgment in matters of this nature, and for the 
diligence and ability with which they perform 
every office which they undertake ; I do enough 
to give confidence to the subscribers, both in 
regard to what has been done, and in regard 
to what remains to be accomplished. But 
I may farther venture to say, that their at- 
tention on this occasion, has never been sur- 
passed, seldom equalled, even by themselves. 
Never did men unite to the furtherance of any 
midertaking, who acted with more zeal and 
unanimity. I mean not unanimity always in 
opinion ; but what was far better, unanimity of 
spirit. We gave openly and candidly, our dif- 
ferent sentiments on every subject, and cheer- 
fully acquiesced in the same measure, which, 
after deliberation, seemed to be the best. On 
the precise spot in the park, for the site of the 
monument, there were three different opinions ; 
and we agreed to refer the decision to Mr 
Hamilton, the architect.* He, with that 
friendliness which has marked all his conduct, 
travelled from Edinburgh for the purpose ; and 
decided for that noble situation on which the 
monument is now erecting — and I must ac- 
knowledge, that though it requires some time 
to break up the associations which our imagina- 
tions connect with a particular idea, I am now 
convinced that he decided justly, and that he I 
and a member of the committee was right, and 
I was wrong.— (Hear, hear.) 

I would act unjustly to Mr Cleland, did I ' 
not add, that besides discharging with his ac- 
customed zeal and attention, his duties in com- 
mon with the other members of the sub-com- 
mittee, he rendered other most important ser- 
vices of a peculiar kind; and services which 



*}Ir Hamilton confirmed Mr Roda-cr's opinion. 



led to a degree of labour and trouble, which 
would have been counted singular in any per- 
son but himself to have undergone — and all this 
performed with such ungrudging rea i 
as doubly enhanced the value of the favour. 
Indeed, it seems almost peculiar to that gentle- 
man, that the more you ask him to do for the 
benefit, either of the public, or of individuals, 
the more pleasure you seem to give him. (Hea;-, 
hear. ) With the obligations which we owe to 
Mr Hamilton, the architect, who gratuitously 
presented to us the design of the monument, 
you are already acquainted — and I have only 
to add, that the same spirit has animated him 
to the present moment, and led him not only to 
come to Glasgow formerly, as I have noticed, 
but also this day to favour us with his presence. 
(Hear, hear, hear.) The ability also, with 
which Mr Herbertson executed the working 
plans, and his liberality in giving these gratui- 
tously, with his valuable services in superin- 
tending the building, deserve our particular 
acknowledgments. I have still to call your at- 
tention to a very difficult part of our design, the 
designing and modelling the statue. And I 
am sure all this company will join with me in 
thinking, that Mr Warren, some of w T hose 
works are now before you,* has done himself 
much honour in the manner in which he has 
copied the face, and conceived and executed the 
figure and expression of the great Reformer. 
Indeed, it is but justice to him, to mention, 
that on every occasion he has displayed not 
only great talents as an artist, but the ardour 
and the earnestness of a friend deeply interested 
in the object, and zealous to promote its suc- 
cess. I have the pleasure to dd, that Mr 
Forrest has, on every occasion, displayed the 
same excellent feeling. He is already well 
known to the public, as a statuary, in works of 
great merit, and we have the fullest confidence, 
that the work which he has now undertaken, 
and to which he has liberally subscribed, will 
add to his growing reputation. With the con- 
tractor also, we have the highest reason to be 
satisfied, and every circumstance seems to com- 
bine in assuring us, that the work will meet 
with the public approbation. 

Mr Chairman, let me not be thought tedious 
in this particularity of statements — this is a day 
for pleasing recollections and expressions of 
satisfaction. In all undertakings of this nature, 
occurrences must be expected not agreeable to 
our feelings ; but as few of these on this occa- 
sion have taken place, sc, many of the most 
pleasing kind, have in every quarter appeared. 
Among these, I should be wanting in every 



* A portrait of Knox and design of the monument 
wern hung- up in the hall. 



liv 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



good feeling, if I omitted to mention, and with 
sentiments of no ordinary pleasure, the gener- 
ous offer of my friend and townsman, Mr 
May, who asked to be permitted to defray the 
whole expense of modelling and erecting the 
statue. (Loud cheering.) 

I proceed no farther in the enumeration of 
services. There are services which this day all 
must have felt, and which can neve be effaced 
from our minds, but which belong not to me 
to particularize.f Yet, in alluding to the 
events of* this day, I may be permitted just to 
notice the excellent spirit which everywhere 
seemed to pervade the vast multitudes who 
were assembled. Seldom has such a numerous 
assemblage been seen in this city : yet through- 
out the whole, such order and regularity pre- 
vailed, as seemed to declare that every heart 
sympathized with our undertaking, and par- 
took of that pleasing, yet reverential feeling, 
which belonged to the occasion. The whole 
scene, with all its accompaniments and recol- 
lections, lead us to indulge the idea, that the 
citizens of Glasgow still retain much of the 
principles and spirit of our pious forefathers — 
that attachment to them, deeply seated, lies 
near to the heart of the people of Scotland, and 
requires only to be fostered and encouraged, to 
manifest itself in all the life and vigour of for- 
mer days. (Cheers.) Mr Chairman, it is to 
foster this spirit with all that piety and noble 
integrity of character which has distinguished 
our country, that the foundation stone of a 
monument to Knox has been laid. Past events, 
with all their associations, are by such means, 
indelibly impressed on the mind, kept present 
to the imagination, affect our hearts, and draw 
forth our feelings. They become the subject 
of our thoughts, our discourses, and our associ- 
ations from the earliest years, awaken kindred 
emotions, and powerfully tend to influence and 
form the character of every people. 

But, Mr Chairman, it has been said that 
Glasgow has no particular concern in this ob- 
ject, that it belonged more to other places, 
where the erection of a monument would have 
been more appropriate. It may be so: but a 
long time had elapsed, and in these places no- 
thing had been proposed. Knox, too, it is to be 
remembered, is the common property of the 
people of Scotland : and what we are doing, 
need not interfere with the intentions of others 
who desire to show their respect and gratitude 
to our great Reformer. We shall be happy to 
see Perth and Edinburgh raising monuments 
to his honour — and it would give us particular 
pleasure if my friend, Dr Chalmers, would also 



f Dr Chalmers' sermon, &c. 



get one erected in St Andrews. (Much laugh- 
ter. ) But in truth, Glasgow has also its pecu- 
liar claims as well as they. From the matricu- 
lation books of the college of Glasgow, the 
name of John Knox is registered in the year 
1520, a year corresponding to the time when 
Knox would be commencing his university 
education. His relations also belonged to the 
neighbourhood ; and in a parish not far distant, 
is the property from which the family name of 
Knox is taken. The west of Scotland, of 
which Glasgow is the capital, has long been 
distinguished for its attachment to the prin- 
ciples of the Reformation. So early as the 
reign of James the IV. thirty persons, under 
the name of Lollards, belonging to Kyle, a dis- 
trict in Ayrshire, were accused of holding prin- 
ciples similar to those of Protestants. And hence 
Kyle was denominated by Knox, " an old recep- 
tacle of the servants of God." When Knox ? 
after his banishment, returned to Scotland, this 
part of the country was a principal scene of his 
labours. He dispensed the Lord's supper at 
several times in this part of the country, and 
amongst other places in Finlayston, the seat of 
the celebrated Glencairn — and to this day, in 
the parish to which it belongs, the silver cups 
which he used on that sacred occasion, are still 
preserved, and are employed in the celebration 
of that solemn ordinance. Nor is it necessary 
to remind any person acquainted with the his- 
tory of their country of the prominent part 
which was taken by the citizens of Glasgow, 
in those great events, on which depended the 
success of the Reformation. 

Mr Chairman, the names of our great Re- 
formers have been too long clouded by igno- 
rance and calumny. Men who were honoured 
in their day, and reverenced by the greatest 
men in Europe — the friends of Calvin and of 
the first reformers of England — have, from cir- 
cumstances connected with the history of this 
nation, been thrown into the shade ; and often 
from the base subserviency, ignorance, and ir- 
religion of authors who had succeeded to those 
of former days, been basely misrepresented. 
And is it not to be feared, that in every age 
also there is some insensibility, some deficiency 
in the estimate even on worldly principles, of 
the high worth and importance of those great 
benefactors, not only of their country, but of 
their race, who at the expense of life and com- 
fort, maintained the cause of religion, and have 
wrought a moral and spiritual change on the 
principles and character of men? 

" Patriots have toil'd, and in their country's cause 
Bled nobly ; and their deeds, as they deserve, 
Receive proud recompense. We give in charge 
Their names to the sweet lyre. Th' historic muse 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



lv 



Proud of the treasure, inarches with it down 

To latest times ; and sculpture, in her turn, 

Gives bond in stone and ever-during brass 

To guard them, and t' immortalize her trust : 

But fairer wreaths are due, though never paid, 

To those who, posted at the shrine of truth, 

Have fallen in her defence. A patriot's blood 

Well spent in such a strife may earn indeed, 

And for a time ensure, to his loved land 

The sweets of liberty and equal laws ; 

But martyrs struggle for a brighter prize, 

And win it with more pain. Their blood is shed 

In confirmation of the noblest claim, 

Our claim to feed upon immortal truth, 

To walk with God, to be divinely free, 

To soar, and to anticipate the skies. 

Yet few remember them. They liv'd unknown 

Till persecution dragg'd them into fame, 

And chased them up to Heaven. Their ashes flew 

— No marble tells us whither. With their names 

No bard embalms and sanctifies his song : 

And history, so warm on meaner themes, 

Is cold on this. She execrates, indeed, 

The tyranny that doomed them to the fire, 

But gives the glorious suffrers little praise." 

But better days are beginning to arise ; and 
poets and historians begin to manifest a nobler 
spirit. And among these, must it not delight 
us to remember a native of our own beloved 
city, and the friend of some of us in early life, 
who in his Sabbath and Birds of Scotland,* 
has in strains of feeling, honourable to himself 
and worthy of his subject, celebrated the names 
of our great and suffering forefathers. Nor 
can I omit mentioning with respect and regard, 
the author of the Poor Man's Sabbath, and 
the Peasant's Death, f also a citizen of Glas- 
gow, who with sympathetic feelings, has affect- 
in^ly described those venerable customs which 
long characterised our country, and amongst all 
our changes still linger round the heart and 
home of many a Scotsman. And among the 
historians of our day, need I mention more than 
one distinguished name — himself a host — with 
him I conclude : nor can 1 leave on your minds 
a subject of thought more pleasing or more ap - 
propriate. You have already, I am persuaded, 
anticipated my intention — and therefore, with- 
out enlarging on the merits of a name which 
carries with it its own eulogium, 

1 beg leave to give the health of Dr Thomas 
M'Crie,^ the celebrated author of the Life of 
Knox. This toast was received with rapturous 
approbation. 

The chairman then said, that he was confi- 
dent the toast he was about to give, would be 
received with the utmost pleasure and satisfac- 



* The late James Grahame, Esq.— Ed. 
t Mr John Struthers.— Ed. 
t It was with sincere regret that the committee re- 
ceived information fromDr M'Crie, that he was prevent- 
ed by severe indisposition from attending the meeting. 



tion by the company. The gentleman to whom 
he alluded, had, unfortunately for us, left this 
city as a residence, but he continued to pay us 
a visit occasionally, and thereby afford us an 
additional reason to love and respect him. He 
had that day given us a great additional ex- 
citement to admire his great talents. 

He begged to give the health of Dr Chalmers, 
and thanks for his excellent and eloquent ser- 
mon. This toast was also received with raptu- 
rous applause. 

Dr Chalmers then rose amid the applause of 
the meeting. Pie was inaudible for some time. 
He said when the spirit of commercial enter- 
prise is awakened, it takes the direction of 
either foreign or domestic, according to circum- 
stances. If the demand at home was exten- 
sive, the foreign trade was less arduously pur- 
sued, and if the domestic markets were glutted, 
the produce sought vent in those quarters 
which were less abundantly supplied. It was 
the same with regard to religious matters. It 
had been objected to the Scottish Reformers, 
that they did less than others for the spread of 
religion abroad, but the reason appeared to him 
sufficiently obvious ; they had enough to do at 
home. (Cheers.) These reflections were sug- 
gested by the toast which had been put into his 
hands; viz: — the prevalence of true religion 
over all the world. One peculiarity of our re- 
ligion was this, that it was equally fitted for 
the enlightened and free, and the dark and de- 
solate places of the globe. He had the greatest 
difficulty on his own mind to account for the 
repugnance to missions which existed in some 
intelligent minds. (Loud cheering.) He that 
had an antipathy at missions, had an anti- 
pathy at motion ; for the establishment of mis- 
sionaries was only setting religion in motion. 
They spread abroad the word of God, and 
made the Bible the school-book in their semi- 
naries. This was the same apparatus which 
had been brought to bear upon the people of 
Scotland, by our early Reformers, and would 
produce the same salutary effects in foreign 
lands. He thought it peculiarly appropriate, 
while met in honour of a man who had done 
so much for the christianization of Scotland, to 
wish prosperity to those who were performing 
this necessary service in other parts of the 
world. Missionaries had caused the moral 
creation to flourish, and have spread reason and 
religion in many a heathen land. Christian 
villages were now to be seen springing up in 
pagan countries ; and children, whose parents 
were uncultivated savages prowling in the 
desert, are now taught all the education of 
christian countries, and are enjoying all the 
comforts and decencies of civilized life. (Loud 
and continued cheering.) The warfare of mis- 



Ivi 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



sionaries was perhaps not so severe as that in 
which Knox was engaged ; but they fought in 
the same glorious cause. He was sorry he had 
a complaint to make against his dear and ex- 
cellent friend, Mr Cleland : he had saddled him 
with two toasts, and probably expected that he 
would make two speeches. (Loud laughter.) 
He appealed from him to the good nature of the 
company. He had certainly not made a very 
long speech after dinner, but perhaps he had 
made rather a long one before it. The learned 
Professor then took occasion to pronounce a 
well merited eulogium on the character of Mr 
Cleland. He observed, that among the whole 
range of his acquaintances, he did not know an 
individual who contributed so much to the 
pleasure and happiness of those around him, 
or one gentleman who was possessed of such 
varied and useful accomplishments. (Loud and 
continued cheering. ) After a few remarks, Dr 
Chalmers gave as a toast — 

" The prevalence of true religion in every 
quarter of the world." This toast was received 
with the greatest approbation. The Rev. Dr 
sat down amid thundering applause. 

The chairman then gave the health of the 
venerable Dr Burns, who had been more than 
half a century minister of the parish in which 
he — the chairman — was born and brought up, 
and was now what is technically termed the 
father of the synod of Glasgow and Ayr. He 
need not tell this company, that the popularity 
of that excellent man has kept pace with his 
years — that notwithstanding his great age, he 
has been enabled regularly and faithfully to 
do his duty. We have this day witnessed the 
vigour of his body and mind, in the perfor- 
mance of the important duties assigned to 
him. This toast was received with great ap- 
probation. 

Dr Burns rose and said — Mr Chairman, I 
return my most grateful thanks to you and to 
this highly respectable company, for the honour 
you have done me in drinking my health. 
(Cheers.) Since 1 was first able to attend to 
the history of our country, and could estimate 
the value of civil and religious liberty, I have 
contemplated with admiration the character of 
John Knox, to whom this country is deeply 
indebted for a great part of our civil and reli- 
gious privileges. (Loud cheers.) He was a man 
raised up by Divine Providence, and singularly 
qualified for the lot assigned him. Animated 
by sincere love to God, zeal for pure and unde- 
filed religion, and generous concern for the pre- 
sent and eternal welfare of men, his strong and 
vigorous mind steadily and successfully pur- 
sued these great objects through life. While he 
lived, however, he had constantly to struggle 
with ignorance, irreligion, and tyranny — .and 



after his death his memory was partially over- 
whelmed for a time, with obloquy and misre - 
presentation, by the slaves of superstition and 
tyranny. It is now better known and more 
justly appreciated. I rejoice that an honour- 
able monument is now to be erected to the me- 
mory of that great and good man, and that, in 
the evening of my days, I have the happiness 
to see this patriotic undertaking begun. I re- 
joice that this city has the honour to be the first 
to erect such a monument — and, Sir, it is no 
small gratification to me, as, I dare say, it is 
also to you, that it is erected in the full view of 
our cathedral. (Loud cheering.) It is also in a 
most conspicuous place of the Barony parish 
of Glasgow, in which you first drew your 
breath, and with which I have been officially 
connected for about fifty-five years. The Rev. 
Dr sat down amid loud cheers. 

The next toast was — " Our venerable es- 
tablishment, the church of Scotland." 

The Rev. Patrick M'Farlane, minister of St 
John's church, rose and spoke as follows : — 

I wish it had fallen into abler hands to re- 
turn thanks to you and to this meeting, for the 
honour now done to the church of which I am 
a member, in proposing it as a toast, and for 
the cordial and enthusiastic reception which 
that toast has obtained. I am sure it can be no 
affectation of humility in me to say, that there 
are individuals present, who are far better 
qualified to return thanks on such an occa- 
sion, than I can profess to be ; but sure I am, 
that there is not one in this company, who en- 
tertains a more sincere and devoted attachment 
to the church of Scotland, and the institutions 
connected with it, than do I, nor one who ap- 
preciates more highly the honour which you 
have now conferred upon them. (Cheers.) 

I have heard, Sir, that the gentlemen en- 
gaged in soliciting subscriptions for the monu- 
ment to Knox, received for answer, from some 
persons whose names 1 know not, that they 
saAV no necessity for erecting a monument to 
our great Reformer, because he had already a 
sufficient memorial in the state of the country, 
and in the gratitude and affection of the people 
of Scotland. I do not intend to disturb the 
harmony and good humour of this meeting, by 
entering into controversy with the individuals 
referred to — none of them, of course, are pre- 
sent, and though they were, it is not probable 
that they would be much influenced by any ar- 
guments which I might be inclined to employ 
upon this subject. I cannot, however, abstain 
from remarking, that the feeling which leads 
to the erection of such a monument as that 
which has been this day so auspiciously com- 
menced, is the same in kind, with that which 
has led to the erection of statues, obelisks, or 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



Ivii 



other memorials to Pitt, and Moore, and Nel- 
son, and James Watt. It is because Knox has 
a monument in the condition of the country, 
and in the gratitude and veneration of his coun- 
trymen, that we began this day to rear the 
stately column, which is to lend its aid in per- 
petuating his memory — we wish to make it 
visible to the world, that he yet lives in the 
hearts of this people, and to express towards 
him when dead, that respect and affection which 
he so justly received when alive. But I have 
mentioned the circumstance which has now 
been adverted to for expressing my hearty 
acquiescence in the sentiment, that John Knox 
has his best, and, I would fondly hope, his most 
imperishable monument in the present con- 
dition of Scotland, and in the respect and gra- 
titude of its inhabitants, above all, in the church 
of Scotland, that religious establishment to 
which, without overweening pride or extrava- 
gant pretensions, I may say with truth, this 
country is chiefly indebted, under providence, 
for its prosperity and distinguished pre-emi- 
nence in every respect. ( Cheers. ) It was found- 
ed by the great man whose name we are en- 
gaged in commemorating — it was fostered by his 
care ; and, by the blessing of the Almighty, on 
the vigilance and unremitting exertions of his 
successors in the ministerial office, it has grown 
up amidst many storms and dangers, to be the 
goodly edifice which we now behold, and to 
which we may justly express our attachment. 
(Hear, hear, hear.) If the church of Scotland 
shall adhere to the principles of its founder— if 
she shall continue to hold the principle, that 
the sacred scriptures are the only infallible rule 
of faith and manners — if her clergy in their 
public and private ministrations draw all their 
instructions, whether relating to doctrine or 
moral precepts, from that pure and uncontami- 
nated source — if our discipline and form of 
worship be preserved inviolate, and continue to 
experience the protection of our ecclesiastical 
judicatories, and if the several office-bearers in 
the church devote themselves with singleness 
of heart to their respective duties, the church 
will deserve to receive those expressions of at- 
tachment which have this day been given, and 
will continue to receive them. (Loud cheering. ) 
But if ever the period should arrive, when it 
shall be deprived of its glory in these respects — 
if our standards shall cease to be the pure scrip • 
tural standards, which they now are — if eccle- 
siastical discipline shall be neglected, and our 
forms of worship shall lo^e their ancient sim- 
plicity — if the ministers of the church of Scot- 
land cease to preach, and earnestly to enforce 
the doctrines of the Reformation — if they cast 
away the sanctity of their character, and per- 
mit themselves to be secularized, and abstracted 



from their proper duties, by the occupations of 
other professions — if they do' not watch with 
unwearied solicitude over the interests of re- 
ligion, and especially, over the education of the 
young — if their character and conduct be such 
that they cannot look at the monument to 
Knox, without blushing or having cause to 
blush, then the church will fall, and will de- 
serve to fall, in the estimation of Scotland, and 
of the world. (Loud and continued cheering.) 
I trust, however, that the period is very far 
distant, when this shall be the state of our re- 
ligious establishment, and that it may continue 
to exist for many generations, one of heaven's 
best blessings to our land. — (Loud and con- 
tinued cheering. ) 

1 have to propose a toast intimately connected 
with the business of this day ; but I feel myself 
incapable of doing justice to it, in consequence 
of having been prevented by particular circum- 
stances, from reviving any historical recollec- 
tions of the individual to whom the toast refers. 
You are aware that the cause of the Reforma- 
tion in this country, was greatly promoted by 
the zealous and successful efforts of many great 
and learned men on the contiuent, for the ac- 
complishment of the same interesting object. 
The contemporaries and successors of Luther, 
whilst they fed the lamp of truth in their own 
lands, and made it burn there with a brighter 
flame, were unconsciously the means of en- 
couraging their protestant brethren, in countries 
far distant from the sphere of their enlightened 
and ardent exertions. Calvin was surpassed 
by none as a useful and efficient labourer in 
this great cause. In the early part of his life 
he was engaged in the study of law ; but, hav- 
ing been brought to the knowledge and belief of 
divine truth, and entertaining an eager desire 
to promote the interests of the Reformation, he 
renounced the profession to which he at first 
intended to devote himself, and some time there- 
after, became minister and professor of theolo- 
gy in Geneva. He studied so hard, and with 
so much success, that at the age of twenty-two, 
he was esteemed by some of his contemporaries 
as the most learned man in Europe. (Hear, 
hear.) His great aim in his writings, was to 
expose the absurd and pernicious fooleries of 
the popish religion, and to demonstrate from 
the scriptures what true Christianity is — he 
made scripture to be the interpreter of scrip- 
ture, and was one of those great men who res- 
cued the minds and consciences of their fellow- 
creatures from the fetters of papal tyranny and 
priestly domination, and, whilst they encour- 
aged them to judge for themselves on all mat- 
ters connected with religion, convinced them, 
by the force of argument and scripture autho- 
rity, of the truth and importance of the doc- 
h 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



lviii 

trine which it was their endeavour to incul- 
cate. (Loud cheering.) Calvin's Institutes is a 
work which alone will render him immortal ; 
it is distinguished for the purity of its Latin, 
and not less so for the profound and compre- 
hensive views which it gives of the Christian 
system, and for the distinctness and simplicity 
with which it is written. Commentaries on 
scripture, were a species of composition to 
which the Reformers attached much impor- 
tance, as the means of expelling the errors of 
popery, and diffusing the knowledge of divine 
truth. Calvin's labours in this department are 
very numerous, and do equal credit to hisacute- 
ness and penetration, the soundness of his 
judgment, and his talent for a clear and lucid 
exposition of the writings of the sacred penmen. 

The personal character of Calvin was irre- 
proachable ; his piety was ardent and sincere ; 
and his dispositions were amiable and affec- 
tionate. His errors were the errors of the 
times in which he lived ; he had not come down 
to the antiquity of Protestantism ; and on the 
subject of toleration, he improperly applied the 
principles of the Jewish theocracy, as the other 
reformers did, to the times of the Christian dis- 
pensation. John Knox was driven by the per- 
secuting violence of his countrymen to take re- 
fuge in Geneva. He had previously imbibed 
the sentiments of the reformers, and from the 
study of the scriptures, and what we conceive 
to be a just apprehension of the genius of Chris- 
tianity, had become attached to the presbyte- 
rian forms of worship and church government. 
We need not be surprised that Calvin, whose 
sentiments on these subjects so nearly coincided 
with his own, received him with open arms, 
and that these great and learned men contracted 
for one another a strong mutual attachment, 
and maintained a friendly correspondence which 
terminated only with their lives. Knox offi- 
ciated for about two years as pastor to a congre- 
gation of English protestants at Geneva, and 
after his return to Scotland, had frequent com- 
munications with Calvin on subjects connected 
with the cause of protestantism in general, and 
more especially with the prosperity of the 
church of Scotland; and, although Knox did 
not derive his plan of the constitution of that 
church from the Genevese reformer, as has been 
erroneously supposed, we can have no doubt 
that his co-operation and advice were of no 
small advantage to him in the prosecution of 
the work in which he was engaged. When I 
have stated these facts, when 1 have reminded 
you of the piety, and zeal, and talents, and 
learning of Calvin, of his co-operation with 
Knox in the cause of the Reformation, and of 
their mutual and steadv friendship, 1 have, I 



trust, made good my claim on this company, to 
drink — 

To the memory of Calvin the friend of Knox. 
Mr M'Farlane sat down amid loud and con- 
tinued cheering. 

The chairman then gave as a toast — " The 
secession and dissenting clmrches of Scotland." 

Dr Dick — professor of theology in Glasgow, 
for the secession church, — returned thanks to 
the chairman, and the gentlemen present, for 
the honour which they had done to the church 
of which he is a member, and to the other 
bodies of dissenters in Scotland ; and remarked 
that the toast was a proof of the liberality of 
the present times, when men look upon one 
another with a friendly eye, although they do 
not assemble in the same places of worship. 
The people of this country entertain different 
sentiments respecting some points of religion, 
and this is the consequence of a difference in 
the constitution of their minds, their modes of 
education, and their early associations, and cf 
other causes which insensibly influence our in- 
tellectual operations; so that it is as vain to 
expect that there shall be a perfect uniformity 
of opinion, about matters which do not admit 
of strict demonstration, as that all faces shall 
exhibit the same form and disposition of the 
features. (Loud cheers. ) — But if we agree in the 
great articles of the Christian Faith, we ought 
to bear with one another, not ceasing to avow 
what we conceive to be true, but maintaining 
it in the spirit of charity, without any feeling 
of contempt or hatred towards those who dis- 
sent from us : for why should I despise the 
man who has not, as it appears to me, been 
equally successful as myself in the investigation 
of truth ! — or why should I become his enemy, 
because he claims the right which I also claim, to 
obey the dictates of conscience! (Cheers.) — 
With regard even to those who have adopted 
the grossest errors, and may be pronounced to 
be corrupters of the truth, the strong disappro- 
bation which their conduct justifies, should be 
mingled with pity ; and pity, we all know, is 
allied to love, and is a modification of benevo- 
lence. (Great cheering.) — But although we 
differ in some points, there are others of greater 
importance in which we are agreed ; and, on this 
occasion, we have met, without the usual dis- 
tinction of churchmen and dissenters, to pro- 
fess our common attachment to the principles 
of the Reformation, and our veneration for the 
illustrious man, who acted so conspicuous a part 
in the great religious revolution of our country. 
We regard him as the enlightened, zealous, and 
intrepid champion of the truth : we look up to 
him as one of the best benefactors of his coun- 
try, who has not only left an imperishable 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



name among men, but is now enjoying the re- 
ward of his labours, in that blessed region, 
where the storms of persecution never blow, 
and the voice of calumny is never heard. (Loud 
cheers.) — But we sh;ill not honour him as we 
ought, and as he, if he were permitted to look 
down upon our assembly, should wish to be 
honoured, unless we consider him merely as the 
instrument of Providence, in delivering us from 
a worse bondage than that of Egypt ; for our 
saints do not, like those of the Roman calendar, 
stand between us and the most high God to inter- 
cept our homage, but say with one voice, like the 
angel in the Revelation, when John had fallen 
down at his feet to worship him, — " See ye do 
it not; give glory to God." (Great cheering.) — 
And let me add, that in vain do we celebrate 
the memory of Knox, if we do not duly appre- 
ciate, and firmly maintain the religious prin- 
ciples, which, through the divine blessing, he 
established in our country ; not because they 
were taught by him, but because they are con- 
sonant to the scriptures of truth, and exhibit 
the only foundation of human hope, the only 
source of consolation, and the only rule to regu- 
late our conduct towards God and towards 
man. — The religion of Protestants is the reli- 
gion of the Bible. (Loud and continued cheers. ) 
— The transactions of this day, Sir, will, 1 
trust, have the effect to revive our zeal, to make 
us more deeply sensible of the blessings of the 
Reformation, and to excite us to watch over 
them with jealous care, as a sacred trust, to be 
handed down to succeeding generations. It is 
to be feared, that not a few Protestants do not 
feel that cordial affection for their religion, 
and give it that decided preference to which it 
is entitled. What can we think when we hear 
some of them telling us, that all religions are 
equally good, — that popery is merely a modifi- 
cation of our common religion, — that papists 
differ from us only in some idle ceremonies, 
which might well be dispensed with — and that 
popery is gradually losing its worst features, 
and is approximating nearer to the truth ? Is 
this the language of sincere and enlightened 
Protestants? Popery is an infallible religion, 
and cannot be improved; the moment it should 
admit of improvement, it would become felo de 
se, (laughter and cheers) — it would drop its 
lofty claims to implicit submission; its decrees 
Avould no longer be oracles ; and every man 
would be at liberty to appeal from its decisions 
to the standard of scripture. But this, Ave 
are all aware, would be a death-blow to popery. 
Let Protestants plead, if they will, for the tole- 
ration of papists; let them plead for the con- 
cession of political power to them, if they deem 
it consistent with the public safety; but let 
them not, with a view to strengthen their argu- 



ment, proceed to palliate the evils of their re- 
ligion, and to conceal its hideous deformities 
with the varnish of a spurious liberality. ( Loud 
cheering.) The church of Rome is, at this jno • 
ment, the same in principle and spirit that she 
always was, and if any man should doubt this 
assertion, I would refer him to the disgusting 
scenes of bigotry and violence lately exhibited 
in Ireland, to say nothing of Catholic countries 
abroad ; and what the church of Rome now is, 
she will continue to be, till the awful hour, 
when the voice shall be heard, " Babylon the 
great is fallen, is fallen, and shall arise no 
more." Let us pity the blinded followers of 
Antichrist, and pray that their eyes may be 
opened ; but let us not forget, that the scrip- 
tures make use of every term of detestation and 
abhorrence in describing their religion ; let us 
be alive to the evils of a system, which, at once, 
dishonours God and ruins the best interests of 
man; and let us, whether churchmen or dis- 
senters, unite in the defence of our own reli- 
gion, for which our fathers nobly contended. — 
(Cheers.) When they came forward to vindi- 
cate our Christian liberty, they had to encoun- 
ter a domineering and intolerant priesthood, 
and a government which was too ready to lend 
its aid to uphold the reigning superstition. 
They suffered in the cause, and some of them 
sealed their testimony with their blood. Their 
relics have not been preserved : when persecu- 
tion chased their spirits up to heaven, their 
ashes Avere scattered by the wind. But we 
feel how deeply Ave are indebted to them, and 
their names awaken in our bosoms sentiments 
of admiration and gratitude. May the memory 
of their Christian heroism excite us to tread in 
their steps. The learned doctor concluded, 
amid great cheering, by proposing — 

The memory of Hamilton and Wishart, the 
early martyrs of Scotland. 

The chairman gave — 

The duke of Hamilton, lord lieutenant of the 
county. 

The lord provost and magistrates of the 
city. 

Baillie Hood, in absence of the lord provost, 
said, I beg leave to return thanks to this very 
respectable meeting, for the honour they have 
done the magistrates in drinking their health. 
For myself I feel proud in having my name as- 
sociated with the contributors to the monu- 
ment of the great Scottish Reformer, John 
Knox, and shall have great pleasure in giving 
every assistance in my poAver, to forward such 
a praiseworthy undertaking. (Loud cheering.) 
Surrounded as I am by so many learned friends, 
1 shall not waste the time of the meeting in a 
formal speech, (hear, hear,) and therefore beg 
leave to propose as a toast — 



lx 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



The subscribers to the monument of John 
Knox. 

The chairman gave — 

Lord Archibald Hamilton, member for the 
county. 

Mr Campbell of Blythswood, member for the 
city. 

Mr Robinson, sheriff of the county. 

The Reverend the clergy of Glasgow. 

The Rev. Dr Dewar, minister of St Mary's, 
returned thanks, and said, — It does not become 
me to say any thing concerning the present 
ministers of this city ; but I may be allowed to 
remark, that the clergy of Glasgow have gene- 
rally been, in point of talents, piety, and learn- 
ing, worthy of ministering in that church of 
which the great Scottish Reformer is the 
founder. 

The toast which I am about to propose, re- 
lates to the interests of the northern part of the 
island, to which the influence of that great 
man, whose name every Scotsman must ever 
pronounce with feelings of gratitude and admi- 
ration, extended, soon after it was felt in the 
southern districts. That influence, it is true, 
was not sufficiently powerful to prevent the 
Highland host descending from the hills to the 
support of a despotic and profligate govern- 
ment ; but it gradually, though somewhat cir- 
cuitously, reached, impressed, and improved the 
olans. (Cheers.) 

Yet, it cannot be denied, that the Reforma- 
tion in the Highlands of Scotland was accom- 
panied with circumstances unfavourable to the 
religious improvement of the inhabitants. In 
consequence of the nobles appropriating to their 
own use, the lands and revenues of the church, 
the ministers of the Reformation were left in 
great poverty ; and in order to procure even a 
slender maintenance, it was found necessary to 
utiite several parishes into one. Thus, in many 
cases, was committed to the pastoral care of one 
individual, a population which had formerly 
enjoyed the services of five or six clergymen ; 
and an evil of great magnitude, which had its 
origin in circumstances of peculiar difficulty, 
has been continued till the present time. (Hear, 
hear.) In numerous districts in the High- 
lands have the people for ages been almost en- 
tirely secluded from the means of grace and of 
religious improvement ; and are still allowed to 
remain in circumstances, the existence of which 
every real Christian must deplore, and which 
is highly discreditable to this great, wealthy, 
and Protestant empire. I trust the day is at 
hand when this evil shall be removed ; when 
in those regions in which there has not been 
seen for centuries an edifice for the worship of 
Almighty God, the inhabitants will be amply 
supplied with the means of religious instruc- 



tion and consolation ; and when the light of the 
glorious gospel will shine with all its warmth 
and brightness, not on the summits of the 
mountains merely, but into the deepest glens of 
the north. (Loud and continued cheering. ) 

Notwithstanding these adverse circumstances, 
the Reformation from popery conferred, at an 
early period, the greatest blessings on the High- 
lands. To be satisfied of this, we have only to 
compare the decency, order, and morality of its 
inhabitants, with the circumstances and charac- 
ter of the Irish. There is within the view of 
some of our mountains, and within a few 
miles of our dwelling places, a country still 
finer than our own, whose people are probably 
our kinsmen, and certainly our neighbours, 
richly gifted with every mental endowment, 
and yet have been left in the grossest ignorance, 
subjugated by papal and antichristian impos- 
ture, and in the great majority of cases, with- 
out even the power of reading the word of God. 
(Hear, hear, hear.) That unfortunate country 
is, at the present day, nearly in the same con- 
dition in which our own Reformers, Hamilton, 
Knox, and Melville, found Scotland. The 
same superstition which had spread its igno- 
rance and delusion over our land, — which had 
so inveterate a hold on the affections of the 
people, as to render the task of making them 
free, so apparently hopeless, — and which re- 
quired, to root it out, the labour and the blood of 
multitudes of whom the world was not worthy ; 
— this superstition is luxuriating over the fair 
fields of our sister isle, and laying prostrate its 
generous and warm hearted inhabitants. 

Of the instruments that have conveyed the 
blessings of the Reformation to the Highlands 
of Scotland, the society for propagating Chris- 
tian knowledge is the chief. The field of their 
labour is naturally and deeply interesting to the 
poet, the philosopher, and the Christian philan- 
thropist. The people whom it has been their 
unwearied endeavour to benefit, peculiar in their 
language, in their habits, in their mountain 
scenery, and in the liveliness of their feelings, 
present much to the eye of contemplation, cal ■ 
culated to interest a mind of sensibility and 
benevolence in their favour. To lead this 
people to the knowledge and enjoyment of their 
highest good, by diffusing the light of heavenly 
truth, is the great object which this society, 
during nearly a hundred and twenty years, has 
laboured to promote. (Loud cheering. ) 

Since the first promulgation of Christianity, 
there has not been an institution in any land, 
founded upon purer principles, embracing ob- 
jects of deeper interest, both in regard to this 
world and the next, and conducted with greater 
wisdom, or, in proportion to its means, with 
greater actual usefulness, than the society in 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



Ixi 



Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge 
in the Highlands and Islands. If we give our 
praise and admiration to the Bible society, we 
cannot withhold it from an institution which 
was the first Bible society in our native land. 
If we are delighted with the Missionary socie- 
ties that are emulating each other in the work 
of evangelizing the heathen, we cannot but con 
template with feelings of the purest satisfaction, 
the Missionary society which was formed first, 
which for many years continued alone in this 
part of the island, and whose laborious and 
faithful missionaries, were publishing salvation 
to our own countrymen, and in foreign lands. 
The most distinguished for their piety and 
worth in the metropolis of our country, ranged 
tlremselves under its banners, and cherished the 
sp : rit of missionary enterprise, and gave scope 
to this spirit, in their unwearied efforts to ex- 
tend the kingdom of Christ at home and abroad. 
Their missionary Brainerd, eminently possessed 
it ; and the memorial of his devotedness and 
labours infused it into others, till it rested on 
Henry Martyn, whom it animated to endure 
sufferings and death in the same glorious cause. 
( Cheers. ) 

This society, by its numerous and meritorious 
teachers, has instructed successive generations 
of the young and the old in the Highlands and 
islands. Its schoolmasters have generally add- 
ed, to their ordinary duties, those of catechists 
and instructors, on the evening of the Lord's 
day. They annually educate, in the principles 
of pure and undenh d religion, nearly twenty 
thousand children. Many are the individuals, 
some of whom are far away from the glens of 
their youth, who now occupy honourable and 
useful stations in society, and who, but for the 
instructions they received from these faithful 
men, would have been lost to the community, 
and have probably remained in ignorance of all 
that man should be most deeply concerned to 
know. (Loud and continued cheering. ) 1 now 
beg leave to propose as a toast — 

" The society for propngating Christian 
knowledge." This toast was received with the 
greatest approbation. 

The chairman gave the health of the Bev. 
Sir Henry Moncrieff, Bart., one of the most 
distinguished and venerable names of the church 
of Scotland. This toast was received with 
great applause. 

Mr James Moncrieff, advocate, said, I con- 
fess that, in the course of this day, I have en- 
joyed so much, and such unmixed, pleasure as 
a listener, a pleasure which does not very often 
fall to my lot, except in those happy places 
Avhere one gentleman alone speaks, that I was 
in hopes I would have got through it in a state 
of agreeable dumbness. However, the toast 



calls on me for an acknowledgment. (Loud 
cheers.) — I consider it a very high honour in- 
deed, in a company such as this, met for such a 
purpose, to propose the name of a person to 
whom I am so closely allied. 1 am proud (if 
this honour, and justly proud of the venerable 
name he holds in the church of Scotland : I am 
also deeply sensible of the manner in which 
your feeling towards him has been expressed 
on the present occasion. (Loud cheering.) — 
Since I must speak, I trust you will forgive me 
for venturing to propose a toast, which I hope 
will not derange the order of your intended 
toasts. It was observed by my friend Dr 
M'Gill, that some might object to the monu- 
ment of which the foundation stone was this 
day laid, that there was no peculiar call on the 
citizens of Glasgow to make that expression of 
their sentiments. I am not one of those. My 
feeling is altogether different. I feel in the 
strongest manner that the citizens of Glasgow, 
have, in this measure, distinguished themselves 
in a very high degree, as persons who know 
how to reverence a name to which the country 
are so much indebted. They have done that, 
which has been too long omitted to be done. 
And none were better qualified to appreciate 
his merits, or better entitled to have the name 
of Knox associated with their city. It is a 
blot on the nation that so very long a period 
should have been suffered to elapse without 
something being done to the honour of so great 
a man. (Hear, hear.) A delusion had for a 
long time prevailed respecting his character. 
The effect of the malignant spirit of party, had 
extended, in a great degree, even to Scotland. 
Although the people generally revered the 
name of Knox, and from the older books in 
their hands, better understood his character : 
yet the prejudice against him seemed to become 
mere general and strong ; and it was beginning 
to be considered as allowed, that he was a 
coarse, illiterate, and barbarous kind of man. 
Indeed it was astonishing to see the ignorance 
that prevailed among per ons otherwise well 
informed ; and the vulgar stories which they 
retailed. Dr M'Crie has, with all who will 
read and think, removed these gross delusions. 
He has shown Knox to be what he was : a man 
of an enlarged and cultivated mind, skilled in 
all the philosophy and learning of his time, not 
only deeply acquainted with the great truths 
which it was his chief business and delight to 
teach and make known, but extensively ac- 
quainted with mankind, reverenced and con- 
sulted by the first men of his country and age, 
and possessing all the high feelings of a great 
and virtuous mind. We are much indebted to 
Dr M'Crie; and his book will be a lasting 
monument which will do honour to his own 



Ixii 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



name, as well as to the great man of whom he 
writes. (Loud and continued cheering.) But 
still there was wanting a public extension 
of reverence and gratitude, and one which 
should sensibly interest the public mind. The 
honour of doing this, — and 1 consider it to be 
a high honour, — belongs to the citizens of 
Glasgow and its neighbourhood, and there- 
fore 1 hope you will permit me to give as a 
toast — 

The city and the citizens of Glasgow, with 
all the honours. Mr Moncrieff sat down amid 
the cheering of the company. 

The Dean of Guild and the merchants' house, 
and thanks for their handsome site for the 
monument. 

Dean of Guild Dalglish rose and paid, — I 
thanl. you, Sir, for the honour you have just 
done to the merchants' house, and assure you 
that I feel much pleasure, that so splendid a 
monument has this d;iy been commenced in the 
merchants' park, in commemoration of an event 
so important in the history of our country. 
When the pillar is completed, the merchants of 
Glasgow will be its natural guardians. ( Cheers. ) 
I hope they will also ever continue to be the 
zealous supporters of the principles established 
at the Reformation. (Hear, hear.) 

I beg to propose the health of a gentleman to 
whom we are under great obligations on this, as 
we have been on many former occasions. That 
individual has gone the round of civic duties in 
our city, and at a period of much anxiety to all 
good men, discharged the office of chief magis- 
trate, with a firmness that gave protection, and 
a mildness that disarmed the disaffected. — 
(Loud cheering.) If improvements in our city, 
or aid to our benevolent institutions is required, 
or distress to be relieved, it is not with him 
matter of calculation how little he should give, 
but how much do you require; indeed he ap- 
pears to consider his fortune as held by him in 
trust for the public good. (Cheers.) Arrived 
at a period of life when most men would take 
their ease, he chooses to leave his splendid resi- 
dence, and attend to the interests of his country 
in parliament ; where, in addition to the busi- 
ness of his constituents, the public and private 
interests of the citizens of Glasgow have his 
unwearied attention. Without further com- 
ment, I beg leave to propose as a toast, — 

The health of the chairman, Mr Monteith of 
Carstairs. This toast was received with thun • 
dering apjdause. 

Mr Monteith said, that if ever he had it in 
his power to express his feelings, most certainly 
he was at that moment deprived of that power. 
But he felt what could not be expressed. The 
partiality of his excellent and good friend had 



led him to say i. great deal more in his favour 
than he deserved. Mr Monteith sat down amid 
great cheering. 

The convener and the trades' house, and 
thanks for their very liberal subscription. 

Convener M'Tyer, said — Permit me, Mr 
Chairman, to express my gratitude to you and 
to this company, for the honour you have done 
the trades' house. 1 do most cordially join in 
all that has been said regarding the benefits 
conferred on this country by the Reformation, 
and do sincerely believe, that our trade and 
commerce would not have attained their pre- 
sent height but for that event. But, Sir, let 
us recollect, that a work so great, could not be 
achieved by the single arm of the greatest pa- 
triot, and while we are about to do justice to 
the great leader, let us not forget the stout and 
manly hearts who performed their part in the 
arduous struggle. (Loud cheering.) 

1 trust I shall not be considered selfish, in 
turning your attention to that part of Ayr- 
shire in which I have a patrimonial interest. 
In that district are to be found the fast holds 
of Fen wick Moor ; and Carrick still presents to 
the casual traveller, the haunts, the coverts, and 
the caves, that sheltered the Reformers of Ayr- 
shire in the day of trial. (Hear, hear.) I am 
proud to say, that these events are not for- 
gotten by the present generation. In the town 
of Maybole, a John Knox club has lately been 
instituted, consisting of a number of the most 
respectable gentlemen in the town and neigh- 
bourhood. The club dines together on the an- 
niversary of the first disputation between John 
Knox and Quentin Kennedy, abbot of Cross- 
raguell, in the identical room where the dispu- 
tation took place. (Great cheering. ) I now take 
the liberty of proposing as a toast, — 

Mr William Niven of Kirkbride, and pros- 
perity to the John Knox club of Maybole. This 
toast was drunk with great approbation. 

Mr John May, and thanks for his munificent 
gift of the statue. 

Mr May said, — Permit me, Mr Chairman, 
to return you and the other gentlemen of this 
highly respectable meeting, my most grateful 
thanks for the very kind and flattering manner 
in which you have been pleased to notice my 
offering towards the monument of that illus- 
trious and disinterested patriot, John Knox. 
However much I respect his memory, and 
deeply feel the great and invaluable benefits he 
conferred on his country — yet I might not have 
exceeded the general subscription of contribu- 
tors, had I not, in some degree, felt myself par- 
ticularly called upon to assist in promoting that 
object to the utmost ; my sister being married 
to Mr Robert Welsh, solicitor, Edinburgh, 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



who is a direct descendant of that great man. 
(Loud cheering.) 

Let me fondly hope, Sir, that our gratitude 
will not rest satisfied with a monument to only- 
one benefactor of our country, but extend itself 
to those immortal heroes — Wallace, and Bruce, 
(hear, hear, hear,) and in doing so, we would 
only be paying a feeble tribute to their high 
patriotism, and never-dying fame. Such monu- 
ments might in ages yet to come, tend to warm 
the heart and nerve the arm of succeeding gene- 
rations, if ever again assailed by tyranny or op- 
pression. ( Loud and continued cheering. ) Al- 
low me, Sir, to give as a toast, — 

The memory of Wallace and Bruce. 

The chairman then gave Mr Trotter of Bal- 
lindean,* a lineal descendant of Knox, and 
thanks to him for his liberal subscription. 

Mr Cleland addressed the chair, and said, — 
On the part of Mr Trotter I beg leave to re- 
turn thanks for the distinguished manner in 
which this highly respectable company have 
been pleased to drink his health, and I am sure 
it will afford him great pleasure when informed 
of the honour which has this day been done 
to the memory of his great ancestor. I am 
now to mention a circumstance which will, no 
doubt, insure the approbation of the toast I am 
about to propose. Mrs Trotter, whose maiden 
name is Knox, is also, in her own person, a 
lineal descendant of the great Scottish Refor- 
mer. Without farther preface, I therefore pro- 
pose as a toast, — 

Mrs Trotter, and may the family connexion 
with the great Reformer never be broken. 
This toast was received with the utmost en- 
thusiasm. 

The Chairman then gave, — May gratitude 
for the blessings we enjoy, increase our venera- 
tion for our great forefathers. 

The Rev. Mr Willis, minister of Renfield 
street associate congregation, said, — It has, it 
seems, devolved on me, surely not because I am 
more entitled than many around me, to follow 
up a toast, very nearly connected indeed with 
the object of our meeting. But if you have 
committed it to my charge, as belonging to a 
part of the secession generally allowed — 1 say 
this with all deference to the other branches of 
the secession body — to entertain a high venera- 
tion for our Reforming ancestors, I feel myself 
called on to ur^e, in a few words, the sentiment 
which the toast involves. While we are doing 
honour to Knox, it is fair that we should call 



* Mr Trotter was elected lord provost of Edinburgh, 
on 4th October, 1825. His lordship is in possession of a 
portrait of the Reformer, which has been in his family 
ever since the last interview which Knox had with 
Mary Queen of Scots. 



1 jciii 

to our grateful recollection, the men who were 
associated with him. He raised the banner, 
but we owe much to the men who rallied round 
him. (Cheers.) It is doing Knox no injustice 
to say, that his efforts would have been una- 
vailing if not seconded by others of kindred 
minds and kindred principle. Many of these 
men, worthy of being remembered, are now 
forgotten. Some are familiar to us by name, 
but at least the achievements of all are em- 
balmed in the gratitude of their country. I 
can say, for that part of the church with which 
I am more acquainted, that the remembrance 
of those champions of the truth — the whole 
band of the Reformers — is hallowed by them. 
I hope they do not worship them. (Cheers.) 
I agree in the sentiment expressed in the elo- 
quent sermon we have heard to day, thj our 
veneration for our forefathers should not be ac- 
companied with an implicit subjection of our 
minds and consciences to their authority. The 
people of this country would, indeed, pay a 
sorry compliment in such worship, to men 
whose very distinction and glory it had been to 
search the scriptures fur themselves, and dis- 
owning the power of time to sanction error or 
to proscribe truth ; to follow truth when they 
found it, because it was truth ; and to renounce 
error in whatever circumstances, and sur- 
rounded by whatever charms, because it Avas 
error. (Long and loud cheering. ) Many might 
think that these men were too frequently 
spoken of, and with too much veneration. 
Much has already been said to-day about the 
Reformers ; and some might be inclined to ask, 
— after all, do they deserve so much? Yes, I 
would reply, our error lies not in speaking of 
them too frequently, but too seldom. (Cheers.) 
A t this distance from the period of contest, we 
are apt to feel slightly our obligations to their 
noble efforts, because we know not by experi- 
ence the evils from which they rescued us. It 
is a happy feature of the times, that there is a 
greater disposition to do them justice ; and the 
present honourable tribute 1 conceive to be 
not only due, but rendered in an appropriate 
place, a town which contains the graves of some 
of those upright and intrepid men who counted 
not their lives dear to them, that they might 
secure to themselves, and transmit to their chil- 
dren, the blessings of a pure faith, and liberty 
to profess it. (Loud cheering. ) Some of these 
belonged to a later period than the early Refor- 
mation, but still the cause was one. The strug- 
gles of the people of this country, at different 
periods of its religious history, involved the 
same great question. The question was whether 
God or man should dictate to the conscience. 
They had decided the question for themselves, 
and they had decided it for us. They lived in 



Ixiv 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



dark times, but they saw the light— they sought 
their way to it — they found, they forced their 
way to it ! Popery is a monster which loves the 
darkness, because there only it can reign, and in 
its foul haunts it revels in the spoils of what- 
ever is noble in man, and valuable to him. It 
not only holds in chains the thinking principle, 
but it does violence to aU the best affections of 
our nature. We know not whether political 
society, or religious, or domestic society, owes 
most to our deliverance from it. We know not 
whether man or woman has derived the great- 
est benefit. If popery had its dens and its pri- 
sons for the man who dared to be upright — it 
had its monasteries too, where female beauty 
might wither and decay. (Great cheering.) 
Knox had been accused of standing unmoved 
by the tears of royal beauty. The Reformers 
in general had been called rude, stern, uncour- 
teous men. Yes, they were stern in defence of 
truth, even in despite of ceremony; but we 
ought not to forget, that in that very courtesy 
and refinement which now imparts such charms 
to domestic intercourse, we see the influence of 
the Reformation — the fruits of the stern un- 
bending integrity of these men. In truth, the 
beauty of our country owes almost as much to 
Knox and his associates, as its literature and its 
piety. How is it, Mr Chairman — how is it, 
gentlemen, that while you have sat here, your 
wives and your daughters may have been ele- 
gantly or usefully occupied in rational conver- 
sation, in reading, in the quiet and cheerful dis- 
charge of domestic duties, instead of dragging 
out a melancholy existence — some of them— in 
convents and nunneries ? Why, it is these men 
that have done it — these rude men, as they have 
been called. In chasing away the demon of 
superstition, they have allowed your daughters 
to learn, that in keeping at home — in enjoying 
life — in actively discharging domestic duties — 
even while preparing for another world — they 
are serving God better than by assuming the 
veil and going into seclusion. We feel the 
happy change in all circumstances. We feel it 
at this moment. We feel it in the power of 
thus meeting together frankly to utter our sen- 
timents — differing, yet agreeing, and agreeing 
to differ. We durst not have done this during 
the days of intolerance, at least we should have 
spoken every word as if spies were among us, 
and as in the sight of the fires of the inquisi- 
tion. (Loud cheers. ) Living in a Protestant 
land, the very air we breathe seems changed. 
We are in the atmosphere of liberty. The toast 
committed to me, and which I shall conclude 
with giving, leads us to reflect, not only on the 
zeal of the Reformers and their worth, but 
their sufferings for the truth ; and at this 
distance of time, it seems not indelicate to 



propose, that it shall be with all the honours, 
we drink — 

To the memory of our forefathers, who fought 
and suffered in the cause of religion. (Loud and 
continued cheering. ) 

The chairman then gave the Gaelic schools, 
and success to education in the Highlands and 
islands. 

The Rev. Mr M'Leod, minister of the parish 
of Campsie, formerly of Campbelton, replied, I 
hope, Mr Chairman, you will give me full 
credit when I say, that not all my fond attach- 
ment to the land of the mountain and of the 
flood, nor the very peculiar satisfaction with 
which I received your last toast, could induce 
me to obtrude myself upon your notice, in pre- 
sence of the most numerous company with 
whom ever 1 had the honour to sit, to thank 
you in name of my countrymen, for your gene- 
rous and kind wishes towards them ; if 1 had 
not been called upon, an honour very unex- 
pected on my part, to propose one of the toasts 
of the day— a toast, nearly connected with the 
last, and highly appropriate on the present 
occasion. This, Sir, is an occasion sacred to 
the memory of a man, whose name no friend of 
truth, no well-wisher to the freedom or happi- 
ness of his country can ever mention but with 
respect; for his, Sir, is a name, which in the 
short catalogue of the real benefactors of the 
human race must, by us at least, be placed in 
the foremost lines. His first and great prin- 
ciple in the work of Reformation, was to teach 
and instruct the people through the medium of 
their own language, and to put into their hands 
the sacred volume in the vernacular tongue. 
In nothing, as you know, Sir, was the Protes- 
tant Reformation more strikingly distinguished 
than by the zeal with which its leaders dis- 
seminated the scriptures in the vernacular lan- 
guages of Europe — it is impossible fully to cal- 
culate the moral effects produced on the minds 
of men, by the operation of that simple and ad- 
mirable principle. The torch of truth soon 
dispelled and put to flight the cloud of super- 
stition and ignorance, under which Christian- 
ity was hid — and how rapid was the alteration ? 
Who can think of it without gratitude ? (Loud 
cheering.) And is it possible to join in the oc- 
casion of this day's meeting, or to witness the 
expression of respect paid to the memory of that 
great man whom God raised up for such a work, 
and to whom he gave boldness and fortitude for 
undertaking it, without feelings of no ordinary 
emotion, without high satisfaction and delight. 
Fortunate, Sir, had it not been for the High- 
lands and isles of Scotland, if human policy in 
respect to them, had not interfered to coun- 
teract the first great principle of the early Re- 
formers, — viz. that of giving the scriptures to 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



bcv 



the people in their own language, and teaching 
them to read them. But so it was, that the 
existence of the Gaelic language was deemed 
unfavourable to the process of what was called, 
the improvement of the Highlands. It was 
considered necessary to have that language des- 
troyed. And what were the means used ? The 
people must be instructed in an unknown 
tongue. English schools, like the English gar- 
risons, were stationed at about fifty miles dis- 
tance from each other. No Bible was given to 
the Highlander to read— but such a Bible as he 
understood not. — Acts of Parliament were pass- 
ed to civilize them — experience has shown the 
absurdity of such measures — we have lived to 
see a wiser and happier policy adopted. ( Hear, 
hear, hear. ) The leading principle of the Pro- 
testant Reformation has at length been resorted 
to, the scriptures have been translated into the 
language of the country, the people are taught 
to read them, and the progress of education 
upon this simple principle, has effected more 
during the last lew years, in improving the 
moral and intellectual condition of the people, 
than worldly policy had accomplished for cen- 
turies before them. Sir, the Reformation only 
dawned upon the summit of our mountains in 
the days of our lathers. It was in our own days 
only that it has burst forth upon our glens, and 
solitudes, and lonely isles in its full elfulgence. 
We have seen whole districts of country in the 
interesting attitude of receiving for the first 
time the word of God, in their own language. 
We have seen the minds of the people, if I may 
so speak, awakened out of the slumber of ages ; 
a spirit of religious inquiry has been excited, 
the darkness of ignorance is flying before the 
light of heaven, the Highlander has now better 
sources of information during the nights of 
his long and boisterous winter, than the roman- 
tic tales of years that are gone ; the songs of 
Zion resound in his cottage; the doctrines of 
the Bible are effectually raising his mind above 
the weakness and insanity of his wild, though 
sublime, superstition. His enthusiasm is not 
destroyed, who would wish that it were? but 
it is now receiving a new and more noble di- 
rection. (Loud and continued cheering.) As 
a person intimately acquainted with the state of 
the Highlands, and whose affections shall ever 
cling to that land of his early days, I rejoice in 
having this opportunity of bearing my humble 
testimony to the advantage of the Gaelic school 
system, before so many of its most generous 
supporters. I now request the honour of pro- 
posing a toast, with which 1 am intrusted. I 
observed that the first principle of the Refor- 
mation has at length been acted upon in the 
Highlands : the scriptures have been translated, 
and are in circulation ; that translation has 



been executed in a manner which reflects 
honour on the literature, fidelity, and zeal, of 
the first translators. Th ese were Mr Stewart 
of Killin; Dr Stewart of Luss; Dr Stewart of 
the Canongate, and Dr Smith of Campbeltown ; 
these beams of light have passed away, their 
memories are blessed. I am charged to call 
them to your remembrance. I now beg to give 
you as a toast, — 

The memories of the original translators of 
the Gaelic scriptures. This toast was received 
with the highest mark of approbation. 

Mr Ewing, the croupier, having requested 
permission to give a toast, spoke nearly as fol- 
lows : — 

Before 1 proceed to propose the toast which 
has been assigned to my charge, permit me to 
congratulate you, Sir, on the highly respectable 
appearance of this numerous and interesting- 
meeting. I see around me clergy and laity — 
the established and the dissenting interests — 
men of all ranks, politics, and persuasions, as- 
sembled to do honour to a common cause — the 
great cause of the Reformation, it is refresh- 
ing, Sir, amidst the little turmoils and collisions 
of life, thus to join in harmony — animated by 
the same spirit, maintaining the same prin- 
ciples, and pursuing the same object. 1 may 
surely be allowed to add, that there never was 
a standard round which we may unite and 
rally, with more safety, honour, loyalty, and 
patriotism. ( Loud cheers. ) The characters of 
two great men, Sir, have this day been depicted 
in colours which any touch from my pencil, I 
fear, can only tend to injure. One of them is 
the apostle of the Scottish Reformation, in 
celebration of whose deeds we are now assem- 
bled, and to whose memory honour has already 
been done from the chair. It becomes my duty 
to draw your attention to the other — a name 
still more distinguished in the records of his- 
tory — a star which rose at an earlier period, 
which moved in a wider orbit, and which set 
with a still more extended and brilliant efful- 
gence. Need I say that I allude to Martin 
Luther — a man who was raised from the hum- 
blest origin, to be the instrument of the might- 
iest revolution; who had the acuteness to detect 
the errors, and the boldness to attack the autho- 
rity of papal assumption, in all the plenitude of 
its power ; who tore the veil which covered the 
established prejudices of the time, and exposed 
them to public gaze in all their native naked 
deformity? (Loud and continued cheering.) 
In the character of these two eminent Refor- 
mers there were many striking points of re- 
semblance. They both received an academical 
education, and soon entered into priest's orders ; 
both discovered a great precocity of intellect ; 
they were both endowed with an ardent, peue- 
i 



Ixvi 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



trating, and independent mind ; both soon per- 
ceived the subtleties of scholastic theology, and 
left the polluted stream for the pure fountain of 
truth ; both were possessed of a popular, im- 
pressive, and powerful eloquence ; both were 
animated by zeal approaching to enthusiasm, 
and by vehemence allied with acrimony ; and 
both were distinguished by a courage which no 
fear could appal, and no danger could daunt. 
( Great cheering. ) — Who does not recollect the 
boldness with which Luther inveighed against 
the prevailing vices of the clergy in the great 
church of Wurtemburg? — Who does not re- 
collect the scorn with which Luther rejected 
the demand for recantation by the legate, the 
fearless appeal which he made from the Pope's 
bull in favour of indulgences, to a general coun- 
cil; the severity with which he attacked the 
treatise by Henry VIII., thence styled defen- 
der of the faith, and whom it was so much his 
interest to conciliate ; and the heroism with 
which he publicly burnt the bull that excom- 
municated him as an obstinate heretic, and de- 
livered him over to the stake? — Above all — 
who does not recollect the fortitude with which 
Luther resisted the dissuasions of his friends 
from attending the diet at Worms, reminding 
him of the fate of Huss, and the reply which 
he made, that he was called to appear in the 
name of the Lord, and thither he would go, 
though there were as many devils combined 
against him as there were tiles on the houses ? 
(Loud cheering.) In this feature of character 
Luther was no doubt exceeded by Knox, for 
whose personal courage there was more call, 
and at whose grave it was said by Morton, 
" There lies He, who never feared the face of 
man." I am fully aware, Sir, that long prior 
to the era of both these great men, the doctrines 
of the reformed faith were promulgated. In 
the 12th century, Waldus ; in the 14th Wick- 
liffe ; and in the loth Huss and Jerome, all de- 
nied the papal supremacy, and inveighed against 
the existing heresies — but the proselytes of 
these excellent men were few, and their success 
was fleeting — their light was feeble and eva- 
nescent, and it was soon quenched in blood. 
A mightier than they arose in the person of 
Luther, and under happier auspices : preceded 
by the revival of learning and the discovery of 
printing : accompanied with popular prepara- 
tion, and aided by political support. The sale 
of indulgences was the original object of attack, 
but the doctrines of popery, as my worthy 
friend " the Protestant " can much better ex- 
plain, are so firmly and closely united; every 
error is so completely amalgamated with and 
dove-tailed into another, that, if one stone be 
removed, the edifice is shaken to the base. 
(Loud cheers.) It was thus that Luther pro- 



ceeded, from one step to another, till he arrived 
at an eminence from which he himself would 
have trembled to look down, and till he saw 
the proud pontificate humbled at his feet. It 
was thus, that by his single, and at first unas- 
sisted arm, it pleased Providence to achieve the 
conquest, and, by a stone from the sling of a 
simple priest, to lay the great Goliah of Europe 
rolling in the dust. It was thus that the minds 
of men, which had been so long spell-bound by 
the charm of a potent superstition, were eman- 
cipated from their fetters, and that the touch of 
truth from the mighty wand of Luther dis- 
solved the enchantment and set the people free. 
( Loud and continued cheering. ) 

Mr Ewing then gave as a toast, " The me- 
mory of Martin Luther, the great German Re- 
former." This toast was drunk with unbound- 
ed applause. 

Mr Thomas Hamilton, architect, and thanks 
for his valuable and gratuitous services. 

This toast was received with great approba- 
tion. Mr Hamilton had left the hall before his 
health was given. 

Professor M'Gill said they had already drunk 
the health of that venerable minister Sir Henry 
Moncrieff, and a reply had been made by his 
son, a gentleman of the highest attainments in 
the profession to which he belonged. He ob- 
served other gentlemen present who were con- 
nected with the bar : he begged to propose — 

Mr Monteith, and the rising bar of Scotland. 

Mr Alexander E. Monteith, adA r ocate, ex- 
pressed his thanks for the honour which had 
been done him, an honour which was greatly 
enhanced by having his name coupled with his 
friend Mr Moncrieff, whose example he should 
always endeavour to imitate. Although it 
might be interfering with the chairman's toasts, 
he should take the liberty of proposing — 

The university of Glasgow. 

Professor M'Gill said, it would be extremely 
ill-timed in him were he to detain them long. 
He would merely observe, that he trusted the 
university of Glasgow would never forget that 
learning was only the means to the attainment 
of a higher end, namely, morals and religion ; 
and he hoped they would never forget the 
advantage they had derived from the Refor- 
mation. 

The chairman then gave — Mr M' Gavin the 
treasurer, and may the principles of the Refor- 
mation always be dear to the hearts of Scotsmen. 

Mr M'Gavin rose, amid loud cheers, and said 
— Mr Chairman, 1 thank you and the company 
for the honour you have done me. I esteem it 
no small matter to have my name associated 
with that of our great Reformer, and to be 
treasurer of a fund subscribed by so many Pro- 
testants for erecting a monument to his memory. 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



Ixvii 



(Cheers.) But in proceeding farther to address j 
the meeting, I feel somewhat like the modern 
author who complained that the ancients had 
stolen all his fine thoughts. 1 have been anti- 
cipated in many things by gentlemen who have 
spoken, and I shall not detain the meeting by 
going over ground already occupied. But 
Knox and the Reformation being the text of 
the day, the subject is ample enough for a few 
words more. Standing at the distance of nearly 
three centuries from the events which we cele- 
brate, and enjoying the privileges which Knox 
was one main instrument, under Providence, in 
procuring for us, we are able in some measure 
to appreciate the value of his labours ; but his 
contemporaries were much better judges of the 
labours themselves. They were witnesses of 
what, he did and suffered for the sake of true 
religion, and for civil liberty; and both his la- 
bours and sufferings were greater than any 
thing which the present age has witnessed. A 
contemporary who survived him, called him 

** John Knox, that mighty conqueror, 
Who stood in many a stalwart stour." 

Yes, he stood in many a stalwart stour in- 
deed; and the words make us think of a Wal- 
lace and a Bruce, who fought for their coun- 
try, and ultimately achieved its deliverance ; 
and their merits have been acknowledged by all 
men at all times. But Knox suffered more and 
achieved more than they, though this was not 
for ages adequately acknowledged. The wounds 
received in their warfare were only wounds of 
the flesh. They entered not into the soul as 
did those which Knox endured, when he suf- 
fered the mental anguish of being obliged, as he 
often was, to contend with his dearest friends — 
men who agreed with him in principle, who 
assisted him in many steps of Reformation ; 
but who, being seduced by the blandishments of 
a court, abandoned the cause, and even took 
part against it. The defection of some of his 
early friends was matter of painful reflection to 
him during life, and even in his last moments. 
These were the wounds which he suffered in 
the conflict, and he felt the pain of them most 
acutely ; for though we have been accustomed to 
consider him as a rude, strong, immovable sort 
of a man, it is evident from his correspondence 
that he was a man of very tender feelings. 
(Loud cheering.) 

The leading feature in Knox's character, was 
a preference of the truth to every thing else. 
He never suffered his own paltry interests to 
interfere with this, or with those of the church, 
or of his country ; and he could not endure those 
who did, but opposed them with all his might. 
Not long after his death there were certain pro- 



ceedings in the church, not of a very disinter- 
ested character. The author 1 have already 
quoted, alludes to these, and to whal Knox 
would have done had he been alive, in the fol- 
lowing terms : — 

Had gndc John Knox not yit been deid, 
It had not come vnto this heid : 
Had they myntit till sic ane steir,* 
He had made heuin and earth to heir. 

Happily for the ages which followed, particu- 
larly for us of the present day, Knox's princi- 
ples carried the Reformation farther than lie 
himself was disposed to go. He did not under- 
stand the subject of liberty of conscience ; and 
no man of his day understood it. He thought 
the precept of the Mosaic law respecting the 
punishment of idolatry still binding, but 1 never 
read or heard of his having been accessory or 
consenting to the death of any on that account. 
He maintained the principle that every man 
has a right to possess and to read the Holy 
Scriptures, to examine and judge of their con- 
tents for himself. (Hear, hear, hear.) This is 
the fundamental principle of the Reformation, 
which I hope will be ever dear to the heart of 
every Scotsman. This principle is inconsis- 
tent with intolerance, or persecution for con- 
science' sake ; and though it did not appear so 
to Knox and the first Reformers, it made itself 
manifest by degrees to their successors. Main- 
taining the principle, though not aware of all 
its extent and bearing, Knox gave an impulse 
to the cause of Reformation that did not termi- 
nate with his life, but continued through suc- 
cessive ages, and issued in the firm establish- 
ment of civil and religious liberty at the Revo- 
lution of 1688. (Cheers. ) He was followed by a 
host of worthies, who took up the cause of 
truth and liberty, and were honoured also to 
suffer for it. Among the most eminent of these 
was Andrew Melville, whom Glasgow had the 
honour to enjoy as head of the college, a man of 
equal firmness, and more varied learning than 
Knox, who long and successfully resisted the 
encroachments of arbitrary power upon the li- 
berties of the church, for which he suffered 
many years' imprisonment, and then banish- 
ment to a foreign land, where he died. He, 
too, is worthy of being held in grateful remem- 
brance by every Scotsman. I beg have, there- 
fore, to propose for a toast, — 

The memory of Andrew Melville. Mr 
M' Gavin sat down amid continued cheering. 

The chairman then gave the health of Mr 
Cleland, and thanks to him for his eminent ser- 
vices in promoting the present undertaking, as 
well as the general interests of the city. 

* i. o. Had they attempted such a movement. 



lxviii 



KNOX S MONUMENT. 



Mr Cleland said, — I beg to return thanks for 
the very kind and nattering manner in which 
you have been pleased to drink my health. 1 
should indeed be destitute of good feeling, if I 
did not acknowledge how highly I am gratified 
by this mark of your regard. At the same 
time I am well aware that the partiality of 
private friendship has gone far to overrate my 
services. (Cheers, and cries of no, no.) — In 
proposing a toast to the memory of the great 
improver of the steam engine, I shall not at- 
tempt any description of the great powers which 
have rendered his name immortal. — This has 
lately been done in London and Glasgow, by 
men of science and high consideration in the 
country. I may, however, be allowed to men- 
tion, that I have had great pleasure in collecting 
these honourable memorials, and circulating 
them among a valuable class of society, more 
extensively than might otherwise have been 
done ; and having had the honour of being 
known to that great man, I have been enabled 
to publish, along with these memorials, an ac- 
count of the first experiments he made on the 
steam engine in this city ; and now, without 
farther preface, I beg to propose — 

The memory of James Watt. — This toast 
was received with the greatest approbation. 

The chairman then gave the committee of 
management. 

Mr Andrew Mitchell said, — For my col- 
leagues and myself, I have to express our grati- 
tude to this highly respectable meeting for the 
honour done us. To have the high satisfac- 
tion of seeing the deep interest which such a 
meeting takes in the good cause in which they 
have been engaged — to be assured by the trans- 
actions of this day, that now at length, al- 
though tardily, and after the lapse of 300 years, 
a national disgrace will in some measure be 
wiped off, and a monument erected to the me- 
mory of the founder of our parochial system of 
education, and the reviver of primitive Chris- 
tianity among us, are of themselves far more 
than a compensation for any labours they have 
undergone, and even — for what is worse to 
bear — the refusals of the indifferent, and the 
scowl of those averse to contribute to the mea- 
sure. And indeed, although they had no other 
reward than to have this day been permitted to 
hear another specimen of the heart-stirring elo- 
quence of one upon Avhom, perhaps more than 
any other now alive, the mantle of Knox had 
fallen. This alone had been a sufficient recom- 
pense. (Great cheering. ) 

To a reflecting mind, Sir, there is something 
in the circumstances in which we are this day 
placed, and in the general aspects of society, 
which are solemnly interesting. Every where 
throughout the Roman Catholic kingdoms on | 



the continent, there is at this moment, while 
we are employed in rearing a monument to our 
Reformer, a combined effort making to rebuild 
the altars of the Romish worship, and to re- 
store the influence of the Romish priesthood. 
(Hear, hear, hear.) We look back through the 
vista of three hundred years to the grounds of 
our faith, as then restored from the corruptions 
of the middle ages by the light of the Bible, and 
the promulgation of the gospel — they, that they 
may restore the empire and the control over the 
minds of men in all the rigour with which it 
was then exercised. 

It has always appeared to me as a striking 
part of the providence of God, that the inven- 
tion of printing — which is the sentiment which 
I shall conclude by calling your particular at- 
tention — should have been exactly coeval -with 
the beginning of the Reformation. Of this, as 
a powerful weapon in the cause of truth, Lu- 
ther and Knox, and the great men who achiev- 
ed the restoration of religion which then took 
place, knew well how to avail themselves. In 
the first age of the church, God communicated 
by a miracle the gift of tongues. When the 
church required to be restored from the super- 
stitions and errors of popery, the art of printing 
was discovered, which is an instrument of the 
same character, and in some respects more effi- 
cacious, because more permanent in its effects. 
And in their hands this instrument was wield- 
ed with power and success. (Cheers.) If the 
doctrines they taught could only have been 
heard by those to whom their living voice 
reached, or even by the men of their own gene- 
ration, and if all the fruit of their labours had 
been buried in the same grave with themselves, 
their labours would have been comparatively 
unimportant. It is to the permanency and 
wide circulation which, through the medium 
of the press, has been given to the scriptures 
they translated, and to their admirable com- 
mentaries on these scriptures, that the princi- 
ples of the Reformation have obtained so deep a 
root in protestant Europe; that all the storms 
of persecution with which the Reformation has 
been assailed in many a form since that period, 
have not been able to shake, much less to over- 
turn it. (Loud and continued cheering.) 

In our day, through the same medium of the 
press, knowledge is making strides unprece- 
dently rapid. In the wide dissemination of the 
scriptures, in the vast variety of books, many of 
them calculated to give the benefits of scientific 
tuition itself, even to the mechanic, and in the 
various institutions every where springing up, 
contrived and calculated to give him the benefit 
of an education, which a few years ago was ex- 
clusively confined to men of wealth and rank, 
— we see a new and interesting feature of the 



KNOX'S M 

times in which we live. Many a peasant has 
now a library more valuable than those monas- 
teries possessed, which were overturned at the 
date of the Reformation, while his mind is in- 
finitely better stored with knowledge, than the 
lazy inhabitants of the cells. Wealth and rank 
will not now secure to their possessors the por- 
tion of respect which was formerly implicitly 
given to them. In order to secure this, the 
wealthy and the great must themselves rise in 
the scale of intellectual improvement, and every 
man from the highest to the lowest now feels, 
that he does not act, and cannot act in a corner 
under the shelter of concealment, but upon an 
open arena, where his conduct is seen by all, and 
judged of all. (Loud cheering.) 

I could enlarge, Sir, at much greater length 
on the mighty influence which the invention of 
printing has produced, and is likely to pro- 
duce on society. But at this late hour of the 
evening, it would be equally unseasonable and 
improper. I shall therefore conclude with one 
single remark. The cause of truth can never 
suffer from discussion. It is error and evil 
alone that shuns the light, and refuses to come 
to it, lest its deeds should be made manifest and 
reproved. With this observation I beg to re- 
commend to the particular notice of yourself 
and this meeting, the important sentiment 
which I have been x*equested to propose, — 

The invention of printing. 

The croupier begged leave to propose the 
health of Mr Warren, that celebrated artist, to 
whom we were so much indebted. 

Mr Warren, in returning thanks, regretted 
his inability to express what he felt, being so 
unexpectedly called up to address the chair. In 
acknowledging the handsome manner his name 
had been introduced by the croupier, and the 
flattering reception it had met with from so 
learned and respectable an assemblage, at the 
late hour he then addressed them, it would be 
presumption in him to occupy much of their 
valuable time. He could not, however, sit 
down without taking advantage of the oppor- 
tunity their kindness had afforded him, of ac- 
knowledging the obligations he felt to the gentle- 
men under whose superintendence he had acted, 
and, in particular, to the Rev. Doctor M'Gill, 
to whose suggestion he was much indebted for 
the conception on which he had founded the 
design of the statue ; and he owed much to the 
able and j udicious observations of those gentle- 
men associated with the Rev. Doctor. (Cheers.) 
Therefore, should public approval reward his 
exertions, in justice he must share with them 
theTtonour, although it became him to acknow- 
ledge himself chargeable with any errors, as in 
every thing which he conceived calculated to 
attain his object, or benefit the general design, 



ONUMENT. lxi* 

they, with the kindest feeling, Indulged him 
with their confidence. (Cheers.) — lie hoped, 
however, the monument would be ;is creditable 
to the artists employed, and to the gentlemen 
who superintended its erection, as it must be 
gratifying to the Reverend gentleman who first 
suggested, and to this city which has carried into 
effect the raising a memorial to that man whose 
efforts laid the foundation of our present pros- 
perity, and secured inestimable blessings, such 
as our forefathers did not enjoy. At this very 
late hour he would not take up more of their 
time, and would therefore propose as a toast, — 

The revival of learning in the dark ages. 
( Loud cheering. ) 

Mr M'Gavin gave the health of Mr Alexan- 
der Buchanan, and thanks to him for his valu- 
able and gratuitous services in realizing the sub- 
scriptions. — This toast was drank with great 
approbation. 

At public dinner parties, something frequent- 
ly happens which causes regret, and in this 
there has been no exception from the general 
rule. Although the stewards did every thing 
in their power to provide accommodation, such 
was the demand for tickets on the day of the 
dinner, that the Highland society hall, with 
the assistance of an additional room, could not 
accommodate the applicants. As there was no 
time to remove to the Assembly Rooms, a 
number of gentlemen were consequently disap- 
pointed. 

From the time the cloth was removed to a 
late hour in the evening, the company enjoyed 
an intellectual banquet of no ordinary nature. 
The charms of music, which are often resorted 
to to enliven public dinner parties, were here 
unnecessary. The enjoyment was of a differ- 
ent nature. When the midnight hour had 
passed away, it was found that a number of 
speeches had not been delivered, and several of 
the toasts had not been given. This, under or- 
dinary circumstances, Avould have caused regret, 
but that regret was greatly heightened, when it 
was known that the company was thereby 
deprived of the speeches of several highly gifted 
gentlemen, remarkable for their attachment to 
the principles of the Reformation, who had 
come to do honour to the occasion. Among 
these may be ranked the Rev. Mr Muir of St 
James'; the Rev. Dr Hodgson of B 1 an t y r e ; 
the Rev. Dr Stewart of Erskine ; the Rev. Mi- 
Dempster of Denny; the Rev. Mr French of 
East Kilbride; the Rev. Mr Beith of Hope 
street Gaelic chapel; the Rev. Mr Turnbull 
of the Associate congregation, Campbell street; 
the Rev. Mr Struthers, of the Relief Congrega- 
tion, Anderston; the Rev, Mr Stewart of the 
Associate congregation, Stirling; and Benjamin 
Mathie, Henry Paul, William Rodger, Walter 



Ixx 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



Ferguson, Patrick Falconer, and William 
Craig, Esquires. The party consisted of one 
hundred and fifty-three gentlemen. The din- 
ner and wines did great credit to Mr Fleck. 

ADDENDA. 

Although it would he improper to give de- 
tached portions of the eloquent sermon which 
Dr Chalmers delivered on this occasion, the 
congregation will never forget the manner in 
which he recommended M'Crie's Life of Knox. 
Having read several portions of it to his au- 
dience, he said with great emphasis, that it was 
a hook which should he in every private library 
in the country, as he had no doubt it was in 
every public one. 

During divine service, the appearance of the 
congregation was uncommonly interesting. Dr 
Chalmers in the pulpit, — Dr Burns in the 
desk, — and Dr Mac Gill in the front gallery 
opposite to them, surrounded by a greater num- 
ber of learned and respectable men of every de- 
nomination than is often to be met with. In 
this assembly the churchman, — the seceder, — 
the dissenter,— and the Whig and Tory met 
together, to do honour to the memory of the 
man, who, in the providence of God, had been 
raised up to rescue their country from papal 
superstition and all its attendant evils. 

RESPECTING THE DEMOLITION OF ECCLESIASTICAL 
EDIFICES. * 

The following is the order issued by the Protes- 
tant lords Argyle, Ruthven, and Steuart, to pro- 
vost Lindsay and the other magistrates of Glas- 
gow, in the year 1560, respecting the destruction 
of images and monasteries. — " We pray you will 
fail not to pass to your kirks in Glasgow, and take 
down the whole images thereof, and bring them 
forth to the kirk yards and burn them openly. 
And likewise cast down the altars and purity 
the kirks of all kinds of monuments of idola- 
try ; but take great care that neither the desks, 
windows, nor doors be hurt or broken, and that 
the glass and iron work be not injured. And 
this fail not to do as you value our displeasure, 
and so we commit you to the protection of 
God." 

When Dr M'Crie was preparing materials 
for his Life of Melville, he became anxious to 
know if there were any thing in the college or 
town council records, corroboratory of what bish- 
op Spottiswood says respecting the demolition 
of the cathedral of Glasgow^. Professor M'Turk, 

* Dr Cleland adds upwards of twenty pages of notes 
and illustrations, chiefly taken from Knox's history, 
and M'Crie's Life of Knox ; also some statistical tables 
relative to Glasgow, its churches and ministers. They 
arc all very interesting; but it would extend this vo- 



having examined the college records, and Mr 
Cleland those of the town council, nothing was 
found respecting the cathedral during the time 
of Melville's residence here ; excepting a minute 
of council, 20th August, 1574, the year in which 
he became principal of this university, two 
years after the death of Knox. The following 
is the substance of the minute: — " The which 
day, the provost, baillies, and council, with the 
deacons of the crafts, and divers other honest 
men of the town, convened in the council house, 
and haA r ing respect and consideration to the 
great decay and ruin the hie kirk of Glasgow has 
come to, through taking away the lead, slates, 
and other materials thereof in the troublesome 
time by gone, so that such a great monument 
will utterly fall down and decay, unless it be 
remedied. Although we are not indebted to 
uphold and repair it by law, yet of our own 
will uncompelled, and for the zeal we have for 
the kirk, we all in one voice, consent to tax 
ourselves two hundred pounds money, to be 
paid by the township and freemen thereof, for 
helping to repair the said kirk, and holding it 
waterfast, and appoints the following persons 
to see this put in execution, viz. — The dea- 
cons of every craft, Matthew Watson, flesher, 
Patrick Howie, litster, Robert Muir, merchant, 
Master Adam Wallace, and John Lindsay, 
&c. Sec." 

The following is taken from M'Crie's Life of 
Melville, vol. i. p. 84. — " We must not omit 
to notice a charge brought against Melville. 
It is said that he was accessory to a little dis- 
turbance which took place in Glasgow." " By 
the earnest dealing of Mr Andrew Melville 
and other ministers, the magistrates agreed to 
demolish the cathedral, as a monument of idol- 
atry, and to build a number of small churches 
with the materials. But the trades of the city 
resenting this, rose in a tumult and forcibly 
prevented the workmen from proceeding. The 
ringleaders of the riot were summoned before 
the privy council, when the king, not then 
thirteen years of age, took their part, and told 
the ministers engaged in the prosecution, ' that 
too many churches had already been destroyed, 
and that he w T ould not tolerate more abuses in 
that kind.'" This statement rests solely upon 
the authority of bishop Spottiswood. 1 never 
met with any thing in the public or private 
writings of Melville, or of any minister con- 
temporary with him, that gives the smallest 
ground for the conclusion, that they looked 
upon cathedral churches as monuments of idol- 

lume too far to insert the whole. The following is, 
however, too important to be omitted, as it relates to 
a subject on which the memory of Knox has sufierc-d 
much reproach. — Ed. 



KNOX'S MONUMENT. 



Ixxi 



atry, or that they would have advised their 
demolition to the ground. The records of the 
privy council are totally silent as to the alleged 
order and riot, a circumstance which it is ex- 
tremely difficult to account for, on the suppo- 
sition that the hishop has given a correct report 
of the affair. It appears from the most satis- 
factory documents, that the magistrates and 
ministers of Glasgow, so far from wishing to 
pull down the cathedral, were anxious to uphold 
and repair it, that they made repeated repre- 
sentations to the king and privy council on this 



head, and that, though the burden of the work 
did not legally fall on them, they voluntarily 
and zealously contributed for carrying it into 
execution. I think it highly probable, that 
any disturbance which may have furnished 
the ground-work of the statement under ex- 
amination, was occasioned by an order not for 
demolishing, but for repairing the cathedral ; 
and that the craftsmen were aggrieved at some 
encroachment on their rights, real or supposed, 
in the mode of reparation." 



KNOX'S 
GENERAL PREFACE.* 



To the gentle reader, 

(Grace and peace from God the Father of j 
our Lord Jesus Christ, with the perpe- 
tual increase of the Holy Spirit. 

It is not unknown, christian reader, 
that the same cloud of ignorance, that long 
has darkened many realms under this ac- 
cursed kingdom of that Roman antichrist, 
had also so overcovered this poor realm, 
that idolatry had been maintained, the blood 
of innocents hath been shed, and Christ 
Jesus his eternal truth hath been abhorred, 
detested, and blasphemed. But that same 
God that causeth light to shine out of dark- 
ness, in the multitude of his mercies, hath 
of long time opened the eyes of some even 
within this realm, to see the vanity of that 
which then was universally embraced for 
true religion, and has given unto them 
strength to oppone themselves unto the 
same : and now, into these our last and 
most corrupt days, has made his truth so 
to triumph amongst us, that in despite of 
Satan, hypocrisy is disclosed, and the true 
worshipping of God is manifested to all the 
inhabitants of this realm, whose eyes Satan 
blinds not, either by their filthy lusts, or else 
by ambition and insatiable covetousness, 
which make them repugn to [oppose stiffly] 
the power of God working by his word. 
And because we are not ignorant what di- 
verse bruits [reports] were dispersed of us 
the professors of Jesus Christ within this 
realm in the beginning of our enterprise : 



* This is wanting in David Buchanan's edi- 
tion.— Ed. 



| order was taken, that all our proceedings 
' should be committed to register, as that 
I they were by such as then painfully tra- 
vailed both by tongue and pen; and so 
was collected a just volume (as after will 
appear) containing things done from the 
58th [i. e. 1558] year of God till the arrival 
of the queen's majesty forth of France, with 
the which the collector and writer for that 
time was content, and never minded [in- 
tended] farther to have travailed in that 
kind of writing. But after invocation of 
the name of God, and after consultation 
with some faithful what by them was 
thought expedient to advance God's glory, 
and to edify this present generation, and 
the posterity to come, it was concluded, 
that faithful rehearsal should be made of 
such personages as God had made instru- 
ments of his glory, by opponing of them- 
selves to manifest abuses, superstition, and 
idolatry. And albeit there be no great num- 
ber, yet are they more than the collector 
would have looked for at the beginning, 
and therefore is the volume somewhat en- 
larged above his expectation : and yet in 
the beginning must we crave of all the 
gentle readers, not to look of us for such 
a history as shall express all tilings that 
have occurred within this realm, during the 
time of this terrible conflict that has been 
betwixt the saints of God and these bloody 
wolves who claim to themselves the title 
of clergy, and to have authority over the 
souls of men : for with the [civil] policy 
mind we to meddle no farther than it has 
religion mixed with it. And therefore al- 
I beit that many things which were done be 



2 KNOX'S GENE 

omitted, yet if we invent no lies, we think 
ourselves blameless in that behalf. Of one 
other [thing-] * we must forewarn the dis- 
creet readers, which is, that they be not 
offended that the simple truth be spoken 
without partiality, for seeing- that of men 
we neither hunt for reward, nor yet for 
vain glory, we little pass by the approba- 
tion of such as seldom judge well of God 
and of his works. Let not therefore the 
reader wonder albeit that our style vary 



* The supplement here is necessary to the 
sense. Wherever the like freedom is used, it 
will be marked in the same way.— £<7. 



RAL PREFACE. 

and speak diversely of men, according* as 
they have declared themselves sometimes 
enemies and sometimes friends, sometimes 
fervent, sometimes cold, sometimes con- 
stant, sometimes changeable in the cause of 
God and of his holy religion, for in this our 
simplicity we suppose that the godly shall 
espy our purpose, which is, that God may 
be praised for his mercy shewn, this pre- 
sent age may be admonished to be thankful 
for God's benefits offered, and the posterity 
to come may be instructed how wondrously 
hath the light of Christ Jesus prevailed 
against darkness in this last and most cor- 
rupt age. 



THE HISTORY 

OF 

THE REFORMATION OF RELIGION 

WITHIN 

THE REALM OF SCOTLAND. 



THE FIRST BOOK. 



CONTAINING THE MANNER AND BY WHAT PERSONS THE LIGHT OF CHRIST'S EVANGEL HAS BEEN 
MANIFESTED UNTO THIS REALM, AFTER THAT HORRIBLE AND UNIVERSAL 
DEFECTION FROM THE TRUTH, WHICH HAS COME BY MEANS OF THAT ROMAN ANTICHRIST. 



In the scrolls of Glasgow, is found men- 
tion of one whose name is not expressed, 
that in the year of God 14-22, was burned 
for heresy ; but what were his opinions, or 
by what order he Avas condemned, it ap- 
pears not evidently ; * but our chronicles 
make mention, that in the days of king- 
James the First, about the year of God 
1431, was deprehended [taken up] f in the 
university of Saint Andrews, one named 
Paul Craw, a Bohemian, who was accused 
of heresy, before such as then were called 
doctors of theology. His accusation con- 
sisted principally, that he followed John 
Huss and Wickliffe, in the opinion of the 



* David Buchanan's edition commences thus : 
" In the records of Glasgow is found mention 
of one whose name was James Resby, an Eng- 
lishman by birth, scholar of Wickliffe, he was 
accused as a heretic by one Lawrence Lindors, 
and burnt for having said, that the pope was 
not the vicar of Christ; and that a man of a 
wicked life was not to be acknowledged for 
pope." Spotswood gives the name of the per- 
son, which perhaps both he and Buchanan had 
derived, together with the particulars of his 
heresy, from some other source. But Spotswood 
makes the date of his martyrdom 1407, the year 
following the death of Robert III, so that this 
must have happened during the regency, while 
James I, Robert's successor, was a prisoner in 
England, from which he was not restored to his 
kingdom till 1423. Resby, so far as appears, 
was the first in Scotland who suffered death on 
account of religion ; at least, I find nothing of 



sacrament, who deny that the substance 
of bread and wine was chang-ed by virtue 
of any words, or that confession should be 
made to priests, or yet prayers to saints de- 
parted. While that God g-ave him grace to 
resist them, and not to consent to their im- 
piety, he was committed to the secular 
judge, (for our bishops follow Pilate, who 
both did condemn, and also wash his hands) 
who condemned him to the fire, in the 
which he was consumed in the said city of 
Saint Andrews, about the time before writ- 
ten. And to declare themselves to be the 
generation of Satan, who, from the begin- 
ning-, had been enemy to the truth, and he 



the kind in the previous twelve hundred years 
of her church history. The Culdees and other 
faithful pastors, if there were any other, must 
have been a great eye-sore to the luxurious dig- 
nified clergy, but they did not venture to murder 
them on that account. This was a custom im- 
ported from Italy, where it had been practised 
for more than two centuries, in a ferocious per- 
secution of the Waldenses. It was, it seems, 
twenty-four years before the Scotish prelates 
found another victim ; and he was a Bohemian, 
who had learned the truth from John Huss, 
who, like Resby, had learned it from Wickliffe, 
with whom he corresponded. Our first two 
martyrs, therefore, were foreigners. There was 
not at that period so much religion among the 
Scots themselves as to furnish a subject for the 
stake. — Ed. 

t Deprehended is rather an English word 
than a Scotish, but is seldom used uow. — Ed. 



4 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1494 



that desired the same to be hid from the 
knowledge of men, they put a ball of 
brass in his mouth, to the end that he 
should not give confession of his faith to 
the people, neither yet that they should 
understand the defence which he had 
against their unjust accusation and con- 
demnation. But that their sires' practice 
did not greatly advance their kingdom of 
darkness, neither yet was it able utterly to 
extinguish the truth : For albeit, that in 
the days of king James the Second and 
Third, we find small question of religion 
moved within this realm, yet in the time of 
king James the Fourth, in the sixth year 
of his reign, and in the 22d year of his 
age, which was the year of 1494, were 
summoned before the king and his great 
council, by Robert Blackader, called arch- 
bishop of Glasgow; the number of thirty 
persons remaining, some in Kyle-stewart, 
some in King's-Kyle, and some in Cun- 
inghame : among whom were George 
Campbell of Cesnock, Adam Reid of Bar- 
skimming, John Campbell of Newmills, 
Andrew Shaw of Polkemat, Helen Chal- 
mer lady Pokely, [Isohel] Chaimer lady 
Stairs. These were called the Lollards of 
Kyle. * They were accused of the articles 
following, as we have received them forth 
of the register of Glasgow. 



* A more ample account of the Lollards will 
be found in the Histories of England ; where 
probably tbey had their origin from persons who 
fled from persecution on the Continent in the 
twelfth century. " In the year 1160, some fo- 
reign Christians sought in Britain an asylum 
from the persecutions of Germany; but, alas! 
they found only a premature grave." " A coun- 
cil was called by the king, to meet at Oxford, to 
try these heretics, whose number, it seems, 
amounted to no more than thirty. They were 
not likely to meet with either mercy or justice 
from an assembly of haughty prelates. They 
were condemned, branded on the forehead, pub- 
licly whipt out of the town, and being turned 
into the fields in the depth of winter, when all 
were forbidden to relieve them, they perished. 
Even their enemies allow that they behaved 
with great calmness and moderation ; and when 
the inhuman sentence was executed upon 
them, they sang, Blessed are ye when men 
shall hate you and persecute you. Warner 
justly observes, that their conduct was wor- 
thy of the best and most righteous cause, 
and would incline one to think favourably of 
their doctrine.'' See more to the same pur- 
pose in The Protestant, volume i. pages 107 
—109.— Ed. 



I. First, That images are not to be had, 

nor yet to be worshipped. 

II. That the relics of saints are not to be 
worshipped. 

III. That laws and ordinances of men 
vary from time to time, and ifiat by the 
pope. 

IV. That it is not lawful to fight, or to 
defend the faith. We translate according 
to the barbarousness of their Latin and 
ditement. 

V. That Christ gave power to Peter 
only, and not to his successors, to bind and 
loose within the kirk. 

VI. That Christ ordained no priests to 
consecrate. 

VII. That after the consecration in the 
mass, there remains bread, and that there is 
not there the natural body of CJmst. 

VIII. That tithes ought not to be given 
to ecclesiastical men, (as they were then 
called.) 

IX. That Christ at his coming has taken 
away power from kings to judge, t This 
article we doubt not to be the venemous 
accusation of the enemies, whose practice 
has ever been to make the doctrine of 
Jesus Christ suspect to kings and rulers ; 
as that God thereby would depose them of 
their royal seats, whereby, the contrary, 
nothing confirms the power of magistrates 



t " That Christ, at his coming, hath taken away 
power from kings to judge," — in matters of divine 
worship, must have been their meaning, for it was 
for this they were called to account. They 
meant, that Christ had abolished the state of 
things in which kings were required to take 
cognizance of, and punish deviations from di- 
vinely instituted worship. The words which 
follow, are in a different character in all the 
editions I have seen ; and they are no part of 
the article, but only Knox's comment upon it ; 
and, I think, it must be admitted, that the pool 
Lollards understood the subject better than theii 
commentator ; but as their doctrines were writ- 
ten down by their enemies, whose record of them 
only is extant, we might expect to find them 
garbled, so as to make them appear hostile to 
civil government. The other parts of sentences 
in the Roman character, are also comments or 
explanations. Spotswood gives twenty of the 
articles without any of these additions; but 
Wodrow, who is usually so correct, has fallen 
into a mistake here. He says, the words in 
italics only are in the Glasgow MS. But on 
inspection of the manuscript itself, I find, that 
the addition on which 1 am remarking, is in it 
verbatim, and alsothose in No. 4,8,19, 31, though 
some that Buchanan has made are not.— Ed. 



Book I.J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



5 



more than does God's vvord. But to the 
articles. 

X. That every faithful man or ivoman is 
a priest. 

XI. That the unction of kings ceased at 
the coming of Christ. 

XII. That the pope is not the successor 
of Peter, but where he said, Go behind me, 
Satan. 

XIII. That the pope deceives the people 
by his bulls and his indulgences. 

XIV. That the mass profits not the souls 
that are in purgatory. 



XXXIV. That they which are called 
principals in the kirk, are thieves and rob- 
bers. 

By these articles, which God of his mer- 
ciful providence, caused the enemies of his 
truth to keep in their registers, may appear 
how mercifully God hath looked upon this 
realm, retaining 1 within it some spunk 
[spark, or gentle flame] of his light, even in 
the time of greatest darkness. Neither 
ought any man to wonder, albeit some 
things be obscurely, and some things doubt- 
fully spoken. But rather ought all faithful 



XV. That the pope and the bishops de- to magnify God's mercy, who, without 



ceive the people by their pardons. 

XVI. That indulgences ought not to be 
granted to fight against the Saracens. 

XVII. That the pope exalts himself 
against God and above God. 



public doctrine, gave so great light. And 
farther, we ought to consider, that seeing 
that the enemies of Jesus Christ gathered 
the foresaid articles, thereupon to accuse 
the persons foresaid, that they would de- 



XVIII. That the pope cannot remit the ! prave the meaning of God's servants so far 



pains of purgatory. 



as they could ; as we doubt not but they 



XIX. That the blessings of the bishops ■ have done in the heads of excommunica- 
(dumb dogs they should have been styled) I tion, swearing, and of matrimony : in the 

I which, it is no doubt but the servants of 
of the I God did damn the abuse only, and not the 
I right ordinance of God • for who knows 



are of no value. 

XX. That the excommunication 
kirk is not to be feared. 



XXI. That into [in] no case it is lawful not, that excommunication in these days 



to swear. 

XXII. That priests might have xvives, 
according to the constitution of the law. 

XXIII. That tine Christians receive the 
body of Jesus Christ every day. 

XXIV. That after matrimony contracted, 
the kirk may make no divorcement. 

XXV. That excommunication binds not. 

XXVI. That the pope forgives not sin, 
but only God. 

XXVII. That faith should not be given 
to miracles. 

XXVIII. That we should not pray to the 
glorious Virgin Hary, but to God only. 

XXIX. That we are no more bound to 
pray in the kirk, than in other places. 

XXX. That ice are not bound to believe 
all that the doctors of the kirk have written. 

XXXI. That such as ivorship the sacra- 
ments of the kirk (we suppose they meant 
the sacrament of the altar) commit idolatry. 

XXXII. That the pope is the head of the 
kirk of the antichrist. 

XXXIII. That the pope and his minis- 
ters are murderers. 



was altogether abused *? That swearing 
abounded without punishment, or remorse 
of conscience : and that divorcements were 
made for such causes, as worldly men had 
invented. But to our history. Albeit that 
the accusation of the bishop and of his ac- 
complices was very grievous, yet God so 
assisted his servants, partly by inclining 
the king's heart to gentleness (for diverse 
of them were his great familiars), and part- 
ly by giving bold and godly answers to 
their accusators, that the enemies in the 
end were frustrated of their purpose : for 
while the bishop in mockage said to Adam 
Reid of Barskimming ; " Reid, believe ye 
that God is in heaven ?" He answered, " Xot 
as I do the sacraments seven :" whereat, the 
bishop thinking to have triumphed, said, 
" Sir, lo, he denies that God is in heaven," 
whereat the king wondering, said, " Adam 
Reid ! what say you ?" The other answer- 
ed, " Please your grace to hear the end 
betwixt the churl and me." And there- 
with he turned to the bishop and said, " I 
neither think nor believe, as thou thinkest 



6 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. b. 1527 



that God is in heaven, but lam most assured, 
that he is not only in the heaven, but also in 
the earth : but thou and thy faction declare 
by your works, that either ye think there 
is no God at all, or else that he is so set up 
in heaven, that he regards not what is done 
into the earth ; for if thou firmly believedst 
that God were in the heaven, thou shouldst 
not make thyself cheek-mate to the king-, 
and altogether forget the charge that Jesus 
Christ the Son of God gave to his apostles, 
which was, to preach the evangel, and not 
to play the proud prelates, as all the rabble 
of you do this day. And now, Sir," said 
he to the king, " judge ye, whether the 
bishop or I believe best that God is in 
heaven." While the bishop and his band 
could not well revenge themselves, and 
while many taunts were given them in 
their teeth, the king, willing to put an end 
to farther reasoning, said to the said Adam 
Reid, " Wilt thou burn thy bill ?" He an- 
swered, " Sir, and [if] the bishop and ye will." 
With these and the like scoffs, the bishop 
and his band were so dashed out of coun- 
tenance, that the greatest part of [the] accu- 
sation was turned to laughter, After that 
diet, we find almost no question for matters 
of religion, the space of nigh thirty years ; 
for not long after, to wit, in the year of 
God 1500, the said bishop Blackader de- 
parted this life, going in his superstitious 
devotion to Jerusalem : unto whom succeed- 
ed Mr James Beaton, son to the laird of 
Balfour in Fife, who was more careful for the 
world nor [than] he was to preach Christ, 
or yet to advance our religion, but for the 
fashion only ; and as he sought the world, 
it fled him not, for it was well known, that 
at once he was archbishop of Saint An- 
drews, Abbot of Dunfermline, Arbroath, 
Kilwinning, and Chancellor of Scotland : 
for after the unhappy field of Flodden, in 
the which perished king James the Fourth, 
with the most part of the nobility of the 



* This mention of Fox's Book of Martyrs, 
was esteemed one of the anachronisms that dis- 
proved Knox to he the author, because it was 
believed that Fox's book was not published in 
Knox's lifetime. Spotswood, and the author of 
the Fundamental Charter, argue from this 
against the genuineness of the history. But 
the words are in the Glasgow MS., and this 
seems at first to have staggered Vv'odiow as 



realm, the said Beaton, with the rest of 
the prelates, had the whole regimen [go- 
vernment] of the realm, and by reason 
thereof, held and travailed to hold the 
truth of God in thraldom and bondage, till 
that it pleased God of his great mercy in 
the year of God 1527, to raise up his ser- 
vant, Mr Patrick Hamilton, at whom our 
history does begin : of whose progeny, life, 
and erudition, because men of fame and re- 
nown have in divers works written, we omit 
all curious repetition, sending such as would 
know farther than we write, to Francis 
Lambert, John Firth, and to that notable 
work lately sent forth by John Fox, Eng- 
lishman, * of the lives and deeds of martyrs 
within this isle, in this our age. 

This servant of God, the said Mr Patrick, 
being in his youth provided to reasonable 
honours, and living (he was entitled abbot 
of Fearn) as one hating the world and the 
vanity thereof, left Scotland, and passed to 
the schools in Germany ; for then the fame 
of the university of Wirtemberg was greatly 
divulgate [celebrated] in all countries, where 
by God's providence he became familiar 
with those lights and notable servants of 
Christ Jesus of that time, Martin Luther, 
Philip Melancthon, and the said Francis 
Lambert ; and did so grow and advance in 
godly knowledge, joined with fervency and 
integrity of life, that he was in admiration 
with many. The zeal of God's glory did 
so eat him up, that he could of no long 
continuance remain there, but returned to 
his country, where the bright beams of the 
true light, which by God's grace was plant- 
ed in his heart, began most abundantly to 
burst forth as well in public as in secret ; 
for he was (besides his godly knowledge) 
well learned in philosoph} 1 , he abhorred so- 
phistry, and would that the text of Aris- 
totle should have been better understood 
and more used in the schools than then it 
was; for sophistry had corrupted all, as 



one of the strongest arguments he had seen 
against Knox's authorship, " till of late," says 
he, " 1 have fallen on the edition of Fox in 
Latin, Basil, 1559, fourteen years before Mr 
Knox's death, where, at p. 121, at considerable 
length, is inserted the account of Palricius 
Hamilto?iius, Scotus, which Knox might see, and 
no doubt refers to." — Ed. 



Book L] 



OF RELIGION I 



N SCOTLAND. 



well iu divinity as in humanity. In short 
process of time, the fame of his reasons and 
doctrine troubled the clergy, and came to 
the ears of bishop James Beaton, of whom 
before we have made mention, who being- a 
conjured enemy to Jesus Christ, and one 
that long had the whole regimen of the 
realm, bare impatiently that any trouble 
should be made to that kingdom of dark- 
ness, whereof, within this realm, he was 
the head ; and, therefore, he so travailed 
with the said Mr Patrick, that he got him 
to Saint Andrews • where, after the confer- 
ence of diverse days, he had his freedom 
and liberty ; the said bishop and his bloody 
butchers, called doctors, seemed to approve 
his doctrine, and to grant that many things 
craved reformation in the ecclesiastical re- 
gimen ; and, amongst the rest, there was one 
that secretly consented with him in almost all 
things, named friar Alexander Campbell, a 
man of good wit and learning, but yet cor- 
rupt by the world, as after we will hear. 
When the bishops and clergy had fully un- 
derstood the mind and judgment of the said 
Mr Patrick, and fearing that by him their 
kingdom should be indamaged, they tra- 
vailed with the king, who then was young 
and altogether addict to their command- 
ment, that he should pass in pilgrimage to 
St Dothes of Ross, to the end that no in- 
tercession should be made for the life of the 
innocent servant of God, who suspecting no 
such cruelty, as in their hearts was conclud- 
ed, remained still (a lamb among the wolves) 
till that upon a night, he was intercepted 
in his chamber, and by the bishop's band 
carried to the castle, where that night he 
was kept, and upon the morning produced 
in judgment ; he was condemned to die by 
fire for the testimony of God's truth. The 
articles for the which he suffered, were but 
of pilgrimage, purgatory, prayer to saints, 
and for the dead, and such trifles. Albeit 
that matters of greater importance had been 
in question, as his treatise, which in the 
end we have added, may witness. Now 
that the condemnation of the said Mr Pa- 
trick should have greater authority, they 
caused the same to be subscribed by all 
those of any estimation that with them 
were present ; and to make their number 



great, they took the subscription of ohild- 
ren, if they were of tire nobility ; for the 
earl of Cassilis, which last deceased in 
France, then being but twelve or thirteen 
years of age, was compelled to subscribe his 
death, as himself did confess. Immediately 
after dinner, the fire was prepared before 
the Old College, and he led to the place of 
execution ; and yet men supposed, that all 
was done but to give unto him a terror, and 
to have caused him to have recanted, and 
have become recreant to those bloody 
beasts ; but God, for his own glory, for the 
comfort of his servant, and for manifesta- 
tion of their beastly tyranny, had otherwise 
decreed : for he so strengthened his faithful 
witness, that neither the love of life, nor 
yet the fear of that cruel death, could move 
him a jot to swerve from the truth once 
professed. At the place of execution, he 
gave to his servant, who had been chamber- 
cheild [servant] to him of a long time, his 
gown, his coat, bonnet, and such like gar- 
ments, saying, st These will not profit in 
the fire, they will profit thee; after this, 
of me thou canst receive no commodity, ex- 
cept the example of my death, which I pray 
thee bear in mind : for albeit it be bitter to 
the flesh, and fearful before men, yet it is 
the entrance unto eternal life, which none 
shall possess that deny Christ Jesus before 
this wicked generation." The innocent ser- 
vant of God, being bound to the stake in the 
midst of some coals, some timber, and other 
matter appointed for the fire, a train of pow- 
der was made and set on fire, which gave to 
the blessed martyr of God a glais, * skrump- 
led [wrinkled or shrivelled] his left hand, and 
that side of his face, but neither kindled the 
Avood nor yet the coals ; and so remained, 
the appointed to death, in torment, till 
that men ran to the castle again for more 
powder, and fir wood more able to take fire, 
which at last being kindled, with loud voice 
he cried, " Lord Jesus receive my spirit : 
how long shall darkness overwhelm this 
realm ? and how long wilt thou suffer this 
tyranny of men ?" The fire was slow, there- 
tore was his torment the more ; but most of 
all was he grieved by certain wicked men, 

* A slight injurious pressure in passing. 



8 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1527 



among- whom Campbell the black friar (of 1 
whom we spake before) was principal, who 
continually cried, " Convert, heretic, call 
upon our Lady, say, Salve, regina" &c. To 
whom he answered, " Depart and trouble 
me not, ye messengers of Satan," But while 
that the foresaid friar still roared one thing-, 
in great vehemency, he said unto him, 
" Wicked man, thou knowest the contrary, 
to me thou hast confessed, I appeal thee 
before the tribunal seat of Christ Jesus." 
After which, and other words, which well 
could not be understood nor marked, both 
for the tumult and vehemence of the fire, 
the witness of Christ Jesus got victory, 
after long sufferance, the last of February, 
in the year of God 1527 years. The said 
friar departed this life within few days 
after, in what estate we refer to the mani- 
festation of the general day. But it was 
plainly known, that he died in Glasgow in 
a frenzy, and as one despaired. Now, that 
all men may understand what was the sin- 
gular erudition and godly knowledge of the 
said Mr Patrick, we have inserted this his 
little pithy work, containing his assertions 
and determinations concerning the law, the 
office of the same, concerning faith, and the 
true fruits thereof ; first by the said Mr Pa- 
trick collected in Latin, and after translated 
in English. 

OF THE LAW. 

The law is a doctrine that biddeth good, 
and forbiddeth evil, as the commandments 
here contained do specify. 

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

I. Thou shalt worship but one God, II. 
Thou shalt make thee no image to worship 
it. III. Thou shalt not swear by his name 
in vain. IV. Hold the Sabbath day holy. 

V. Honour thy father and thy mother. 

VI. Thou shalt not kill. VII. Thou shalt 
not commit adultery. VIII. Thou shalt 
not steal. IX. Thou shalt bear no false 
witness. X. Thou shalt not desire ought 
that belongeth to thy neighbour. 

He that loveth God and his neighbour, 
keepeth all the commandments of God. 
Love the Lord thy God with all thine 
heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy 



mind. This is the first and great command- 
ment. The second is like unto this, Love 
thy neighbour as thyself. In these two 
commandments hang all the law and the 
prophets. He that loveth God loveth his 
neighbour. If any man say, he loveth God, 
and yet hateth his neighbour, he is a liar : 
He that loveth not his brother whom he 
hath seen, how can he love God Avhom he 
hath not seen. He that loveth his neigh- 
bour as himself, keepeth the whole com- 
mandments of God. Whatsoever that ye 
would that men should do unto you, even 
so do ye unto them ; for this is the law 
and the prophets. He that loved his neigh- 
bour, fulfilled the law ; thou shalt not com- 
mit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt 
not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness 
against thy neighbour, thou shalt not de- 
sire, and so forth, if there be any other 
commandment, all are comprehended under 
this saying, Love thy neighbour as thy- 
self. He that loveth his neighbour keepeth 
all the commandments of God, Rom. xiii. 
Gal. v. He that loveth God, loveth his 
neighbour, 1 Jo. iv. Ergo, He that loveth 
God keepeth his commandments. He that 
hath the faith, loveth God: My Father 
loved you, because ye loved me, and be- 
lieved that I came of God. He that hath 
the faith, keepeth ail the commandments of 
God : He that hath the faith, loveth God ; 
and he that loveth God, keepeth all the com- 
mandments of God : Ergo, He that hath 
faith, keepeth all the commandments of 
God. He that keepeth one commandment, 
keepeth them all, for without faith it is im- 
possible to keep any of the commandments 
of God ; and he that has faith, keeps all the 
commandments of God: Ergo, He that 
keeps one commandment, keepeth them all. 
He that keepeth not all the commandments 
of God, he keepeth none of them ; he that 
keepeth one of the commandments of God, 
keeps all : Ergo, He that keeps not all the 
commandments, he keeps none of them. It 
is not in our power, without grace, to keep 
any of God's commandments, and grace is 
not in our power : Ergo, It is not in our 
power to keep any of the commandments 
of God. Even so may you reason concern- 
ing the Holy Ghost and faith. The law 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



was given to show us our sins. By the 
Jaw comes the knowledge of sin ; 1 knew 
not what sin meant, but through the law ; 
I knew not Avhat lust meant, except the 
law had said, Thou shalt not lust. With- 
out law sin was dead, that is, moved me 
not ; neither wist I that it was sin, which 
notwithstanding was sin, and forbidden by 
the law. The law biddeth us do that 
which is impossible for us, for it bids us 
keep all the commandments of God; and 
yet it is not in our power to keep any of 
them : Ergo, It bids us do that which is 
impossible for us. Thou wilt say, Where- 
fore doth God command us that which is 
impossible for us ? I answer, To make thee 
know that thou art but evil, and that there 
is no remedy to save thee in thine own 
hand, and that thou must seek remedy at 
some other : for the law doth nothing- but 
command thee. 

OF THE GOSPEL. 

The gospel is as much to say in our 
tongue, as good tidings, like as every one 
of these sentences be. 

Christ is the Saviour of the world. Christ 
is our Saviour. Christ died for us. Christ 
died for our sins. Christ offered himself 
for us. Christ bare our sins upon his back. 
Christ bought us with his blood. Christ 
washed us with his blood. Christ came in 
the world to save sinners. Christ came in 
this world to take away our sins. Christ 
was the price that was given for us, and for 
our sins. Christ was made debtor for our 
sins. Christ hath paid our debt : for he 
died for us. Christ hath made satisfaction 
for us, and for our sins. Christ is our 
righteousness. Christ is our wisdom. Christ 
is our sanctification. Christ is our redemp- 
tion. Christ is our satisfaction. Christ is 
our goodness. Christ has pacified the Fa- 
ther of heaven. Christ is ours, and all his. 
Christ has delivered us from the law, from 
the devil, and from hell. The Father of 
heaven has forgiven us for Christ's sake. 
Or, any such other, as declare unto us the 
mercies of God. 

THE NATURE OF THE LAW AND OF THE 
GOSPEL. 

The law shows us our sin, our condem- 



nation, is the word of ire [wrath], is the 
word of despair, is the word of displeasure. 

The gospel shows us a remedy for it, out 
redemption, is the word of grace, is the word 
of comfort, is the word of peace. 

A DISPUTATION BETWIXT THE LAW AND THE 
GOSPEL. 

The law saith, Pay thy debt, thou art a 
sinner desperate, thou shall die. 

The gospel saith, Christ hath paid it, thy 
sins are forgiven thee, be of good comfort, 
thou shalt be saved. 

The law saith, Make amends for thy sin, 
the Father of heaven is wroth with thee, 
where is thy righteousness, goodness, and. 
satisfaction ? Thou art bound and obligate 
unto me, the devil and hell. 

The gospel saith, Christ hath made it for 
thee, Christ has pacified him with his 
blood ; Christ is thy righteousness, good- 
ness, and satisfaction, Christ has delivered 
thee from them all. 



Faith is to believe God, like as Abraham 
believed God, and it was counted to him 
for righteousness. He that believeth God, 
believeth his word. To believe in him is 
to believe his word, and account it true that 
he speaks ; he that believeth not God's 
word, believes not himself, he counteth him 
false and a liar, and believeth not that he 
may and will fulfil his word : and so he 
denieth both the might of God and him- 
self. 

Faith is the gift of God ; any [every] good 
thing is the gift of God ; faith is good : 
Ergo, Faith is the gift of God. The gift of 
God is not in our power; faith is the gift 
of God : Ergo, Faith is not in our power. 
Without faith it is impossible to please 
God, all that cometh not of faith is sin ; for 
without faith can no man please God. Be- 
sides that he that lacketh faith, he trusts 
not God ; he thattrusteth not God, trusteth 
not in his word ; he that trusteth not in his 
word, holdeth him false and a liar; he that 
holdeth him false and a liar, he believeth 
not that he may do that he promiscth, and 
so denieth he that he is God. And how cau 
a man, being of this fashion, please God ? 

B 



10 



HISTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. x), 1527 



No manner of ways, yea, suppose he did all 
the work of men and angels. All that is 
done in faith pleaseth God ; right is the 
word of God, and all his works in faith. 
Lord, thine eyes look to faith ; that is as 
much to say as, Lord, thou delightest in 
faith. God loveth him that believeth in 
him : How can they then displease him ; 
he that hath the faith is just and good, and 
a good tree bringeth forth good fruit : 
Ergo, All that is in faith done pleaseth 
God. Moreover, he that hath the faith be- 
lieveth God ; he that believeth God, be- 
lieveth his word ; he that believeth his 
words, woteth well that he is true and 
faithful, and may not lie : but knoweth 
well that he may, and will both, fulfil his 
word. How can he then displease him ? 
For thou canst not do any greater honour 
unto God, than to count him true. Thou 
wilt then say, that theft, murder, adultery, 
and all vices please God ? None, verily, for 
they cannot be done in faith ; for a good 
tree beareth good fruit. He that hath the 
faith, woteth well that he pleaseth God ; 
for all that is done in faith pleaseth God. 
Faith is a sureness, faith is a sure confi- 
dence of things that are hoped for, and a 
certainty of things which are not seen. 
The same spirit certifieth our spirit that 
we are the children of God. Moreover, 
he that had the faith, woteth well that God 
will fulfil his word : Ergo, Faith is a sure- 
ness, 

A MAN IS JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. 

Abraham believed God, and it was im- 
puted to him for righteousness. We sup- 
pone, therefore, that a man is justified, 
saith the apostle, without the works of 
the law ; he that worketh not, but believeth 
in him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith 
is counted unto him for righteousness. The 
just man liveth by faith, Habak. ii. Rom. i. 
We wot that a man that is justified, is not 
justified by the works of the law, but by 
the faith of Jesus Christ, and not by the 
deeds of the law. 

OF THE FAITH OF CHRIST. 

The faith of Christ is to believe in him, 
that is, to believe his word, and to believe, 



that he will help thee in all thy need, and 
deliver thee from evil. Thou wilt ask me 
what word ? I answer, the Gospel. He 
that believeth in Christ shall be saved ; he 
that believeth the Son hath eternal life. 
Verily, verily I say unto you, he that be- 
lieveth in me hath eternal life. This 1 
write unto you, that believing in the name 
of the Son of God, ye may know that ye 
have eternal life. Thomas, because thou 
hast seen me thou believest, but happy are 
they that have not seen, and yet believe in 
me. All the prophets to him bear witness, 
that whosoever believeth in him shall have 
remission of their sins. What must I do 
that I may be saved ? The apostle answer- 
eth, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
thou shalt be saved. If thou acknowledge 
with the mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and 
believe in thine heart that God raised him 
up from the death, thou shalt be saved. He 
that believes not in Christ shall be con- 
demned ; he that believes not in the Son, 
shall never see life, but the ire [wrath] of 
God abideth upon him. The Holy Ghost 
shall reprove the world of sin, because they 
believe not in me ; they that believe in 
Jesus Christ are the sons of God. Ye are 
all the sons of God, because ye believe in 
Jesus Christ. He that believes Christ the 
Son of God is saved. Peter said, Thou 
! art Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus 
answered and said unto him, Happy art 
thou, Simon, the son of Jonas, for flesh and 
blood hath not opened unto thee that, but 
my Father which is in heaven. We have 
believed and known, that thou art Christ 
the Son of the living God, which should 
come in the world. I believe, that thou art 
Christ the Son of the living God, which 
should come into the world, These things 
are written that ye might believe that Jesus 
is the Son of God, and that in believing ye 
might have life. I believe that Jesus is the t 
Son of the living God. He that believeth 
God believeth the gospel. He that be- i 
lieveth God believeth his word, and the 
gospel is his word ; therefore, he that be- I 
lieveth God believeth his gospel. 

As Christ is the Saviour of the world, |l 
Christ is our Saviour. Christ bought us I 
with his blood. Christ washed us with his I 



Book I. J OF RELIC I ON 

blood. Christ offered himself for us. Christ 
bare our sins upon his back. He that be- 
lieves not his gospel, believeth not God. He 
that believeth not God's word, believeth not 
himself ; and the gospel is God's word : 
Ergo, He that believeth not the gospel, be- 
lieveth not God himself, and consequently, 
they that believe not as is above written, 
and such other, believe not God. He that 
believes the gospel shall be saved. Go ye 
into all the world, and preach the gospel 
unto every creature. He that believeth and 
is baptized, shall be saved ; but he that be- 
lieved not, shall be condemned. 

A COMPARISON BETWIXT FAITH AND INCRE- 
DULITY, [unbelief] 

Faith is the root of all good ; maketh 
God and man friends ; bringeth God and 
man together. 

Incredulity is the root of all evil ,• maketh 
them deadly foes ; bringeth them sundry. 

All that proceedeth from faith pleaseth 
God. All that proceedeth from incredulity 
displeaseth God. Faith only maketh a man 
good and righteous. Incredulity maketh 
him unjust and evil. Faith only maketh a 
man the member of Christ, the inheritor of 
heaven, the servant of God. Faith showeth 
God to be a sweet Father. Faith holdeth 
stiff [fast] by the word of God, counteth 
God to be true. Faith knoweth God, 
loveth God and his neighbour. Faith only 
savcth, extolleth God and his works. 

Incredulity maketh him the member of 
the devil, the inheritor of hell, the servant 
of the devil. Incredulity maketh God a 
terrible judge. It causeth man wander 
here and there, maketh him false and a liar. 
Incredulity knoweth him not. Incredulity 
loveth neither God nor neighbour, only 
condemneth, extolleth flesh and her own 
deeds. 

of hope. 

Hope is a trusty looking-for of things 
that are promised to come unto us, as we 
hope the everlasting joy which Christ has 
promised unto all that believe in him. We 
should put our hope and trust in God only, 
and in no other thing. It is good to trust in 
God, and not in man : He that trusteth in 



IN SCOTLAND. ' > 

his own heart he is a fool. It is good to 
trust in God, and not in princes : They 
shall be like unto images that make them, 
and all that trust in them : He that trust- 
eth in his own thoughts, does ungodly : 
Cursed be he that trusteth in man : Bid the 
rich men of this world, that they trust not 
in their unstable riches, but that they trust 
in the living God : It is hard for them that 
trust in money to enter into the kingdom 
of God. Moreover, we should trust in hirn 
only, that he may help us ; ergo, we should 
trust in him only. Well is him that trusts 
in God, and woe to him that trusts him not. 
Well is the man that trusts in God, for God 
shall be his trust : He that trusteth in him 
shall understand the truth, " They shall all 
rejoice that trust in thee, they shall all ever 
be glad, and thou wilt defend them. 

OF CHARITY. 

Charity is the love of thy neighbour : 
The rule of charity is, to do as thou 
wouldst were done unto thee ; for charity 
esteemeth all alike, the rich and the poor, 
the friend and the foe, the thankful and 
unthankful, the kinsman and stranger. 

A COMPARISON BETWIXT FAITH, HOPE, AND 
CHARITY. 

Faith cometh of the word of God ; hope 
cometh of faith ; and charity springeth of 
them both. Faith believeth the word ; 
hope trusts after that which is promised by 
the word ; and charity doth good to her 
neighbour, through the love that she has to 
God ; and gladness that is within herself > 
and faith looketh to God and his word, 
hope looketh to his gift and reward, charity 
looketh unto her neighbour's profit ; faith 
receiveth God, hope receiveth his reward, 
charity looketh unto her neighbour wfch a 
glad heart, and that without any respect of 
reward ; faith pertaineth to God only, hope 
to his reward, and charity to her neigh- 
bour. 

OF GOOD WORKS. 

No manner of works makes us righteous: 
we believe that a man shall be justified 
without works. No man is justified by the 
deeds of the law, but by the faith of Jesus 



\2 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1527 



Christ ; and we believe in Jesus Christ that 
we may be justified by the faith of Christ, 
and not by the deeds of the law. If right- 
eousness came by the law, then Christ died 
in vain ; that no man is justified by the law 
it is manifest, for a righteous man liveth by 
his faith; but the law is not of faith. 
Moreover, since Christ the maker of heaven 
and earth, and all that therein is, behoved 
to die for us, we are compelled to grant that 
we were so far drowned in sin, that neither 
our deeds, nor all the creatures that ever 
God made or might make, might have help- 
ed us out of them : Ergo, No deeds nor 
works may make us righteous : No works 
make us unrighteous, for if any works 
made us unrighteous, then the contrary 
works would make us righteous. But it is 
proven that no works can make us right- 
eous : Ergo, No works make us unright- 
eous. * 

WORKS MAKE US NEITHER GOOD NOR EVIL. 

It is proven that works neither make us 
righteous nor unrighteous : Ergo, No works 
neither make us good nor evil, for righteous 
and good are both one thing, and unright- 
eous and evil, one. Good works make not 
a good man, nor evil works an evil man ; 
but a good man maketh good works, and an 
evil man evil works. Good fruit maketh 
not the tree good, nor evil fruit the tree 
evil, but a good tree beareth good fruit, and 
an evil tree evil fruit : a good man cannot 
do evil works, nor an evil man good works 
for an evil tree cannot bear good fruit, nor 
a good tree evil fruit. A man is good be- 
fore he do good works, and an evil man is 
evil before he do evil works, for the tree is 
good before it bear good fruit, and evil be- 
i ore it bear evil fruit : Every man is either 
good or evil ; either make the tree good and 
the fruit good also, or else make the tree 
evil, and the fruit likewise evil also. Every 



* This conclusion taken by itself, is somewhat 
startling ; and it is true only of men as sinners 
by nature, or before they do any works either 
good or evil. The first evil work, or rather act, 
certainly made men unrighteous. " By one 
man's disobedience many were made sinners." 
Hamilton's expression, " No works make us 
unrighteous," instead of opposing, is a strong 
manner of expressing his conviction of this 



man's work is either good or evil, for all 
fruits are either good or evil, either make 
the tree good and the fruit also, or else 
make the tree evil and the fruit of it like- 
wise evil also. A good man is known by 
his works, for a good man doth good works, 
and an evil man evil works, l< Ye shall 
know them by their fruits, for a good tree 
bringeth forth good fruit, and an evil tree 
evil fruit. A man is likened to the tree, 
and his works to the fruit of the tree. Be- 
ware of the false prophets which come unto 
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they 
are ravening wolves, ye shall know them 
by their fruits. 

NONE OF OUR WORKS NEITHER [EITHER] SAVE 
US NOR CONDEMN US. 

It is proven that no works make us either 
righteous or unrighteous, good nor evil ; but 
first we are good before that we do good 
works, and evil before we do evil works : 
Ergo, No work neither condemn us nor 
save us. Thou wilt say, then maketh it no 
matter what we do ? I answer thee, Yes. 
For if you do evil, it is a sure argument 
that thou art evil and want faith ; if you 
do good, it is an argument that thou art 
good and hast faith ; for a good tree beareth 
good fruit, and an evil tree evil fruit ; yet 
good fruit maketh not the tree good, nor 
evil fruit the tree evil, so that man is good 
before he do good works, and evil before 
he do evil works. The man is the tree, the 
works are the fruit, faith maketh the good 
tree, incredulity the evil tree : such a tree, 
such a fruit, such man, such works : for all 
that is done in faith pleaseth God, and are 
good works, and all that is done without 
faith displeaseth God, and are evil works. 
Whosoever thinketh to be saved by his 
works, denieth that Christ is our Saviour, and 
that Christ died for him ; and finally, all [deni- 
eth every] thing that belongeth to Christ. For 



truth, as appears by his own explanation in the 
article immediately following. These articles, 
though expressed in the technical language of the 
schools, are remarkably clear and intelligible. 
They show what sort of theological teaching Lu- 
ther and his colleagues instituted at Wittemberg, 
and what a firm hold the mind of Hamilton had 
got of the fundamental article of the Reforma- 
tion — Justification by faith without works. — Ed. 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



13 



how is he thy Saviour, if thou mightst save 
thyself with thy works ? Or to what end 
should he have died for thee, if any works 
of thine might have saved thee ? What is 
this to say, Christ died for thee ? Is it not 
that thou shouldst have died perpetually, 
and that Christ, to deliver thee from death, 
died for thee, and changed thy perpetual 
death in his own death : For thou madest 
the fault, and he suffered the pain, and that 
for the love he hore to thee before ever 
thou wast born, when thou hadst done nei- 
ther good nor evil. Now since he has paid 
thy debt, thou diest not; no, thou canst 
not, but shouldst have been damned, if his 
death were not. But sure he was punished 
for thee, thou shalt not be punished. Fi- 
nally, he has delivered thee from the con- 
demnation, and desireth nought of thee, but 
that thou shouldst acknowledge what he 
has done for thee, and bear it in mind, 
and that thou wouldst help others for his 
sake both in word and deed, even as he had 
helped thee for nought, and without re- 
ward. O how ready would we be to help 
others, if we knew his goodness and gen- 
tleness towards us ! He is a good and a gen- 
tle Lord, and he does all things for nought. 
Let us, I beseech you, follow his footsteps, 
whom all the world ought to praise and 
worship. Amen. 

HE THAT THIXKETH TO BE SAVED BY HIS 
WORKS, CALLETH HIMSELF CHRIST. 

For he calleth himself a Saviour, which 
appertaineth to Christ only. What is a 
Saviour, but he that saveth ? And thou 
sayest, I save myself, which is as much as 
to say, I am Christ ; for Christ is only [only 
is] the Saviour of the world. We should do 
no good works for that intent to get the in- 
heritance of heaven or remission of sins 
through them, for whosoever believeth to 
get the inheritance of heaven or remission 
of sins through works, he believes not to 
get that for Christ's sake. And they that 
believe that their sins are not forgiven 
them, and that they shall not be saved for 
Christ's sake, they believe not the gospel ; 
for the gospel saith, Thou shalt be saved 
for Christ's sake ; sins are forgiven you for 
Christ's sake. He that believeth not the 



gospel, believeth not God; and consequent- 
ly, they that believe to be saved by their 
works, or to get remission of sins by their 
own deeds, believe not God, but account 
him a liar, and so utterly deny him to be 
God. Thou wilt say, Shall we then do no 
good works ? I say not so : but I say, we 
should do no good works, for that intent to 
get the kingdom of heaven, or remission 
of sins ; for if we believe to get the inheri- 
tance of heaven through good works, then 
we believe not to get it through the pro- 
mise of God. Or if we think to get remis- 
sion of our sins, as said is, we believe not 
that they are forgiven us by Christ, and 
so we count God a liar; for God saith, 
Thou shalt have the inheritance of heaven 
for my Son's sake. You say, It is not so, 
but I win [gain] it through my own works 
So I condemn not good works, but I con- 
demn the false trust in any works, for all 
the works a man putteth confidence in, are 
therewith intoxicate, or impoisoned, and 
become evil. 

Wherefore do good works, but beware 
thou do them to get any good through 
them, for if thou do, thou receivest the 
good, not as the gift of God, but as debt 
unto thee, and makest thyself fellow [equal] 
with God, because thou wilt take nothing 
from him for nought. What needeth he 
any thing of thine, who giveth all thing, 
and is not the poorer ? Therefore do no- 
thing to him, but take of him, for he is a 
gentle Lord, and with a gladder heart will 
give vs all things that we need, than we 
take it of him. So that if we want any 
thing, let us wyte [blame] ourselves. Press 
not then to the inheritance of heaven, 
through presumption of thy good works ; 
for if thou do, thou countest thyself holy 
and equal unto him, because thou wilt 
take nothing of him for nought ; and so 
shalt thou fall as Lucifer fell from the 
heaven for his pride. * This ends the 



* The reader will have observed, that Hamil- 
ton's quotations from Scripture are not accord- 
ing to our authorized version, which was not 
made for three-fourths of a century after his 
time. The sense is, indeed, the same, and the 
verbal difference is not great. I suppose the 
only version in the vulgar tongue to which Ha- 
milton had access, was Wickliffe's; but I find 



14 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[about a. t>. 1530 



said Mr Patrick's articles. And so we re- 
turn to our history. 

When those cruel wolves had, as they 
supposed, clean devoured the prey, they 
found themselves in worse case than they 
were before ; for then within St Andrews, 
yea, almost within the whole realm, who 
heard of that fact, there was none found 
who began not to inquire, wherefore was 
Mr Patrick Hamilton burnt ? And when 
his articles were rehearsed, question was 
h olden, if such articles were necessary to 
be believed under the pain of damnation. 
And so within short space many begun to 
call in doubt that which before they held 
for a certain verity, in so much that the 
university of St Andrews, and St Leo- 
nard's college principally, by the labours 
of Mr Gavin Logie, and the noviciates of 
the abbey by the sub-prior, began to smell 
somewhat of the verity, and to espy the 
vanity of the received superstition ; yea, 
within few years after began both black and 
grey friars publicly to preach against the 
pride and idle life of bishops, and against 
the abuse of the whole ecclesiastical estate, 
amongst whom was one called friar Wil- 
liam Airth, who, in a sermon preached in 
Dundee, spake somewhat more liberally 
against the licentious life of the bishops nor 
[than] they could well bear. He spake farther 
against the abuse of cursing [excommunica- 
tion] and of miracles. The bishop of Brechin, 
having his placeboes and jackmen [followers 
and armed men] in the town, buffeted the 
friar, and called him heretic. The friar, im- 
patient of the injury received, passed to St 
Andrews, and did communicate the heads 
of his sermon with Mr John Mair, whose 
word then was holden as an oracle in mat- 
ters of religion ; and being- assured of him 
that such doctrine might well be defended, 
and that he would defend it, for it contain- 
ed no heresy, there was a day appointed 
to the said friar to make repetition of the 



on comparison, that his quotations differ from 
it also. As he wrote his Tract originally in 
Latin, it is probable he used the Vulgate, and 
then translated the language of it along with his 
own Latin, into the vulgar language of his coun- 
try. Long before his time Wickliffe's was read 
in Scotland. " Before the year 1500, Murdoch 



same sermon : and advertisement was given 
to all such as were offended at the former 
to be present. And so in the parish kirk 
of St Andrews, upon the day appointed, 
appeared the said friar, and had amongst 
his auditors, Mr John Mair, Mr George 
Lockhart, the abbot of Cambuskenneth, 
Mr Patrick Hepburn, prior then of St An- 
drews, with all the doctors and masters of 
the universities. The theme of his ser- 
mon was, " Verity is the strongest of all 
things." His discourse of cursing was, 
That if it were rightly used, it was the 
most fearful thing upon the face of the 
earth ; for it was the very separation of 
man from God ; but that it should not 
be used rashly, and for every light cause, 
but only against open and incorrigible 
sinners : but now, said he, the avarice of 
priests, and the ignorance of their office, 
has caused it altogether to be vilipended 
[despised, or evil spoken of]. For the 
priest, said he, whose duty and office it is 
to pray for the people, stands up on Sun- 
day, and cries, " One has tint [lost] a spurtle ; 
there is a flail stolen beyond the burn ; the 
gudewife of the other side of the gate has 
tint a horn spoon ; God's malison [curse] and 
mine I give to them that know of this gear 
and restore it not." How the people mocked 
their cursing, he farther told a merry tale, 
how after a sermon that he had at Dun- 
fermline, he came to a house where gossips 
were drinking their Sunday's penny ; and he 
being dry, asked drink ; " Yes, father," said 
one of the gossips, " ye shall have drink, 
but ye man [must] first resolve a doubt 
which is risen amongst us, to wit, What 
servant will serve a man best on least ex- 
penses ?" " The good angel," said I, " who 
is man's keeper, who makes great service 
without expense." " Tush," said the gossip, 
" we mean no so high matters; we mean, 
What honest man will do greatest service 
for least expense ?" " And while I was 
musing," said the friar, " what that should 



Nisbet, being driven from his native country, 
procured a copy of the New Testament in ma- 
nuscript, (of Wickliffe's translation no doubt) 
which, on his return, he concealed in a vault, 
and read to his family and acquaintance during 
the night." M'Crie's Life of Melville, vol. i. p. 
IH.—£<1. 



Book l.J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



L5 



mean," he said, " I see, father, that the 
greatest clerks are not the wisest men. 
Know ye not how the bishops and their 
officials serve us husbandmen ? Will they 
not give us a letter of cursing- for a plack, 
to last for a year, to curse all that look 
over our dike, and that keeps our corn bet- 
ter nor [than] the sleeping" boy that will have 
three shillings of fee, a sark, and a pair of 
shoon in the year ; and, therefore, if their 
cursing dow [can effect] any thing-, we hold 
the bishops best cheap servants in that behalf, 
that are within the realm." As concerning 
miracles, he declared what diligence the an- 
cients took to try true miracles from false. 
But now, said he, greediness of priests not 
only receive false miracles, but also they che- 
rish and fee knaves for that purpose, that 
their chapels may be the better renowned, 
and their offering's may be augmented, And 
thereupon are many chapels founded, as 
that our lady were mightier, and that she 
took more pleasure in one place than in 
another ; as of late days our lady of Kers- 
grange has hopped from one green hillock 
to another: But honest men of St An- 
drews, said he, if ye love your wives and 
daughters, hold them at home, or else send 
them in honest company ; for if ye knew 
what miracles were kithed [exhibited] there, 
ye would [neither] thank God nor our lady. 
And thus he merrily taunted their trysts of 
whoredom and adultery used at such devo- 
tion, Another article was judged more 
hard, for he alleged the common law, that 
the civil magistrate might correct the kirk- 
men, and deprive them of their benefices 
for open vices. Another day, the same 
friar made another sermon of the abbot 
Unreason, * unto whom, and whose laws 
he compared prelates of that age ; for they 
were subdued to no laws, no more than 
was the abbot Unreason. And among 
other things, he told such a merry bourde 
[jest] : " There was," said he, " a prelate, 
or at least a prelate's peer, a true servant 
to the king of love, who, upon a night after 
supper, asked at his gentlemen, by the faith 



* This was a sort of farce of the lowest kind, 
got up for the amusement of the people ; and it 
was attended by such gross licentiousness, that 
it was put down by act of Parliament, in the 



that they owed to the king of love, that they 
should truly declare how many sundry wo- 
men any one of them had had, and how 
many of them were men's wives ? One 
answered, ' he had lain with live, and two 
of them were married.' The other an- 
swered, ' I have had seven, and three of 
them are married.' It came at last to my 
lord himself, who making very nice for a 
little space, gave in the end a plain confes- 
sion, and said, ' I am the youngest man, 
and yet have I had the round dozen, and 
seven of them are men's wives.' Now," said 
the friar, " this god and king of love to whom 
our prelates make homage, is the master 
devil of hell, from whom such fruits do pro- 
ceed." This prelate was known by his pro- 
per tokens to have been prior Patrick Hep- 
burn, now bishop of Murray, who to this 
day has continued in the profession that he 
once made to his god the king of love. 

It was supposed, notwithstanding this 
kind of preaching, that this friar remained 
papist in his heart, for the rest of the friars 
fearing to lose the benedictions of the bi- 
shops, to wit, their malt and their meal, 
and their other appointed pensions, caused 
the friar to flee to England, where, for de- 
fence of the pope and papistry, he was im- 
prisoned at King Henry's command ; but 
so it pleased God to open the mouth of Ba- 
laam's own ass, to cry out against the vi- 
cious lives of the clergy of that age. Short 
after this, new consultation was taken that 
some should be burnt, for men began very 
liberally to speak. A merry gentleman, 
named John Lindsay, familiar to bishop 
James Beaton, standing by when consulta- 
tion was had, said, " My lord, if ye burn any 
man, except ye follow my counsel, ye will 
utterly destroy yourselves ; if ye will burn 
them, let them be burnt in ho we [low] cel- 
lars, for the reek of Mr Patrick Hamilton 
has infected as many as it did blow upon." 
Thus it pleased God, that they should be 
taunted in their own faces. But here fol- 
lows the most merry of all. Alexander 
Ferrier, who had been imprisoned seven 



not over- virtuous reign of Queen Mary. See a 
long amusing article on the subject in Ja- 
mieson's Dictionary of the Scotish language. — 
Ed. 



16 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[about a. b. 1580 



years in the tower of London, Sir John 
Ding-well, according to the charity of kirk- 
men, entertained his wife, and wasted the 
poor man's substance ; for the which cause, 
at his returning, he spake more liberally of 
priests than they could bear, and so was he 
delated to be accused of heresy, and call- 
ed to his answer at St Andrews. He leapt 
up merrily upon the scaffold, and casting a 
gamound, [gambol] said, " Where are the 
rest of the players ?" Mr Andrew Oli- 
phant offended therewith, said, u It shall 
be no play to you, Sir, before ye depart ;" 
and so began to read his accusation. The 
first article whereof was, " That he despit- 
ed the mass." His answer was, " I hear 
more masses in eight days than three bi- 
shops there sitting say in a year." Ac- 
cused, secondly, " For contemption of the 
sacraments." " The priests," said he, "were 
the most common contemners of sacra- 
ments, and especially of matrimony;" and 
that he witnessed by many there present 
of the priests, and named the men's wives 
with whom they had meddled, especially 
Sir John Dingwell, who had seven years 
together abused his own wife, and con- 
sumed his substance. And says, " Because 
I complain of such inj uries, I am here sum- 
moned and accused, as one that is worthy 
to be burnt: For God's cause," said he, 
" will ye take wives of your own, that I and 
others whose wives ye have abused, may 
be revenged upon you." Then bishop Ga- 
vin Dunbar, named the old bishop of Aber- 
deen, thinking to justify himself before the 
people, said, " Carle, thou shalt not know 
my wife." The said Alexander answered, 
" My lord, ye are too old, but with the 
grace of God, I shall drink with your daugh- 
ter before I depart." And thereat was smil- 
ing of the best, and loud laughter of some ; 
for the bishop had a daughter married with 
Andrew Balfour in that same town. Then 
the bishops bade, " Away with the carle." 
But he answered, " Nay, I will not depart 
this hour, for I have more to speak against 
the vices of priests, than I can express this 
whole day." And so after diverse purposes, 
they commanded him to burn his bill ; and 
he demanding the cause, they said, " Be- 
cause ye have spoken those articles where- 



of you are accused." His answer was, 
" The muckle devil bear them away that 
first and last spake them." And so he took 
the bill, and chewing it, he afterwards spit 
it in Mr Andrew Oliphant's face, saying, 
" Now, burn it or drown it, whether ye 
will, ye shall hear no more of me ; but I 
must have somewhat of every one of you, 
to begin my pack again, which a priest and 
my wife, a priest's whore, have spent." 
And so every prelate and rich priest, glad 
to be quit of his evil [tongue], gave him 
somewhat, and so departed he ; for he un- 
derstood nothing of religion. * But so fear- 
ful it was to speak any thing against priests, 
that the least word spoken against them, yea 
albeit it were spoken in a man's sleep, was 
judged heresy ; and that was practised upon 
Richard Carmichael, yet alive in Fife, who 
being young and a singer in the chapel royal 
of Stirling, happened in his sleep to say, " The 
devil take away the priests, for they are a 
greedy pack." He was therefore accused 
by Sir John Clapperton, dean of the said 
chapel, was compelled therefore to burn his 
bill [i. e. recant]. But God short after rais- 
ed up against them stronger champions. 
For Alexander Seyton, a black friar of 
good learning and estimation, began to tax 
the corrupt doctrine of the papistry. For 
the space of a whole lent, he taught the 
commandments of God only, ever beating 
in the ears of his auditors, " that the law 
of God had of many years not been truly 
taught ; for men's traditions had obscured 
the purity of it." These were his accus- 
tomed propositions : " First, Christ Jesus 
is the end and perfection of the law. 2d. 
There is no sin where God's law is not 
violated. 3d. To satisfy for sins, lies not 
in man's power, but the remission thereof 
cometh by unfeigned repentance, and the 
faith apprehending God the Father merci- 
ful in Christ Jesus his Son." While often- 
times he puts auditors in mind of these and 
the like heads; he makes no mention of 
purgatory, pardons, pilgrimages, prayers to 

- 

* It was this that saved him. The clergy- 
could suffer great freedom of speech from wicked 
men ; but the least appearance of godliness was 
enough to condemn any one.— -Ed. 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



17 



saints, neither of such trifles : The dumb 
doctors, and the rest of that forsworn rab- 
ble, began to suspect him ; and yet they 
said nothing publicly till lent was ended, 
and he passed to Dundee ; and then in his 
absence, hired for that purpose, openly con- 
demned the holy doctrine, which before he 
had taught, which coming to his ears, the 
said friar Alexander then being in Dundee, 
without delay he returned to St Andrews, 
caused immediately to jow [ring] the bell, 
and to give signification that he would 
preach, as that he did indeed, in the which 
sermon he affirmed, and that more plainly 
than at any other time, whatsoever he had 
taught in all his sermons before the whole 
lent tide preceding. Adding, " That with- 
in Scotland there were no true bishops, if 
that bishops should be known by such 
notes and virtues, as saint Paul requires in 
bishops." This delation flew with wings 
to the bishops' ears, who, but [without] far- 
ther delay, send for the said friar Alexander, 
who began grievously to complain, and 
sharply to accuse that he had so slander- 
ously spoken of the dignity of bishops, as 
to say, " That it behoved a bishop to be a 
preacher, or else he was but a dumb dog, 
and fed not the flock, but fed his own 
belly." The man being Avitty, and minded 
of that which was a most assured defence, 
said, " My lord, the reporters of such 
things are manifest liars." Whereat the 
bishop rejoiced, and said, " Your answer 
pleases me well ; I never could think of 
you, that ye would have been so foolish as 
to affirm such things : Where are these 
knaves that have brought me this tale ?" 
Who compearing, and affirming the same 
that they did before ; he still replied, " that 
they were liars." But while the witnesses 
were multiplied, and men were brought to 
attention, he turned him to the bishop, and 
said, " My Lord, ye may hear, and consi- 
der what ears these asses have, who can- 
not decern betwixt Paul, Isaiah, Zecha- 
riah, and Malachi, and friar Alexander Sey- 
ton. In very deed, my lord, I said, that 
Paul says, It behoves a bishop to be a 
teacher. Isaiah said, That they that fed 
not the flock are dumb dogs ; and Zeeha- 
riah says, They are idle pastors. I, of 



my own head, affirmed nothing, but de- 
clared what the Spirit 'of God before had 
pronounced. At whom, my lord, if ye be 
not offended, justly ye cannot be offended 
at me ; and so yet again, my lord, I say, that 
they are manifest liars, that reported unto 
you that I said, that ye and others that 
preach not are no bishops but belly gods." 
Albeit after that, the bishop was highly of- 
fended, as well at the scoff and bitter mock 
as at the bold liberty of that learned man ; 
yet durst he not hazard at that present to 
execute his malice conceived ; for not 
only feared he the learning and bold spirit 
of the man, but also the favour that he 
had, as well of the people as the prince, 
King James the Fifth, of whom he had 
good credit ; for -he was at that time his 
confessor, and had exhorted him to the fear 
of God, to the meditation of God's law, 
and unto purity of life : but the bishop, 
with his complices, foreseeing what dan- 
ger might come to their estate, if such fa- 
miliarity should continue betwixt the prince 
and a man so learned, and so repugning to 
their effections, laboured by all means, to 
make the said friar Alexander odious unto 
the king's grace, and easily found the 
means by the grey friars, who by their hy- 
pocrisy deceive many, to traduce the in- 
nocent as a heretic. This accusation 
was easily received of the carnal prince, 
who altogether was given unto the filthy 
lusts of the flesh, and abhorred all counsel 
that repugned thereto. And because he 
did remember what a terror the admoni- 
tions of the said Alexander was unto his 
corrupted conscience, without resistance he 
subscribed to their accusation, affirming, 
that he knew more than they did in that 
matter ; for he understood well enough 
that he smelled of the new doctrine, by 
such things as he had shown to him under 
confession ; and therefore he promised, that 
he should follow the counsel of the bishops 
in punishing of him, and of all others of 
that sect. These things understood by the 
said Alexander, as well by informations of 
his friends and familiars, as by the strange 
countenance of the king unto him, provid- 
ed the next way to avoid the fury of a 
blinded prince. And so in his habit he de- 
c 



18 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION [about a. d. 1530 



parted the realm; and coming- to Berwick, 
he wrote back to the king's grace his com- 
plaint and admonition. The very tenor and 
copy whereof follows, and is this. 

" Most gracious and sovereign lord, un- 
der the Lord and King of all, of whom only 
thy highness and majesty has power and 
authority to exercise justice within this 
thy realm under God, who is King and 
Lord over all realms ; and thy grace, and all 
mortal kings, are but only servants unto 
that only immortal prince Christ Jesus, &c. 
It is not, I wot, unknown to thy grace's 
highness, how that thy grace's umquhille 
servant and orator — and ever shall be to my 
life's end — is departed out of the realm unto 
the next adjacent of England ; not-the- 
less, I believe the cause of my departing is 
unknown to your grace's majesty : which 
only is, because the bishops and kirkmen 
of thy realm have had heretofore such au- 
thority upon thy subjects, that apparently 
they were rather king and you the subject ; 
which injust regimen is of the self false, 
and contrary to holy scripture and law of 
God : then [seeing] thou art their king and 
master, and they the subjects, which is very 
true and testified expressly by the word of 
God. And also, because they will give no 
man of any degree or state — whom they oft 
falsely call heretics — audience, time, nor 
place to speak nor have defence, which is 
against all law, both the old law, called the 
law of Moses, and the new law of the 
evangel. So that if I might have had au- 
dience and place to speak, and have shown 
my just defence, conform to the law of 
God, I should never have fled to any other 
realm, suppose it should have cost me my 
life. But because I believed that I should 
have had no audience nor place — they are 
so great with thy grace, — I departed, not 
doubting, but moved of God, unto a better 
time, that God illuminate thy grace's eyes, 
to give every man audience,— as thou 
shouldst and mayst, and art bound of the 
law of God, — who is accused to the death. 
And to certify thy highness that these are 
no vain words, but of deed and effect, 
here 1 offer me to thy grace to come in 
thy realm again, so that thy grace will give 



me audience, and hear what I have for me 
of the law of God : and cause any bishop 
or abbot, friar or secular, who is most 
cunning, — some of them cannot read their 
matins that are made judges of heresy, — to 
impugn me by the law of God ; and if my 
part be found wrong, thy grace being pre- 
sent and judge, I refuse no pain worthy or 
condign for my fault. And if that I con- 
vict them by the law of God, and they 
have nothing to lay to my charge but the 
law of man and their own inventions, to 
uphold their vain glory and prideful life, 
and daily scourging of thy poor lieges ; I 
report me to thy grace, as judge, whether 
he has the victory who holds him at the 
law of God, which cannot fail nor be false, 
or they who hold them at the law of 
man, which is right oft plain contrary and 
against the law of God, and therefore of 
necessity false, and full of leasings : for all 
things which are contrary to the verity — 
which is Christ and his law— is of necessity 
a leasing. And to witness that this comes 
of all my heart, I shall remain in Berwick 
while I get thy grace's answer, and shall 
without fail return, having thy hand write, 
that I may have audience and place to 
speak. No more I desire of thee ; whereof, 
if I had been sure, I should never have de- 
parted. That you may know the truth 
thereof, if fear of the justness of my cause, 
or dread of persecution for the same, had 
moved me to depart, I would not so plea- 
santly revert : only distrust was the cause 
of my departing. Pardon me to say that 
which lies to thy grace's charge : thou art 
bound by the law of God — suppose they 
falsely lie, saying it pertains not to thy 
grace to intromit with such matters — to 
cause every man, in any case accused of 
his life, to have his just defence, and his 
accusers produced conform to their own 
law. They blind thy grace's eyes, that 
know nothing of this law : but if I prove 
not this out of their own law, I offer me 
unto the death. Thy grace, therefore, by 
experience may daily learn, — seeing they 
neither fear the king of heaven, as their 
lives testify, neither their natural prince, 
as their usurped power in their actions 
show, — why thy highness should lie no 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION JN SCOTLAND. 



19 



longer blinded. Thou mayest consider that 
they pretend nothing- else, but only the 
maintenance and uphold of their bairded 
mules, * augmenting- of their insatiable ava- 
rice, and continual down thringing [over- 
throwing] and swallowing up thy poor 
lieges, neither preaching nor teaching out 
of the law of God — as they should — to the 
rude ignorant people, but aye contending 
who may be most high, most rich, and 
nearest thy grace, to put the temporal 
lords and lieges out of thy conceit and fa- 
vour, who should be and are most tender 
servants to thy grace in all time of need, to 
the defence of thee and thy crown : and where 
they desire thy grace to putt at [push at] thy 
temporal lords and lieges, because they de- 
spise their vicious life, what else intend 
they but only thy death, as thou mayest ea- 
sily perceive, suppose they colour their 
false intent and mind, with the pursuit of 
heresy ; for when thy barons are put down, 
what art thou but the king of bane, f and 
then of necessity man [must] be guided by 
them, and then no doubt, where a blind 
man is guide, man [must] be a fall in the 
mire. Therefore let thy grace take hardi- 
ment and authority, which thou hast of 
God, and suffer not their cruel persecution 
to proceed, without audience given to him 
that is accused, and just place of defence : 
And then, no doubt, you shall have thy 
lieges' hearts, and all that they can or may 
do in time of need, — tranquillity, justice, 
and policy in thy realm, and finally, the 
kingdom of the heavens. Please to gar 
[cause] have this or the copy to the clergy 
orkirkmen, and keep the principal, and thy 
grace shall have experience, if I do against 
one word that I have hecht [promised]. 
I shall daily make my hearty devotion 



* David Buchanan makes this " barded mules," 
hut he does not say what barded means. It re- 
lates to the furniture, or rich trappings of a 
horse. The most concise English is, their ca- 
parisoned steeds. — Ed. 

f D. B. makes this " king of land hut not of 
men," which Dr Jamieson thinks erroneous. It 
means, Thou art only such a king as children 
and others make in their plays. — Ed. 

$ Besides the crime of possessing a New Tes- 
tament, Forrest was reported to have spoken fa- 
vourably of Patrick Hamilton ; but even this 
they could not prove against him, till they got his 
confessor to sound him on the subject, lie was 



for thy grace, and the prosperity and wel- 
fare of thy body and soul. I doubt not hut 
thy gracious highness will give answer of 
these presents unto the presenter of this 
unto thy highness. Of Berwick, by thy 
highness' servant and orator. 

Sic subscribitur, Alexander Sevton. 

This letter was delivered to the king's 
own hands, and of many read ; but what 
could ghostly admonitions avail, where the 
pride and corruption of prelacy commanded 
what they pleased, and the flattery of cour- 
tiers fostered the insolent prince to all im- 
piety. 

From the death of that constant witness 
of Jesus Christ, Mr Patrick Hamilton, God 
disclosing the wickedness of the wicked, as 
before we have heard ; there was one For- 
rest of Linlithgow taken, who, after long 
imprisonment in the said tower of St An- 
drews, was adjudged to the fire by the said 
bishop James Beaton and his doctors, for 
none other crime, but because he had a New 
Testament in English ; J farther of that 
history we have not, except that he died 
constantly, and with great patience at St 
Andrews. After whose death, the flame of 
persecution ceased, till the death of Mr 
Norman Gourlay, the space of ten years or 
thereby ; not that these bloody beasts ceased 
by all means to suppress the light of God, 
and to trouble such as in any sort were 
suspected to abhor their corruption, but be- 
cause the realm was troubled with intestine 
and civil wars, in the which much blood 
was shed ; first at Melrose, betwixt the 
Douglas and Buccleuch in the year of God 
1526, the 24th of July. Next at Linlith- 
gow, betwixt the Hamiltons and the carl 
of Lennox, where the said earl with many 



so partially enlightened as to submit to confes- 
sion ; and he frankly opened his mind to one 
whom he regarded as his spiritual comforter, 
declaring that he thought Hamilton's doctrines 
were not heretical. This being treacherously 
communicated to his judges, procured his con- 
demnation. He complained bitterly of the vil- 
lany that had been practised against him. His 
knowledge of the truth must have been compa- 
ratively small, seeing he wished to conceal if, 
but his faith must have been real, seeing he 
chose death rather than to deny the truth when 
he could no longer conceal his knowledge of it. 
— Ed. 



20 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



fA. ». 1534 



others lost his life, the thirteenth day of 
September. And last, betwixt the king 
himself and the said Douglas, whom he ba- 
nished the realm, and held them in exile 
during- his whole days. By reason of these, 
we say, and of other troubles, the bishops 
and their bloody bands could not find the 
time so favourable unto them as they re- 
quired, to execute their tyranny. 

In this mid time, so did the wisdom of 
God provide, that Henry the Eighth, king 
of England, did abolish from his realm the 
name and authority of the pope of Rome, 
suppress the abbeys, and other places of 
idolatry, which gave some esperance [hope] 
to diverse realms, that some godly reforma- 
tion should have thereof ensued. And, 
therefore, from this our country did diverse 
learned men, and others that lived in fear 
of persecution, repair to that realm, where, 
albeit, they found not such purity as they 
wished, — and therefore diverse of them 
sought other countries, — yet they escaped 
the tyranny of merciless men, and were re- 
served to better times, that they might 
fructify within this church in diverse 
places and parts, and in diverse vocations. 
Alexander Seyton remained in England, 
and publicly, with great praise and com- 
fort of many, taught the evangel in all sin- 
cerity certain years. And albeit the craf- 
tiness of Winchester and others, circum- 
vened the said Alexander, that they caused 
him, at Paul's Cross, to affirm certain things 
that repugned to his former true doctrine ; 
yet it is no doubt but that as God had po- 
tently reigned with him [assisted him] in all 
his life, that also in his death, which 
shortly after followed, he found the mer- 
cy of his God, w r hereupon he exhorted all 
men ever to depend. Alexander Alasins, 
Mr John Fife, and that famous man 
Dr Machabseus, departed unto Dutchland, 
where by God's providence they were dis- 
tributed to several places. Macdoual, for 
his singular providence, besides his learn- 
ing and godliness, was elected burrow- 
master in one of their steids ; Alasins was 
appointed to the university of Leipsic, and 
so was Mr John Fife, where, for their ho- 
nest behaviour and great erudition, they 
were holden in admiration with all the 



godly. And in what honour, credit, and 
estimation Dr Machabseus was with Chris- 
tianus king of Denmark, Capmanhoven, 
and famous men of diverse nations, can tes- 
tify. Thus did God provide for his ser- 
vants, and did frustrate the expectation of 
those bloody beasts, who by the death of 
one in whom the light of God did clearly 
shine, intended to have suppressed Christ's 
truth for ever within this realm : but the 
contrary had God decreed. For his death 
was the cause, as said is, that many did 
awake from the deadly sleep of ignorance ; 
and so did Jesus Christ, who is the only 
true light, shine into many, for the way- 
taking of one. And albeit that these nota- 
ble men did never after — Mr John Fife only 
excepted — comfort this country with their 
bodily presence; yet made he them fructify 
in his church, and raised them up lights 
out of darkness, to the praise of his own 
mercy, and to the just condemnation of 
them that then ruled, to wit, of the king, 
council, and nobility, yea of the whole people, 
who suffered such notable personages, with- 
out crimes committed, to be unjustly perse- 
cuted, and so exiled; others after were 
even so entreated: but of them we shall 
speak in their own place. No sooner got 
the bishops opportunit} r — which always 
they sought — but so soon renewed they 
the battle against Jesus Christ ; for the 
foresaid leprous bishop, in the year of God 
1534? years, caused to be summoned Sir 
William Kirk, Adam Dais, Henry Cairns, 
John Stewart, indwellers of Leith, with di- 
verse others, such as Mr William John- 
ston advocate, Mr Henry Henderson school- 
master of Edinburgh, of whom some com- 
peared in the Abbey Kirk of Holyrood- 
house, and so abjured and publicly burnt 
their bills, others compeared not, and there- 
fore were exiled; but in judgment produced 
two, to wit, David Straiton, a gentleman, 
and Mr Norman Gourlay, * a man of rea- 
sonable erudition, of whom we man shortly 



* There is little known of these two martyrs 
farther than what is above recorded, except that 
Gourlay added to his heresy the crime of tak- 
ing a wife. There is a short account of both 
in the Scots Worthies, edit. 1827, which is 
partly at least taken from Knox. — Ed. 



Book ].] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



21 



speak. In Mr Normau appeared know- 
ledge, albeit joined with weakness ; but in 
David Straiton could only be espied, for 
the first, hatred against the pride and ava- 
riciousness of priests ; for the cause of his 
delation was, he had made to himself a 
fish-boat to go to the sea ; the bishop of 
Murray then being- prior of St Andrews, 
and his factors urged him for the teind 
thereof ; his answer was, " If they would 
have teind thereof, which his servants won 
in the sea, it were but reason they should 
come and receive it, where he got the 
stock and so, as was constantly affirmed, 
he caused his servants cast the tenth fish 
in the sea again. Process of cursing was 
led against him, for not payment of such 
commands, which when he contemned, he 
was delated to answer for heresy. It trou- 
bled him vehemently ; and therefore he be- 
gan to frequent the company of such as 
were godly ; for before he had been a man 
very stubborn, and one that despised all 
reading, — chiefly of those things that were 
godly, — but miraculously as it were, he ap- 
peared to be changed, for he delighted in 
nothing but in reading — albeit himself could 
not read — and was a vehement exhorter to 
all men to concord, to quietness, and to the 
contempt of the world : he frequented 
much the company of the laird of Dun, 
whom God, in these days, had marvellously 
illuminated. Upon a day, as the laird of 
Lauriston, who yet lives, then being a 
young man, was reading unto him upon 
the New Testament, in a certain quiet place 
in the fields, as God had appointed, he 
chanced to read these sentences of our 
Master Christ Jesus : " He that denies me 
before men, or is ashamed of me in the 
midst of this wicked generation, I will deny 
him in the presence of my Father, and be- 
fore his angels." At which words, he sud- 
denly being as one ravished, cast himself 
upon his knees, and extending both hands 
and visage constantly to the heaven a rea- 
sonable time, at length he burst forth in 
these words, " O Lord, I have been wicked, 
and justly may est thou abstract thy grace 
from me : but, Lord, for thy mercy's sake, 
let me never deny thee, nor thy truths, for 
fear of death or corporal pains." The issue 



declared that his prayer was not vain, for 
when he, with the foresaid Mr Norman, 
was produced in judgment in the abbey of 
Holyroodhouse, the king himself— all clad 
in red — being present, great labours were 
made, that the said David Straiton should 
have recanted, and should have burnt his 
bill : but he ever standing at his defence, 
alleging that he had not offended, in the 
end was adjudged to the fire, and then, 
when he perceived the danger, asked grace 
at the king, which he would willingly 
have granted unto him ; the bishops proud- 
ly answered, " That the king's hands were 
bound in that case, and that he had no 
grace to give to such as by their law were 
condemned." And so was he, with the 
said Mr Norman, after dinner, upon the 
27th day of August, the year of God 1534 
foresaid, led to a place beside the rood of 
Greenside ; and there these two were both 
hanged and burnt, according to the mercy 
of the papistical church. To that same diet 
were summoned, as before we have said, 
others of whom some escaped in England, 
and so for that present escaped the death. 
This their tyranny notwithstanding, the 
knowledge of God did wondrously increase 
within this realm, partly by reading, partly 
by brotherly conference, which in these 
dangerous days was used to the comfort of 
many ; but chiefly by merchants and mari- 
ners, who frequenting other countries, heard 
the true doctrine affirmed, and the vanity 
of the papistical religion openly rebuked : 
among whom were Dundee and Leith prin- 
cipals, against whom was made a very 
strait inquisition by David Beaton, cruel 
cardinal. And diverse were compelled to 
abjure and burn their bills, some in St An- 
drews, and some in Edinburgh. About the 
same time Captain John Borthwick was 
burnt in figure, but by God's providence 
escaped their fury. And this was done for 
a spectacle, and triumph to Mary of Lor- 
raine, lately arrived from France, as wife 
to king James the Fifth, king of Scots : 
what plagues she brought with her, and 
how they yet continue, such as are not 
blind, may manifestly see. The rage of 
these bloody beasts proceeded so far, that 
the king's court escaped not the danger; 



22 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1538 



for in it diverse were suspected, and some 
accused. And yet ever still did some light 
burst forth in the midst of darkness ; for 
the truth of Christ Jesus entered even in 
the cloisters as well of friars as of monks 
and canons. John Lin, a grey friar, left his 
hypocritical habit, and the den of those 
murderers, the grey friars. A black friar, 
called friar Keiller, set forth the history of 
Christ's passion in form of a play, which he 
both preached and practised in Stirling 
openly, the king himself being present upon 
a good Friday in the morning, in the which 
all things were so lively expressed, that the 
very simple people understood and confessed, 
that [as] the priests and obstinate Pharisees 
persuaded the people to refuse Jesus Christ, 
and caused Pilate to condemn him ; so did 
the bishops and men called religious, blind 
the people, and persuaded the princes and 
judges to persecute such as profess Christ 
Jesus his blessed evangel. This plain speak- 
ing so inflamed the hearts of all that bore 
the beast's mark, that they ceased not, till 
that the friar Keiller, and with him friar 
Beveridge, Sir Duncan Simpson, Robert 
Forrester, a gentleman, and dean Thomas 
Forrest, canon regular and vicar of Dollar,* 
a man of upright life, [were condemned,] 
who altogether were cruelly murdered in 
a fire, upon the Castlehill, the last of 
February, the year of God 1538. This 
cruelty was used by the said cardinal, 
the chancellor, the bishop of Glasgow, 
and the incestuous bishop of Dumblane. 
After that this cruelty was used in Edin- 
burgh upon the Castlehill, to the effect 
that the rest of the bishops might show 
themselves no less fervent to suppress the 
light of God than he of St Andrews was, 
were apprehended two of the diocese of 
Glasgow, the one named Hieronymus Rus- 
sell, a cordelier friar, a young man of a 
meek nature, quick spirit, and of good let- 



* Of the other four there is little or nothing 
on record ; hut there is an interesting account of 
the vicar of Dollar in the Scots Worthies, edit. 
1827, taken from Spotswood. He not only 
made an open confession of the truth, but 
preached it faithfully and frequently, and for- 
bore exacting some of his dues from his pa- 
rishioners, which the other clergy complained of 
as a reproach to them. He was however in such 



ters ; and one Kennedy, who passed not 
18 years of age, and of excellent ingine 
in Scotish poesy. To assist the bishop of 
Glasgow in that cruel judgment, or at least 
to cause him dip his hands in the blood of 
the saints of God, were sent Mr John Lau- 
der, Mr Andrew Oliphant, and friar Malt- 
man, servants of Satan, apt for that pur- 
pose; the day appointed to their cruelty 
approached, the poor saints of God present- 
ed before these bloody butchers, grievous 
were the crimes that were laid to their 
charge : Kennedy was faint at the first, 
and would fain have recanted, but while 
that place of repentance was denied unto 
him, the spirit of God, which is the spirit 
of all comfort, began to work into him, yea 
the inward comfort began to burst forth, as 
well in visage, as in tongue and word, for 
his countenance began to be cheerful, and 
with a joyful voice upon his knees, he said, 
" O eternal God, how wondrous is that 
love and mercy that thou bearest unto man- 
kind, and unto me the most caitiff and mi- 
serable wretch above all others ; for, even 
now, when I would have denied thee, and 
thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, my only 
Saviour, and so have casten myself in ever- 
lasting damnation ; thou, by thine own 
hand, hast pulled me from the very bottom 
of hell, andmakest me to feel that heavenly 
comfort which takes from me that ungodly 
fear, wherewith before I was oppressed. 
Now I defy death, do what ye please ; I praise 
God I am ready." The godly and learned 
Hieronymus, railed upon by these godless 
tyrants, answered, w This is your hour and 
power of darkness; now sit ye as judges, we 
stand wrongously accused, and more wrong- 
ously to be condemned ; but the day shall 
come, when our innocency shall appear, 
and that ye shall see your own blindness, 
to your everlasting confusion. Go forward, 
and fulfil the measure of your iniquity." 



favour, that his bishop, before proceeding to ex- 
tremities, argued and expostulated with him, 
and warned him of his danger, if he persisted in 
such uncanonical practices ; but being found ir- 
reclaimable, he was given up to the flames. The 
two next, Russell and Kennedy, belonged to 
Glasgow, of whom there is little more known 
than what Knox has recorded. — Ed. 



Book J.J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



2.3 



While that these servants of God thus be- 
haved themselves, ariseth a variance betwixt 
the bishops and the beasts that come from 
the cardinal; for the bishop said, " I think 
it better to spare these men, nor to put 
(hem to dead :" Whereat idiot doctors of- 
fended, said, " What will ye do, my lord ? 
vVill ye condemn all that my lord cardinal 
and the other bishops and we have done ? 
If so ye do, ye show yourself enemy to 
the kirk and us, and so will we repute you, 
be ye assured." At which words, the faith- 
less man afraid, adjudged the innocents to 
die, according- to the desire of the wicked. 
The meek and gentle Hieronymus Russel 
comforted the other with many comfortable 
sentences, oft saying- unto him, <£ Brother, 
fear not, more potent is he that is in us, 
than is he that is in the world; the pain 
that we shall suffer is short, and shall be 
light, but our joy and our consolation shall 



* The following extract from Lindsay of Fit- 
scotie, will show how this infatuated prince, 
James V. was wrought upon by the clergy to 
lend his authority to the extirpation of heresy. 
He had made an engagement with his uncle, 
Henry VIII. to meet with him at York, to con- 
cert measures for the permanent peace of the two 
kingdoms. Henry, by this time, had cast off the 
authority of the pope, and had made a partial re- 
formation in England. The Scotish clergy dread- 
ed, above all things, the meeting of their king 
with his so deemed heretical uncle, lest he also 
should be infected with heresy ; and to prevent 
the interview, they interfered in the manner fol- 
lowing : " Bot the vngodlie papisticall bischopes, 
with vther kirkmen, tuik sick fear, beleivand 
that if the king of Scotland and the king of 
Ingland had mett, thair papisticall impyre sould 
havebeineabolisched, becaus the king of Ingland 
laitlie befoir had abolisched all idolatrie, and cas- 
sin doun the abbayes, and maid the word of God 
to be preached, and have frie passage through all 
Ingland. The bischopis taking sick feare of 
this, that if those kingis mett, it sould become 
so of thame, thair abbayes and rentall, quhairfoir 
they kest all the meanis they might to stay the 
said meiting, sometyme by craft and ingyne, and 
other quhylles by persuasiounes, saying to the 
king that he sould not want als lang as thair 
war ane kirk benefice in Scotland, and gave the 
king in the meantyme, and assigned to him 
tluettie thousand pundis of yeirlie rent out of 
thair benefices, to defend the libertie of their 
kirk, and present professioun, etc. Yitt for all 
this the king was well mynded to have keipit 
his promeise to the king of Ingland, and that be 
the advvyse of the lordis, whom the bischopis 
persaved counsalled the king in this manner, 
that they could not be content thairvvith, and 
would faine have beine revengit on the lordis 
and gentlmen, uuhom they beleived was coun- 
sallouris of the king to meit with his vncle the 



never have end : and, therefore, Id us con- 
tend to enter in, unto our Master and Sa- 
viour, by the same strait way which he 
has trode before us; death cannot destroy 
us, for it is already destroyed by him for 
whose sake we suffer." With these and 
the like comfortable sentences, they passed 
to the place of execution; and constantly 
triumphed over death and Satan, even in 
the midst of the naming fire. And thus 
did these cruel beasts intend nothing- but 
murder in all the quarters of the realm ; 
for so far had that blinded and most vicious 
man, this prince — most vicious we call him, 
for he neither spared man's wife nor maid- 
en, no more after his marriage nor he did 
before, — so far, I say, had he given himself 
to obey the tyranny of these cruel beasts, 
that he had made a solemn vow, That none 
should be spared that was suspect of here- 
sy, yea, althoug-h it were his own son. * To 



king of Ingland, quhilk they desired on no wayes 
sould be done, becaus they also beleivit thair 
would be no lyff for thame, and tharefoir devys- 
ed to put an discord and variance betwixt the 
lordis and gentlmen with thair prince ; for they 
delaited, and gave up to the king in writt, to 
the number of threttie scoir of earlis, lordis, and 
barrones, gentlmen and craftismen, that is, as 
they alledgit, were all heretickis, and leived not 
after the pope's lawis, and ordinance of the hollie 
kirk ; quhilk his grace sould esteme as ane capi- 
tall cryme to ony man that did the same." 1 
shall, according to my best ability, translate 
what remains into English. 

" Farther, they said to the king, What occa- 
sion have you to go to England for any advan- 
tage that the king of England will give you ? 
We shall make your grace to possess abundance 
at home if you will execute justice, as we ad- 
vise, upon the heretics, of whom we have given 
you a list, who are all great readers of the Old 
and New Testament in English, and other 
abuses which we shall prove to you ; and we 
engage upon our consciences, that all their lands, 
rents, and goods, shall be your own, for their 
contempt of our holy father the pope and his 
laws, and of your grace's authority. Therefore, 
if you will do us justice in this matter, we shall 
give you a hundred thousand pounds a-year to 
augment the patrimony of your crown, and a 
supply for any war you may have with Eng- 
land, or any other enemy ; and we desire but 
that you will give us a temporal judge to our 
mind, to do justice on these wicked heretics, 
which will be to your great honour and profit, 
and advantage of the church, and maintenance 
of the laws of our holy father the pope. Where- 
fore we have no doubt, but the pope will re- 
ward your grace for thus maintaining his au- 
thority. 

" The king yielded to these wicked sugges- 
tions of the clergy against his own subjects, 



24- 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1534 



press and push him forward in all that his 
fury, he wanted not flatterers enough ; for 
many of his minions were pensioners to 
priests ; among whom, Oliver Sinclair, yet 
remaining enemy to God, was the principal. 
And yet did not God cease to give that 
blinded prince some documents that some 
sudden plague was to fall upon him, in 
case he did not repent his wicked life ; and 
that his own mouth did confess : for after 
that Sir James Hamilton was beheaded — 
justly or unjustly we dispute not — this vi- 
sion came unto him, as to his familiars him- 
self did declare ; the said Sir James appear- 
ed unto him, having in his hand a drawn 
sword, by the which from the king he 
struck both the arms, saying to him these 
words, " Take that, while thou receive a final 
payment for all thine impiety." This vi- 
sion, with sorrowful countenance, he show- 
ed on the morn, and shortly thereafter died 
his two sons, both within the space of 24 
hours ; yea, some say, within the space 
of six hours. In his own presence, George 
Steele, his greatest flatterer, and greatest 
enemy to God that was in his court, drop- 
ped off his horse, and died without word, 
that same day that in open audience of 
many, the said George had refused his por- 
tion of Christ's kingdom, if the prayers of 
the Virgin Mary should not bring him 
thereto. How terrible a vision the said 
prince saw, lying in Linlithgow, that night 
Thomas Scott, justice-clerk, died in Edin- 
burgh, men of good credit can yet report : 
for afraid at midnight, or after, he cried for 
torches, and raised all that lay beside him 
in the palace, and told that Thomas Scott 
I 

unmoved by the duty which he owed to God 
and to them, but entering heartily into the co- 
vetous views of the bishops. ' I desire,' said 
he, 1 that you had justice; that the holy kirk 
and the liberty thereof be defended. Choose 
therefore a fit person, who will execute justice 
most sharply and rigorously, for punishment of 
these heretics ; and I shall give him my autho- 
rity, wherever he finds a heretic, to burn him 
and put him to death at your pleasure.' " They 
found a fit instrument in Sir James Hamilton, 
who, after showing his good will to the work of 
burning heretics, was himself executed for trea- 
son ; and then, as related in the text, terrified the 
king by an apparition. — Ed. 

* On this D. B. has the following note : — 
" George Buchanan, by the king's command, 
angry with the friars, did write his satyr then 



was dead ; for he had been at him with a 
company of devils, and had said unto him 
this word, " O woe to the day that ever I 
knew thee or thy service ; for, for serving 
of thee against God, against his servants, 
and against justice, I am adjudged to end- 
less torment." How terrible voices the 
said Thomas Scott pronounced before his 
death, men of all estate heard ; and some that 
live can witness, his voice was ever " Justo 
Dei judicio condemnatus sum :" that is, I 
am condemned by God's just judgment. 
He was most oppressed for delatation and 
false accusation of such as professed Christ's 
evangel, as Mr Thomas Marjoribanks, and 
Mr Hugh Rigg, then advocates, did confess 
to Mr Henry Balnaves, who, from the said 
Thomas Scott, came to him, as he and Mr 
Thomas Ballantine were sitting in St Giles' 
kirk, and asked him forgiveness in the name 
of the said Thomas. None of these terrible 
fore warnings could either change or mol- 
lify the heart of the indurate, lecherous, 
and avaricious tyrant, but still he does pro- 
ceed from impiety till impiety. For in the 
midst of these admonitions, he caused put 
hands in that notable man, Mr George Bu- 
chanan, to whom, for his singular erudition 
and honest behaviour, was committed the 
charge to instruct some of his bastard chil- 
dren : but by the merciful providence of 
God he escaped, albeit with great difficul- 
ty, the rage of them that sought his blood, 
and remains alive to this day, in the year 
of God 1566 years, to the glory of God, to 
the great honour of this nation, and to the 
comfort of them that delight in letters and 
virtue. * That singular work of David's 



against them, who thereafter having made their 
peace with the king, would not be appeased 
with George Buchanan, whom the king gave 
over to their importunity, and so he was put in 
prisqn." This alludes to that exquisite piece of 
satire, " The Franciscan," which Buchanan 
wrote reluctantly, at the urgent desire of the 
king, when he had a quarrel with the clergy. It 
was therefore the more pitiful of the king to give 
him up to their power. He did not publish the 
poem at the time, but confided it to the king 
only, who must have taunted the friars with it, 
and so it would come to their knowledge; but 
being written in Latin, it could not when pub- 
lished, injure them in the esteem of the people ge- 
nerally. As a specimen of it, I insert the follow- 
ing from a late translation by the Reverend John 
Graham, a correspondent of " The Protestant." 



Book l.J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



25 



Psalms in Latin metro and poesy, besides 
many other, can witness the rare graces of 
God given to that man, which that tyrant, 
by instigation of the grey friars, and of his 
other flatterers, would altogether have de- 
voured, if God had not provided remedy, by 
escaping, to his servant. This cruelty and 
persecution, notwithstanding the monsters 
and hypocrites the grey friars, day by day 
came farther into contempt; for not only 
did the learned espy and detest their abo- 
minable hypocrisy, but also men, in whom 
no such graces nor gifts were thought to 
have been, began plainly to paint the same 
forth to the people ; as this rhyme, which 
here we have inserted for the same pur- 
pose, made by Alexander earl of Glencairn, 
yet alive, can witness, entitled, " Ane epis- 
till direct fra the halie hermeit of Alareit, 
to his brethren the gray freirs." 

1 Thomas hermeit in Lareit, 

Sanct Francis ordour do hairtilie greit, 

Beseikand you with gud intent, 

To be wakryif » and diligent. • watchful 

Thir Lutheranis rissen of new, 
Our ordour dailie dois persew. 

They smaikis b dois set thair haill intent, b sneakers 

To reid the Inglische New Testament, 

And sayis we have thame clein decevit ; 

Thairfore in haist thay mon be stoppit. 

Our stait hypocrisie thay prysse, 

And us blasphemis one this wyse, 

Sayand, That we ar heretyckis, 

And false loud lying raastis tykes, [and oppressors 
Cumerars and quellarsp.of Christis kirk, « cumberers 
Sweir swongeors a that will not wirk, d lazy dissem- 
Bot idillie our leving wynis, [biers 
Devoiring woilfia into scheipis skynis, 



THE MONK. 

The new-made monk, though all his life before, 

The name of blockhead or of dunce he bore, 

Becomes, as soon as shorn, both learned and wise, 

Quick from his mind each imperfection flies. 

He who but lately tended goats or cows, 

When the grim cowl has decked his greasy brows, 

Changed and grown learned, at once a face puts on 

As grave as Plato, or as Xenophon— 

Though all his early years he drove the plough, 

A priest and prophet he commences now. 

At first with care he learns to regulate 

His frowns and smiles, his gestures and his gait. 

With lowly looks.he hides his rising pride, 

With downcast eyes, he hangs his head aside. 

He tries if fumes of sulphur can prevail, 

To make him seem as if by vigils pale,— 

Keeps ever silent in the busy crowd, 

And smiles in secret while he weeps aloud, 

When the world's eye he thinks he can escape, 

He quaffs abundantly the joyous grape ; 

But before company rejects the cup, 

As if afraid to taste a single sup. 

With muttered forms of ill-digested prayer, 

He wakes, and eats, and sleeps, and takes the air ; 



Huirkland 0 with huidts into our neck, rr(uirliiii!» 

With Judas mynd to jouk and beck, t ' utiMi f > gg i 

Seikand Christis pepill to devoir, [curtesy 

The doun thringers b of Christis gloir, s throwers 

Professors of hypocrisie, 

And doctours in idolatrie, 

Stout fiscbeiri3 with the Feindis net, 

The upclossers of hevins yett, 

Cankcart corruptors of the creid, 

Humlock sawers among gud seid, [ b throw 1 brambles 

To trow •> in trators,' that do men tyi.->t " [* twist 

The hie way kennand thame fra Christ, 

Monsters with the beistis mark, 

Doges that nevir stintis to bark, 

Kirkmen that ar to Christ unkend, 

A sect that Satan is self lies send, 

Lourkand in hoils, lyik trator toddis, 

Manteiners of idollis and fals goddis, 

Fantastik fuillis and fenzeit fleiclieors, 1 [ 1 feigned 

To turne fra treuth the verray teichers, [flattel era 

For to declare thair haill sentence, 

Wad mekill cumber your conscience; 

To say your fayth it is sa stark, 

Your cord and lousie cote and sark, 

Ye lippin may bring you to salvatioun, 

And quyte excludis Christis passioun. 

I dreid this doctrine, and it last, 

Sail outher gar us wirk or fast; 

Thairfoir with speid we mene provyde, 

And not our profite overslyde- 

1 schaip myself, within schort quhill, 

To curs our ladie in Argyle ; 

And thair one craftie wayis to wirk, 

Till that we biggit have ane kirk, 

Syne miracles mak be your advyce ; 

They ketterells™ thocht thai had hot lyce, m heretics 

The twa parte to us they will bring, 

Bot ordourlie to dress this thing : 

A gaist I purpois to gar gang, 

Be consaill of freir Walter Lang, 

Quhilk sail mak certane demonstratiounis, 

To help us in our procuratiounis, 

Your halie ordour to decoir : 

That practick he provit anis befoir, 

Betwix Kirkaldie and Kinghorne, 

Bot lymmaris maid thereat sick scorne, 



And with such words as no man understands, 

He bids good morn, or shakes you by the hands. 

He knows what charms, what magic note or stitch, 

Can boys or girls, or widows' heart bewitch. 

And well discerns the way to give advice, 

By which, while chiding, he inflames to vice : 

In questions runs the list of vices o'er, 

And deeds suggests not thought upon before. 

Well skilled is he to flatter human pride, 

And court the rich man on his deathbed side. 

Those are the objects which engage the mind. 

Of those who refuge in a convent rind. 

For these a man his country shall forego, 

No longer brother, friend, or neighbour know 

For this a man shall take the pilgrim's way, 

And cold and naked o'er the country stray ; 

Lie like a beast uncovered on the ground, 

And snarl, and baik, and growl on all around : 

Now look ferocious as an angTj bear. 

Then mild and fearful as a hunted hare ; 

A friend to those who gratify his pride— 

A deadly foe to all the world beside. 

The verses by the Earl of Glencairn, which 
Knox gives in the text, seem a close imitation, 
it' not a translation of a fragment of the Fran- 
ciscan. — Ed. 

D 



26 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1542 



And to hi? fame maid sick degressionii, 

Sensync he hard not the kiugis confessioun, 

Thoicht at that tyme he come no speid ; 

I pray you tak gude will as deid; 

And sum amongest your self ressave, 

As ane worth many of the lave. 

Ouhat I obtein may, throw his airt, 

Kessone wald ye had your parte. 

Your ordour handillis no money, 

Bot for uther casualtie, 

As bcif, meill, butter, and cheiss, 

Or quliat we have, that ye pleis, 

Send your brethren, et habete, 

As now nocht ellis, bot valete, 

Be Thomas your brother at comand, 

A culrun m kytb.it throw mony a land. m a rascal. 

When God bad given unto that indurate 
prince sufficient documents, that his rebel- 
lion against his blessed evangel should not 
prosperously succeed, he raised up against 
him war, as that he did against obstinate 
Saul, in the which he miserably perished, 
as we shall after hear. 

The occasion of the war was this, Henry 
the Eighth, king of England, had a great 
desire to hare spoken with our king, and 
in that point travailed so long, till that he 
got a fnll promise made to his ambassador, 
Lord William Howard ; the place of meet- 
ing was appointed at York, which the king 
of England kept with such solemnity and 
preparations, as never for such a purpose 
was seen in England before. Great bruit 
[noise] of that journey, and some prepara- 
tion for the same, was made in Scotland; 
but in the end, by persuasion of the cardinal 
David Beaton, and by others of his faction, 
that journey was staid, and the king's pro- 
mise falsified. Whereupon were sharp let- 
ters of reproach sent unto the king, and 
also unto his council. King Henry frus- 
trated, returned unto London, and after his 
indignation declared, began to fortify with 
men his frontiers foment [opposite] Scot- 
land. There were sent to the borders, Sir 
Robert Bowes, the earl of Angus, and his 
brother, Sir George Douglas. Upon what 
other trifling questions — as for the debata- 
ble land and such like — the war broke up, 
we omit to write. The principal occasion 
was the falsifying of the promise before 
made; our king perceiving that the war 
would rise, asked the prelates and kirkmen 
what support they would make to the sus- 
taining of the same ; for rather would he 



yet satisfy the desire of his uncle, than he 
would hazard war, where he saw his force 
not able to resist. They promised moun- 
tains of gold, — as Satan their father did to 
Christ Jesus, if he would worship him, — 
for rather would they have gone to hell, or 
he should have met with king Henry : for 
then, thought they, farewell our kingdom, 
and farewell, thought the cardinal, his cre- 
dit and glory in France. In the end, they 
promised fifty thousand crowns by year, * 
to be well paid, so long as the war lasted ; 
and farther, that their servants, and others 
that appertained to them, and were ex- 
empted from common service, should not- 
theless serve in time of necessity. These 
vain promises lifted up in pride the heart 
of the unhappy king, and so begins the 
war. The realm was quartered, and men 
were laid in Jedburgh and Kelso. All men 
— fools we mean — bragged of victory. And 
in very deed the beginning gave us a fair 
show : for at the first warden raid, which 
was made at the St Bartholomew's day, in 
the year of God 1542, was the warden, Sir 
Robert Bowes, his brother Richard Bowes, 
captain of Norham, Sir William Malberry, 
knight, a bastard son of the earl of Angus, 
and James Douglas of Parkhead, then re- 
bels, with a great number of borderers, sol- 
diers, and gentlemen taken. 

The raid was termed Halden Rigg. The 
earl of Angus, and Sir George his brother, 
did narrowly escape. Our papists and 
priests, proud of this victory, encouraged 
the king, so that there was nothing heard, 
but, "All is ours; they are but heretics: 
if we be a thousand, and they ten thousand, 
they dare not fight. France shall enter the 
one part, and we the other, and so shall 
England be conquered within a year." If 
any man was seen to smile at such vanity, 
he was no more but a traitor and heretic. 
And yet by these means, men had greater 
liberty than they had before, as concerning 
their consciences ; for then ceased the per- 
secution. The war continued till mid Sep- 
tember ; and then was sent down the old 

* Pitseotie, as we have seen, calls it L. 100,000. 
The difference may be accounted for by tbe com- 
parative value of the two denominations of mo- 
ney. — Ed. 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



27 



duke of Norfolk, with such an army as an 
hundred years before had not come in Scot- 
Land. They were in amassing - their forces, 
and setting- forward their preparations and 
munitions, which were exceeding- great, till 
mid October and after. And then they 
marched from Berwick, and tended to the 
west, ever holding Tweed upon their own 
side, and never camped from that river the 
space of a mile during the whole time they 
continued in Scotland, which was ten or 
twelve days. Forays were run upon the 
day to Smailholm, Stichil, and such places 
near about, but many snapers [often got 
into difficulties and scrapes] they got, some 
corn they burnt, besides that which the 
great host consumed, but small booty they 
carried away. The king assembled his 
force at Fala, — for he was advertised, that 
they had promised to come to Edinburgh, — 
and taking the musters all at one hour, two 
days before Halloween, there were found 
with him 18,000 able men. Upon the bor- 
ders that waited upon the English ai'my, 
were 10,000 men, with earl of Huntly, 
lords Erskine, Seaton, and Home. These 
wore judged men enough to hazard battle, 
albeit the other were esteemed 40,000. 
While the king lies at Fala, abiding upon 
the guns, and upon advertisement from the 
army, the lords begin to remember how 
the king had been long abused by his 
flatterers, and principally by the pensioners 
of the priests : it was once concluded, that 
they would make some new remembrance 
of Lauder bridge, to see if that would, for 
a season, somewhat help the estate of their 
country ; but because the lords could not 
agree among themselves, upon the persons 
that deserved punishment, — for every man 
favoured his friend, — the whole escaped : 
and the purpose was opened unto the king, 
and by him to the. courtiers, who after that, 
till they came to Edinburgh, stood in no 
little fear; but that was suddenly forgot, 
as we shall after hear. While' time is thus 
protracted, the English army, for scarcity 
of victuals — as was bruited — retreats them 
over Tweed upon the night, and so begins 
to skaill [disperse], whereof the king- adver- 
tised, desires the lords and barons to assist 
him, to follow them in England. Whose 



answer was, with one consent, "That to 
defend his person and realm, they would 
hazard life and whatsoever they had ; but 
to invade England, neither had they so just 
title as they desired ; neither yet could 
they be then able to do any thing to the 
hurt of England, considering that they had 
long before been absent from their houses, 
their provision was spent, their horses wea- 
ried, and that which was greatest of all, 
the time of the year did utterly reclaim. 1 ' 
This their answer seemed to satisfy the 
kins', for he in words praised their prudent 
foresight and wise counsel. But the mint 
[proposal] made to his courtiers, and that 
bold repulse of his desires given to him in 
his own face, so wounded his proud heart, — 
for long had he reigned as himself list, — that 
he decreed a notable revenge, which, no 
doubt, he had not failed to have executed, if 
God by his own hand had not cut the cords of 
his impiety. He returns to Edinburgh, the 
nobility, barons, gentlemen, and commons 
to their own habitations. And this was the 
second and third days of November. With- 
out longer delay, at the palace of Holyrood- 
house, was a new council convened, a coun- 
cil, we mean, of his abusers, wherein were 
accusations laid against the most part of 
the nobility; some were heretics, some fa- 
vourers of England, some friends to the 
Douglas, and so could there be none faith- 
ful to the king, in their opinion. The car- 
dinal and the priests cast fagots in the 
fire with all their force; and finding the 
king wholly addicted to their devotion, deli- 
vered to him a scroll, containing the names 
of such as they, in their inquisition, had 
convict for heretics ; for this was the order 
of justice, which those holy fathers kept in 
damning of innocent men. Whosoever would 
delate any of heresy, he was heard: no re- 
spect nor consideration had what mind the 
delators bore to the person delated; whoso- 
ever were produced for witnesses were ad- 
mitted, how suspicious and infamous that 
ever they were ; if two or three had proven 
any point, that by their law was holdeu he- 
resy, that was a heretic : rested [there re- 
mained] no more but a day to be affixed to 
his condemnation, and to the execution of 
their corrupt sentence. 



23 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1542 



What raau could be innocent where such 
judges were party, the world may this day 
consider. True it is, by false judgment and 
false witness, have innocents been oppressed 
from the beginning;. But this freedom to 
shed innocent blood got never the devil but 
in the kingdom of antichrist, " that the 
innocent should die, and neither know 
accusator, nor yet the witness that testified 
against him." But how shall the antichrist 
be known, if he shall not be contrarious to 
God the Father, and his Son Christ Jesus, 
in law, life, and doctrine ? But this we 
omit. The same scroll had the cardinal 
and prelates once presented to the king, be- 
fore that time he returned from the naviga- 
tion about the isles. But then it was 
refused by the prudent and stout counsel of 
the laird of Grange, who opened clearly to 
the king the practice of the prelates, and 
the danger thereof might ensue, which 
considered by the king — for being out of 
his passion he was tractable — gave this 
answer, in the palace of Holyrood House, 
to the cardinal and prelates, after that they 
had uttered their malice, and shown what 
profit might arise to the crown, if he would 
follow their counsel: " Pack, you josrellis, 
[jugglers], get ye to your charges, and re- 
form your own lives, and be not instruments 
of discord betwixt my nobility and me ; or 
else I vow to God I shall reform you, not 
as the king of Denmark by imprisonment 
does, neither yet as the king of England 
both by hanging and heading ; but I shall 
reform you by sharp whingers, if ever I hear 
such motion of you again." The prelates, 
dashed and astonished with this answer, 
ceased for a season to attempt any farther 
by rigour against the nobility ; but now, 
being informed of all proceedings by their 
pensioners, Oliver Sinclair, Ross laird of 
Craigie, and others, who were to them faith- 
ful in all things; they conclude to hazard 
once again their former suit, which was no 
sooner proponed, but as soon it was accept- 
ed, with no small regret made by the king's 
own mouth, that he had so long despised 
their counsel: "For," said he, "now I plainly 
see your words to be true : the nobility 
neither desire my honour nor continuance;* 

* In the suppressed copy it is countenance. 



for they would not ride a mile for my plea- 
sure to follow my enemies. Will ye there- 
fore find me the means, how that I may 
have raid made in England without their 
knowledge and consent, that may be known 
to be my own raid ; and I shall bind me to 
your counsel for ever." There concurred 
together Ahab and his false prophets, there 
were gratulations and clapping of hands, 
there was promise of diligence, closeness, of 
fidelity ; finally, conclusion was taken, that 
the west border of England, which was 
most empty of men and garinsching [garri- 
sons], should be invaded ; the king's own 
banner should be there. Oliver the great 
minion should be great lieutenant. But no 
mau should be privy — except the council 
that was there then present — of the enter- 
prise, till the very day and execution thereof. 
The bishops gladly took the charge of that 
raid ; letters were sent to such as they 
would charge, to meet the king, day and 
place appointed. The cardinal, with the 
earl of Arran, was directed to go to Had- 
dington, to make a show against the east 
border, when the other was in readiness to 
invade the west : and thus neither lacked 
counsel, practice, closeness, nor diligence to 
set forward that enterprise ; and so among 
those consulters there was no doubt of a 
good success, and so was the scroll thank- 
fully received by the king himself, and put 
in bis own pocket, where it remained to the 
day of his death, and then was found ; in 
it was contained more than one hundred 
landed men, besides others of meaner degree, 
— amongst whom was the lord Hamilton, 
then second person of the realm — delated. 
It was bruited that this raid was devised by 
the lord Maxwell, but the certainty thereof 
we have not. The night before the day 
appointed to the enterprise, the king was 
found at Lochmaben. To him come com- 
panies from all quarters, as they were ap- 
pointed ; no man knowing of another — 
for no general proclamation past, but privy 
letters — neither yet did the multitude know 
any thing of the purpose till after midnight, 
while that the trumpets blew, and com- 
manded all men to march forward, and to 
follow the king — who was constantly sup- 
posed to be in the host — guides were ap- 



Book I.J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



29 



pointed to conduct them toward England, 
as both faithfully and closely they did. 
Upon the point of day, they approached to 
the enemy's ground, and so passed the 
water without any great resistance made 
unto them. The foray goes forth, fire 
rises ; hership might have been seen on 
every side. The unprovided people were 
altogether amazed ; for bright day appear- 
ing, they saw an army of ten thousand men, 
their corn and houses on every side send 
flames of fire unto the heavens. To them 
it was more than a wonder that such a 
multitude could have been assembled and 
convoyed, no knowledge thereof coming to 
any of their wardens : for support they look- 
ed not, and so at the first they were utterly 
despaired. And yet began they to assemble 
together, ten in one company, twenty in 
another; and so as the fray proceeded, their 
troops increased ; but to no number — for 
Carlisle fearing to have been assaulted, 
suffered no man to issue out of their gates 
—and so the greatest number, that ever 
appeared or approached before the discom- 
fiture, past not three or four hundred men ; 
and yet they made hot skirmishing, as in 
their own ground, in such feats they are 
most expert. About ten hours, when fires 
were kindled, and almost slockened [quench- 
ed] on every side, thought Oliver time to 
show his glory, and so incontinent was dis- 
played the king's banner, Oliver upon 
spears lift up upon men's shoulders, and 
there, with sound of trumpet, was he pro- 
claimed general lieutenant, and all men 



* Sloghorne — Slogan, war cry, or gathering 
word, Jamiesoti. D. Buchanan not being^ able 
to find the meaning of this word, satisfied him- 
self with one somewhat like it in sound. " Every 
man," says he, " called his own sluggard." So 
it is also in an octavo edition, published in 
Paisley in 1791, and in an elegant quarto one in 
Edinburgh in 1795 ; only the last has it in the 
plural. But what surprised me most, was to 
find the same rendering, without any notice of 
the original " Sloghorne," in the suppressed 
edition by Voultrollier, printed in London in 
1586, with which I have been furnished by the 
kindness of a friend in Edinburgh, since my 
editorial labours commenced. Wodrow, as 
quoted in my introduction, p. 31, mentions the 
exact correspondence between this edition, so 
far as it goes with the Glasgow MS., and ex- 
presses his surprise that D. B. should have 
overlooked it. I think this proves that D. B. 



commanded to obey him) as the king's own 
person, under all highest pains. There was 
present the lord Maxwell, warden, to whom 
the regimen [government] of things in 
absence of the king properly appertained ; 
he heard and saw all, but thought more nor 
he spoke. There were also present the earls 
of Glencairn and Cassilis, with the lord 
Fleming, and many other lords, barons, and 
gentlemen of Lothian, Fife, Angus and 
Mearns. In this meantime did the skirmish- 
ing grow greater than it was before ; shouts 
were heard on every side, some Scotish 
men were stricken down, some not knowing 
the ground layred [mired], and tint [lost] 
their horse. Some English horse of pur- 
pose were let loose, to provoke greedy and 
imprudent men to proik [to gallop after 
them. See Pryk. Jam. Diet.] at them, as 
many did, but found no advantage. While 
such disorder rose more and more in the 
army, men cried in every ear, " My lord 
lieutenant, what will ye do ?" Charge was 
given, that all men should light, and go to 
array; for they would fight it. Others 
cried, " Against whom will ye fight ? you 
men will fight no other ways than ye see 
them do, if ye will stand here quhill [until] 
the morn." New purpose was taken, that 
the footmen — they had with them certain 
bands of footmen soldiers — should softly 
retire towards Scotland, and the horsemen 
should take their horse again, and so follow 
in order. Great was the noise and con- 
fusion that was heard, while every man 
called his own sloghorne.* The day was 



had it before him, and that he followed it ; for 
it is at least very improbable that he should 
have fallen into the same ridiculous mistake In 
the translation of a word. He must have seen 
that the word " sluggard," in this connection, 
has no meaning at all ; and would probably 
have sought for one with a meaning, if he had 
not implicitly followed his predecessor. \ oul- 
trollier evidently followed the Glasgow MS., 
or an exact duplicate of it; but lie reduces the 
orthography to the English of his time; he 
translates some of the Scotish words, in which 
he makes more mistakes than the one above men- 
tioned; and many he does not translate at all, 
which, though obsolete to us, may have been 
then current in England. Upon the supposition 
that D. B. had this genuine text before him, his 
omissions and interpolations appear more inex- 
cusable. Wodrow calls the suppressed edition 
a duodecimo, but both bishop Nicholson and 



30 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1542 



near spent, and that was the cause of the 
greatest fear. The lord Maxwell perceiving 
what would be the end of such beginnings, 
stood upon his foot with his friends, who 
being admonished to take his horse, and 
provide for himself; answered, " Nay, I 
will rather abide here the chance that it 
shall please God to send me, than to go home, 
aud then be hanged." And so he remained 
upon his foot, and was taken, while the 
multitude fled, and took the greater shame. 
The enemies perceiving the disorder, in- 
creased in courage. Before they shouted, 
but then they struck. They shot spears, 
and daggit [showered] arrows where the 
companies were thickest. Some rencounters 
were made, but nothing availed. The sol- 
diers cast from them their pikes, culverins, 
and other weapons fensible ; the horsemen 
left their spears; and so without judgment 
all men fled. The sea was filling, and so the 
water made great stop ; but the fear was 
such, so that happy was he might get a 
taker. Such as passed the water, and 
escaped the danger, not well acquainted 
with the ground, fell into the Sollen [Sol- 
way] moss ; the entry thereof was pleasant 
enough, but as they proceeded, all that took 
that way either tint [lost] their horse, or else 
themselves and horse both. To be short, a 
greater fear and discomfiture without cause 
has seldom been seen ; for it is said, " That 
where the men were not sufficient to take the 
hands [bands, suppr. copy] of prisoners, some 
ran to houses, and rendered themselves to 
women. 5 ' Stout Oliver was taken without 
stroke, flying full manfully, and so was his 
glory — stinking and foolish proudness we 
should call it — suddenly turned to confusion 
and shame. In that discomfiture were taken 
the two earls foresaid, the lords Fleming, 
Somervile, and many other barons and 
gentlemen, besides the great multitude of 

Mr Crawford calls it octavo, which would seem 
to refer to different editions ; but from external 
appearance no man could with certainty assign 
it to either. The number of leaves under each 
letter in the foot margin, ascertains it to be 
octavo, though not larger than a crown duo- 
decimo. Let not the reader allege that by such 
minute details I am trilling with him. They 
are connected with the authenticity of the work ; 
and great authors, such as those above-mention- 
ed, have written a great deal more on the same 
subject. Spotswood makes good use of this 



servants. Worldly men say, that all this 
came but by misorder and fortune, as 
they term it. But whosoever has the least 
spunk of the knowledge of God, may as evi- 
dently see the work of his hand in this dis- 
comfiture, as ever was seen in any of the 
battles left to us in register by the Holy 
Ghost. For what more evident declara- 
tion have we that God fought against Ben- 
hadad, king of Harem, when he was dis- 
comfited at Samaria, than that we have that 
God fought with his own arm against Scot- 
land. In this former discomfiture there 
did two hundred and thirty persons in the 
skirmish, with seven thousand following 
them in that great battle, put to flight the 
said Benhadad with thirty kings in his com- 
pany. But here there are, in this shameful 
discomfiture of Scotland, very few more 
than three hundred men, without any know- 
ledge of any back or battle to follow, put to 
flight ten thousand men, without any re- 
sistance. There did every man rencounter 
his marrow [fellow], till that the two hun- 
dred and thirty slew such as matched them ; 
but here without slaughter the multitude 
fled. There had they of Samaria the pro- 
phet of God to comfort, to instruct, and to 
promise victory unto them ; but England, 
in that pursuit, had nothing but as God se- 
cretly wrought by his providence in these 
men that knew nothing of his working, 
neither yet of the cause thereof, more than 
the wall that fell upon the rest of Benha- 
dad' s army knew what it did. And, there- 
fore, yet again we say, that such as in that 
sudden dejection behold not the hand of 
God fighting against pride, for freedom of 
his own little flock unjustly persecuted, 
do willingly and maliciously obscure the 
glory of God. But the end thereof is yet 
more notable. The certain knowledge of 
the discomfiture coming to the king's ears 

edition under its general title, " The History of 
the Church of Scotland," without, I suppose, 
knowing it to be Knox's ; for he disputed the 
fact that he wrote such a history. Of this edition 
bishop Nicholson observes: " I have seen only 
four or five copies of the octavo edition of Knox's 
History, all of them fragments, beginning at p. 
17, and ending abruptly with 560." This is an 
exact description of the copy in my possession. 
Probably on its suppression the first sheet was 
destroyed or carried away, and the printing in- 
terrupted, so that it was never finished. — Ed. 



CCAMMMAL. BEATOHJM, 

ARCHBISHOP OF S 7 ANDREWS, &c.&c. 
FROM THE ORIGINAL AT HOLYROOD HOUSE. 



Fiijlished bj Bla.JiU.FaU.arum & C. Glasgow. 



Book I. j 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



SI 



— who waited upon news at Lochmaben — he 
was stricken with a sudden fear and asto- 
nishment, so that scarcely could he speak, or 
hold purpose with any man ; the night con- 
strained him to remain where he was, and 
so went to bed ; but rose without rest or 
quiet sleep. His continual complaint was, 
« Oh ! fled Oliver ? is Oliver taken ? Oh ! 
fled Oliver ?" And these words in his melan- 
choly, and as it were carried away in a 
trance, repeated he from time to time to the 
hour of his death. Upon the morrow, which 
was St Catherine's day. returned he to 
Edinburgh, and so did the cardinal from 
Haddington. But the one being- ashamed 
of the other, the bruit [report] of their com- 
munication came not to public audience. 
The king- made inventories of his pois 
[treasure], of all his jewels, and other sub- 
stance ; and thereafter, ashamed to look any 
man in the face, secretly departed to Fife, 
and coming 1 to the Hallyards, was humanely 
received of the lady of Grange, an ancient 
and g"odly matron — the laird at his coming- 
was absent. In his company was only with 
him William Kirkaldy, now laird of Grange, 
and some others that waited upon his 
chamber. The lady at supper, perceiving- him 
pensive, began to comfort him, and willed 
him to take the work of God in good part. 
" My portion of this world," said he, " is 
short, for I will not be with you fifteen 
days." His servant repaired unto him, ask- 
ing-, " Where he would have provision made 
for his Yule [Christmas], which then ap- 
proached ?" He answered, with a disdain- 
ful smirk [smile], " I cannot tell, choose ye 
the place ; but this I can tell you, or Yule 
day ye will be masterless, and the realm 
without a king." Because of his displea- 
sure no man durst make contradiction unto 
him. So after he had visited the castle of 
Carney, pertaining to the earl of Crawfurd, 



* He meant, that the family of Stuart came 
to the crown by marriage, and would now de- 
part by his daughter marrying a person of an- 
other name, in which, however, he was mistaken. 
—Ed. 

f " His part was in the pot," i. e. He had an 
undue share in the queen's favour. D. B. 
adds in a note, " Others stick not to say 
that the king was hastened away by a po- 
tion." I have seen no satisfactory evidence of 



where the said earl's daughter was, one of 
his whores, he returned to Falkland, and 
took bed. And albeit there appeared unto 
him no signs of death, yet he constantly af- 
firmed, "Before such a day 1 shall be 
dead." In this meantime, was the queen 
upon the point of her delivery in Linlith- 
gow, who was delivered the 8th day of De- 
cember, in the year of God 1542 years, of 
Mary, that then was born, and now does 
reign for a plague to this realm, as the pro- 
gress of her whole life had to this day de- 
clares. The certainty that a daughter was 
born unto him, coming to his ears, he turn- 
ed from such as spake with him, and said, 
" The devil go with it, it will end as it began ; 
it came from a woman, and it will end in 
a woman." * After that he spake not many 
words that were sensible, but ever he harp- 
ed upon this old song, " Fie ! fled Oliver ? 
Is Oliver taken ? All is lost." In this mean- 
time, in his greatest extremity, comes the 
cardinal, an apt comforter for a desperate 
man. He cries in his ear, " Take order, 
Sir, with the realm. Who shall rule, Sir, 
during the minority of your daughter ? Ye 
have known my service, what will ye have 
done ? Shall there not be four regents cho- 
sen ; and shall not I be principal of them ?" 

Whatsoever the king answered, docu- 
ments were taken, that so should be as my 
lord cardinal thought expedient. As many 
affirm, a dead man's hand was made to sub- 
scribe a blank, that they might write above 
it what pleased them best. This finished, 
the cardinal posted to the queen, lately de- 
livered, as said is ; at the first sight of the 
cardinal, she said, " Welcome, my lord, is 
not the king dead '?" What moved her to 
conjecture, diverse men are of diverse judg- 
ments ; many whisper, that of old his part 
was in the pot, f and that the suspicion 
thereof caused him to be inhibited the 



this; and I do not recollect of its being men- 
tioned by any other historian. Considering his 
gallantries, there could not be much cordiality 
between him and his queen ; but that she should 
have been accessory to his death, is not proba- 
ble; and perhaps would never have been .sup- 
posed, if her conduct had not afterwards made 
people believe that she was capable of any thing. 
— Ed. 



32 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1542 



queen's company: howsoever it was be- 
fore, it is plain, that after the king's death, 
and during- the cardinal's life, whosoever 
guided the court, he got his secret business 
sped of that gracious lady, either by day or 
by night. Howsoever the tidings liked 
her, she mended [recovered] with as great 
expedition of that daughter as ever she did 
before of any son that ever she bore ; the 
time of her purification was sooner than 
the Levitical law appoints. * The noise 
of the death of king James divulgate, 
who departed this life the 18th day of De- 
cember, the year of God 1542 foresaid, the 
hearts of all men began to be disclosed. 
All men lamented that the realm was left 
without a male to succeed ; yet some re- 
joiced that such an enemy to God's truth 
was taken away. He was called of some a 
good poor man's king : of others he was 
termed a murderer of the nobility, and one 
that had decreed their whole destruction. 
Some praised him for the repressing of theft 
and oppression ; others dispraised him for 
the defiling of men's wives and virgins. 
And thus men spake even as men's affec- 
tions led them, and yet none spake altoge- 
ther beside the truth; for a part of all the 
foresaids were so manifest, that as the vir- 
tues could not be denied, so could not the 
vices by any craft be cloaked. The ques- 
tion of government was through this realm 
universally moved. The cardinal proclaim- 
ed the king's last will, and therein were ex- 
pressed four protectors, or regents, of 
whom himself was the first and principal, 
and with him were joined the earls of 
Huntly, Argyle, and Murray ; this was 
done the Monday at the market-cross of 
Edinburgh : but the Monday following, 
took the whole regents remission for their 
usurpation ; for by the stout and wise 
counsel of the laird of Grange, did the earl 
Arran, then second person to the crown, 
cause assemble the nobility of the realm, 
and required the equity of their judgments 
in that his just suit to the government of 
the realm, during the minority of her to 
whom he was to succeed, failing of her and 

* But she was no Jewess, and therefore in 

thp.t offended not. 



of her lawful successors. His friends con- 
vened — the nobility assembled — the day of 
decision was appointed. The cardinal and 
his faction opposed them to the govern- 
ment of one man, and especially to the re- 
gimen of any called Hamilton : " For who 
knows not," said the cardinal, " that the 
Hamiltons are cruel murderers, oppressors 
of innocents, proud, avaricious, double, and 
false ; and, finally, the pestilence in this 
commonwealth." Whereunto the said earl 
answered, " Defraud me not of my right, 
and call me what ye please. Whatsoever 
my friends have been, yet unto this day has 
no man cause to complain upon me, neither 
yet am I minded to flatter any of my friends 
in their evil doing, but by God's grace 
shall be as forward to correct their enor- 
mities, as any within the realm can reason- 
ably require of me; and, therefore, yet 
again, my lord, in God's name I crave, that 
ye do me no wrong, nor defraud me of my 
just title, before ye have experience of my 
government." At these words, were all that 
feared God and loved honesty, so moved, 
that with one voice, they cried, " That pe- 
tition is most just, and unless we do against 
God, justice, and equity, it cannot be de- 
nied." And so, in despite of the cardinal 
and his suborned faction, was he declared 
governor, and with public proclamation so 
denounced to the people ; the king's palace, 
treasure, jewels, garments, horse, and plate, 
were delivered unto him by the officers 
that had the former charge, and he honour- 
ed, feared, and obeyed more heartily, nor 
ever any king was before him, so long as 
he abode at God. The cause of the great 
favour that was borne, was, that it was 
bruited that he favoured God's word ; and 
because it was well known, that he was 
one appointed to have been persecuted, as 
the scroll found in the king's pocket, after 
his death, did witness; these two things, 
together with an opinion that men had of 
his simplicity, bowed the hearts of many 
unto him at the beginning, who after, with 
dolour of hearts, were compelled to change 
their opinions : but hereof will after be 
spoken. The variety of matters that oc- 
curred we omit, such as the order taken 



]>OOK I.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



33 



for keeping of the young queen, of the pro- 
vision for the mother, the home calling of 
the Douglas, and such as appertain to a 
universal history of the time ; for, as hefore 
we have said, we mind only to follow the 
progress of the religion, and of the matters 
that cannot he dissevered from the same. 

The governor established in government, 
godly men repaired unto him, exhorted him 
to call to mind for what end God had exalt- 
ed him, out of what danger he had deliver- 
ed him, and what expectation all men of 
honesty had of him. At their instant suit- 
ing, more than of his own motion, was 
Thomas Williams, a hlack friar, called to 
be preacher; the man was of solid judg- 
ment, reasonable letters as for that age, and 
of a prompt and good utterance ; his doc- 
trine was wholesome, without a great ve- 
hemency against superstition. Preached 
also sometimes John Rough, who after, for 
the verity of Christ Jesus, suffered in Eng- 
land, albeit not so learned, yet more simple 
and more vehement against all impiety.* 
The doctrine of these two provoked against 
them, and against the governor also, the 
hatred of all such as rather favoured dark- 
ness than light, and their own bellies more 
than God, the gray friars, and amongst the 
rest friar Scot, who before had given him- 
self forth for the greatest professor of Christ 
Jesus within Scotland, and under that 
colour had disclosed, and so endangered 
many. These slaves of Satan, we say, 
roupit [croaked] as they had been ravens, 
yea, rather they yelled and roared as devils in 
hell, " Heresy, heresy, Williams and Rough 



* " Thomas Guillaume, or Williams," says 
Dr M'Crie, " was very useful to Knox, in 
leading him to a more perfect acquaintance with 
the truth. He was a friar of eminence, aud, 
along with John Rough, acted as chaplain to 
the earl of Arran, during the short time that 
he favoured the Reformation, at the beginning 
of his regency, by whom he was employed in 
preaching in different parts of the kingdom." 
Rough was born about anno 1510; and, having 
been deprived of some property to which he 
considered himself entitled, he in disgust left 
his relations, and entered into a monastery in 
Stirling, when only about seventeen years of 
age. He visited Rome twice, and was very 
much shocked with what he witnessed in that 
city, which he had been taught to regard as the 
fountain of sanctitv. Fox, p. 1S-10, as cited by 
M'Crie. This was the person who publicly 



will carry the governor unto the devil." 
The town of Edinburgh, for the most part, 
was drownedin superstition ; Edward Hope, 
young William Adamson, Sibilla Lindsay, 
Patrick Lindsay, Francis Aikman ; and in 
the Canongate, John M'Kaw, and Ninian 
Brown, with few others had the bruit [reputa- 
tion] of knowledge in those days. One Wil- 
son, servant to the bishop of Dunkeld, who 
neither knew the New Testament nor the 
Old, made a despiteful railing ballad against 
the preachers, and against the governor, for 
the which he narrowly escaped hanging. 
The cardinal moved both heaven and hell to 
trouble the governor, and to stay the preach- 
ing ; but yet was the battle stoutly fought 
for a season ; for he was taken and put first 
in Dalkeith, after in Seaton, but at length, 
by budis [bribes] given to the said lord Sea- 
ton, and to the old laird of Lethington, he 
was restored to St Andrews, from whence 
he wrought all mischief, as we shall after 
hear. 

The parliament approached, which was 
before the pasche [Easter] ; their bygone 
question of the abolishing of certain tyran- 
nical acts, made before at devotion of the 
prelates, for maintaining of the kingdom of 
darkness, to wit, a That under pain of 
heresy, no man should read any part of the 
scriptures in the English tongue, neither 
yet any tractate or exposition of any place 
of scripture," such articles began to come 
in question we say, and men began to in- 
; quire, if it was not lawful to men that under- 
stood no Latin, to use this word of their 
salvation in the tongue they understood, as 



called Knox to the ministry in the church of St 
Andrews, as related in the sequel. He after- 
wards went to England, where he continued to 
preach till the death of Edward VI. when h«> 
retired to the Netherlands. There he was ob- 
liged to support himself and his wife (whom he 
had married in England) by knitting caps, 
stockings, &c. Having come over to London in 
the course of business, he heard of a congrega- 
tion of protestants who met secretly in the city, 
to whom he joined himself, and was elected their 
pastor. A few weeks thereafter, the conventi- 
cle was discovered by the treachery of one of 
their own number, and Rough was carried be- 
fore bishop Bonner, by whose orders he was 
committed to the names, on the SSdof December, 
1557. See Fox, p. IS 10 — 164-2, as referred to 
by M'Crie. — Ed. 

E 



34 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1542 



it was for Latin men to have it in Latin, 
Grecians and Hebrews, to have it in their 
tongues. It was answered, that the kirk 
first had forbidden ali kind of tongues but 
these three. But men demanded when that 
inhibition was given ; and what counsel had 
ordained that, considering, that in the days 
of Chrysostom he complained, that the 
people used not the psalms and other holy 
books in their own tongues ? And if ye 
will say these were Greeks, and understood 
the Greek tongue, we answer, that Christ, 
he has commanded his word to be preached 
to all nations. Now, if it ought to be 
preached to all nations, it must be preached 
in the tongue they understand. Now, if it 
be lawful to preach it in all tongues, why 
shall it not be lawful to read it, and to hear 
it read in all tongues ? to the end that the 
people may try the spirits, according to the 
commandment of the apostle. Beaten with 
these and other reasons, they denied not 
but it may be read in the vulgar tongue, pro- 
viding that the translation were true. It was 
demanded what could be reprehended in it ? 
And when much searching was made, no- 
thing could be found, but that love, say 
they, was put in the place of charity. 
When the question was asked, what differ- 
ence was betwixt the one and the other ; 
and if they understood the Greek term 
«y#7n?, they were dumb. Reasoned for the 
party of the seculars, the lord Ruthven, 
father to him that prudently gave counsel 
to take just punishment upon that knave 
Davie [David Rizzio], for that he had 
abused king Henry in more cases than 
one, a stout and discreet man in the cause 
of God, and Mr Henry Balnaves, an old 
professor; for the part of the clergy, Hay, 
dean of Restalrig, and certain old bosses 
[paupers or persons of no respectability*] 
with him. 

The conclusion was, the commissioners 
of burghs, and a part of the nobility, re- 
quired of the parliament, that it might be 
enacted, " That it should be lesoun [lawful] 



* D. B. very absurdly translates this "old 
bishops." It is so also in the Paisley edition, and 
in the Edinburgh one, above mentioned. Voul- 
trollier gives only the original word Ed. 



to every man to use the benefit of the trans- 
lation which then they had of the Bible and 
New Testament, together with the benefit of 
other treatises containing wholesome doc- 
trine, unto such time as the prelates and 
kirkmen should give and set forth unto 
them a translation more correct." The 
clergy thereto long repugned ; but in the 
end, convicted by reasons and by multitude 
of votes in their contrary, they also con- 
descended ; and so by act of parliament, it 
was made free to all men and women to 
read the scriptures in their own tongue, or 
in the English tongue ; and so were all acts 
made in the contrary abolished. 

This was no small victory of Christ Jesus, 
fighting against the conjured enemies of his 
verity ; not small comfort to such as before 
were holden in such bondage, that they 
durst not have read the Lord's Prayer, the 
Ten Commandments, nor articles of their 
faith in the English tongue, but they should 
have been accused of heresy. Then might 
have been seen the Bible lying almost upon 
every gentleman's table. The New Testa- 
ment was borne about in many men's hands. 
We grant, that some, alas ! profaned that 
blessed word : for some, perchance, that 
never had read ten sentences in it, had it 
most common in their hands ; they would 
chop their familiars in the cheek with it, 
and say, " This has lain hid under my bed 
feet these ten years." Others would glory, 
" O ! how often have I been in danger for 
this book ! how secretly have I stolen 
away from my wife at midnight to read 
upon it." And this was done we say of 
many to make court thereby : for all men 
esteemed the governor to be the most fer- 
vent protestant that was in Europe. Albeit 
we say that many abused that liberty grant- 
ed of God miraculously, yet thereby did the 
knowledge of God wondrously increase, 
and [God, sup. copy] gave his holy spirit to 
simple men in great abundance. Then 
were set forth works in our own tongue, 
besides them that came from England, that 
did disclose the pride, the craft, the tyranny, 
and the abuse of the Roman antichrist. 

The fame of our governor was spread in 
divers countries, and many praised God for 
him. King Henry sent unto him his am- 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



35 



bassador, Mr Sadler, who lay in Edinburgh 
a great part of summer ; his commission and 
negotiation was to contract a perpetual 
amity betwixt England and Scotland. The 
occasion whereof God had so offered, that 
to many men it appeared that from heaven 
he had declared his good pleasure in that 
behalf. For to king Henry, of Jane Somer, 
after the death of queen Catharine, and of 
all others that might have made his mar- 
riage suspected, was given a son, Edward 
the sixth of blessed memory, elder some 
years than our mistress, and unto us left a 
queen, as before we have heard. This 
wonderful providence of God caused men of 
greatest judgment to enter into disputation 
with themselves, whether that with good 
conscience any man might repugn to the 
desires of the king of England, considering 
that thereby all occasion of war might be 
cut off, and great commodity might ensue to 
this realm. The offers of king Henry were 
so large, and his demands so reasonable, that 
all that loved quietness were content there- 
with. There were sent from the parliament 
to king Henry in commission, Sir James 
Learmonth, and Mr Henry Balnaves, who 
long remaining in England, so travailed 
that all things concerning the marriage be- 
twixt Edward the sixth and Mary queen of 
Scots was agreed upon, except the time of 
her deliverance to the custody of English- 
men ; upon the final conclusion of the 
which head, were added to the former com- 
missioners William earl of Glencairn, and 
Sir George Douglas, to whom were given 
ample commission and good instructions. 
In Scotland remained Mr Sadler. Adver- 
tisements past so frequently betwixt, yea, the 
hands of our lords w ere so liberally anoint- 
ed, besides other commodities promised, 
and of some received ; for divers prisoners 
taken at Solane [Solway] moss were sent 
home ransom free, upon promise of their 
fidelity, which, as it was kept, the issue will 
witness. But in the end so well were all 
ones content — the cardinal, the queen, and 
the faction of France ever excepted — that 
solemnly in the abbey of Holyroodhouse, 
was the contract of marriage made betwixt 
the persons foresaid, together with all the 
clauses and conditions requisite, for the 



faithful observation thereof, read in public 
audience, subscribed, sealed, approved and 
allowed of the governor for his pari, no- 
bility and lords for their parts ; and that 
nothing should want that might fortify the 
matter, was Christ's body sacred, as papists 
term it, broken betwixt the said governor 
and Mr Sadler, ambassador, and received of 
them both as a sign and token of the unity 
of their minds, inviolably to keep that con- 
tract in all points, as they looked of Christ 
Jesus to be saved, and after to be reputed 
men worthy of credit before the world. 
The papists raged against the governor 
and against the lords that consented, and 
abode sure at the contract foresaid : and 
they made a brag to depose the governor, 
and to confound all, as after followed. But 
upon the returning of the said ambassadors 
from England, pacification was made for 
that time, for by the judgments of eight 
persons for either party, to judge whether 
any thing was done for the said ambassa- 
dors in the contracting of that marriage, 
which to do, they had not sufficient power 
from the council and parliament, it was 
found, that all things were done according 
to their commission, and that so the)' 
should stand. And so were the seals of 
England and Scotland interchanged. Mr 
James Fowlis, then clerk of register, re- 
ceived the great seal of England ; and Mr- 
Sadler received the great seal of Scotland. 
The heads of contract w r e pass by. These 
things newly ratified, the merchants make 
frack [preparation] to sail, and to their traf- 
fic, which, by the trouble of w r ars, had some 
years been hindered. From Edinburgh 
were freighted twelve ships richly laden, 
according to the wares of Scotland : from 
other towns and ports departed others, 
which all arrived upon the coast of Eng- 
land, towards the south, to wit, of Yar- 
mouth ; and without any great necessity, 
entered not only within roads, but also 
within ports and places of commandment, 
and where that ships might be arrested. 
And because of the late contract of amity, 
and gentle entertainment that they found 
at the first, they made no great expedition ; 
but being, as they supposed, in security, in 
merriness they spent the time, abiding 



36 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1543 



upon the wind. In this meantime, arrived 
from France to Scotland the abbot of Pais- 
ley, called bastard brother to the governor, 
•whom yet niairy esteemed son to the old 
bishop of Dunkeld, called Crichton, and 
with him Mr David Painter, who after was 
made bishop of Ross. The bruit [report] 
of the learning- of these two, and their ho- 
nest life, and of their fervency and upright- 
ness in religion, was such, that great espe- 
rance [hope] there was that their presence 
should have been comfortable to the kirk 
of God. For it was constantly affirmed of 
some, that without delay, the one or the 
other would occupy the pulpit, and truly 
preach Jesus Christ : but few days disclos- 
ed their hypocrisy ; for what terrors, what 
promises, or what enchanting boxes they 
brought from France, the common people 
knew not. But short after, it was seen, 
that friar Williams was inhibited to preach, 
and so departed to England ; John Rough 
to Kyle, a receptacle of God's servants of 
old. The men of judgment, counsel, and 
godliness, that had travailed to promote the 
governor, and that gave him faithful coun- 
sel in all doubtful matters, were either craf- 
tily conveyed from him, or else by threa- 
tening to be hanged, were compelled to 
leave him. Of the one number, were the 
laird of Grange foresaid, Mr Henry Bal- 
naves, Mr Thomas Ballantine, and Sir Da- 
vid Lindsay of the Mount ; men, by whose 
labours he was promoted to honour, and 
by whose counsel he so used himself at the 
beginning, that the obedience given unto 
him was nothing inferior to that obedience 
that any king of Scotland of many years 
had before him ; yea, in this it did sur- 
mount the common obedience, that it pro- 
ceeded of love of those virtues that were 
supposed to have been in him. Of the 
number of them that were threatened, were 
Mr Mitchell Durham, Mr David Borth- 
wick, David Forrest, and David Bothwell ; 
who counselled him to have in his com- 
pany men fearing God, and not to foster 
wicked men in their iniquity, albeit they 
were called his friends, and were of his 
surname : this counsel understood by the 
foresaid abbot, and by the Hamiltons, who 
then repaired to the court as ravens to 



the carrion. In plain words, it was said, 
" My lord governor nor his friends will 
never be at ease nor quietness, till that 
a dozen of these knaves that abuse his 
grace be hanged." These words were 
spoken in his own presence, and in the 
presence of them that had better deserved 
than to have been so entreated : the 
speaker was allowed for his bold and 
plain speaking. And so the wicked coun- 
sel deprehended, honest and godly men left 
the court and him in the hands of such, 
as by their wicked counsel, led him so far 
from God, that he falsified his promise, 
dipped his hands in the blood of the saints 
of God, and brought this commonwealth 
to the utter point of ruin ; and these were 
the first fruits of the abbot of Paisley his 
godliness and learning ; but hereafter we 
will hear more. All honest and godly men 
banished from the court, the abbot and the 
council begin to lay before the inconstant 
governor, the dangers that might ensue 
the alteration and change of religion ; the 
power of the king of France, the commo- 
dity that might come to his house and to 
him by retaining the ancient league with 
France, and the great danger that he brought 
upon himself, if in any jot he suffered the 
authority of the pope to be violated, or 
called in doubt within this realm : consi- 
dering that thereupon only stood the secu- 
rity of his right to the succession of the 
crown of this realm : for by God's word 
would not the divorcement of his father 
from Elizabeth Home, his first wife, be 
found lawful, and so would his second mar- 
riage be judged null, and he declared bas- 
tard. Caiaphas spake prophecy and vet 
wist not what he spake ; for at that time 
there was no man that truly feared God 
that minded any such thing, but with their 
whole force would have fortified that title 
that God had given unto him, and would 
never have called in question things done 
in time of darkness. But this head we pass 
by till God declare his word thereuntil. 
Another practice was used ; for the cardinal 
being set at liberty, as before we have heard, 
ceased not to traffic with such of the mul- 
titude as he might draw r to his faction, or 
corrupt by any means, to raise a party 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



37 



against the said governor, and against such 
as stood fast at the contract of marriage and 
peace with England. And so assembled at 
Linlithgow, the said cardinal, the earls Ar- 
gyle, Huntly, and Both well, the bishops 
and their bands. And thereafter they pass- 
ed to Stirling, and took with them both the 
queen mother and the daughter, and threa- 
tened the deposition of the said governor, 
as " inobedient to their holy mother the 
kirk," so term they that harlot of Babylon, 
Rome ; the inconstant man, not thoroughly 
grounded upon God, left in his own default, 
destitute of all good counsel, and having 
the wicked ever blowing in his ear, " What 
will ye do ? Ye will destroy yourself and 
your house for ever." The unhappy man, 
we say, beaten with these temptations, ren- 
dered himself to the appetites of the wick- 
ed ; for he quietly stole away from the 
lords that were with him then in the palace 
of Holyroodhouse, passed to Stirling, sub- 
jected himself to the cardinal and to his 
counsel, received absolution, renounced the 
profession of Christ Jesus his holy evangel, 
and violated his oath that before he had 
made, for observation of the contract and 
league made with England. At that time 
was our queen crowned, and new promise 
made to France. The certainty hereof com- 
ing to king Henry, our Scotish ships were 
stayed, the sails taken from the rayes [rig- 
ging], and the merchants and mariners were 
commanded to sure custody. New commis- 
sion was sent to Mr Sadler, who then still 
remained in Scotland, to demand the cause 
of that sudden alteration, and to travail by 
all means possible, that the governor might 
be called back to his former godly purpose, 
and that he would not do so foolishly and 
unhonestly, yea, so cruelly and unmerciful- 
ly to the realm of Scotland, that he would 
not only lose the commodities offered, and 
that were partly to be received, but that 
also he would expose it to the hazard of 
fire and sword, and other inconveniences 
that might ensue the war that was to fol- 
low upon the violation of his faith ; but no- 
thing could avail. The devil kept fast the 
gripe that he got, yea, all the days of his 
government ; for the cardinal got his eldest 
son in pledge, whom he kept in the castle 
of St Andrews, until the day that God's 



hand punished his pride. King Henry per- 
ceiving that all hope of the governor's re- 
pentance was lost, called back his ambassa- 
dor, and that with fearful threatenings, as 
after Edinburgh felt; denounced war, made 
our ships prizes, merchants and mariners 
lawful prisoners, which, to the burghs of 
Scotland, was no small hership. Bur 
thereat did the cardinal and papists laugh, 
and jestingly said, " When we shall con- 
quer England, the merchants shall be re- 
compensed." The summer and the harvest 
passed over without any notable thing, foi 
the cardinal and the abbot of Paisley part- 
ed the prey amongst them ; the abused go- 
vernor bore the name only. In the begin- 
ning of winter came the earl of Lennox co 
Scotland, sent from France in hatred of 
the governor, whom the king, by the car- 
dinal's advice, promised to pronounce bas- 
tard, and so to make the said earl governor; 
the cardinal farther did put the said earl in 
vain hope that the queen dowager should 
marry him. He brought with him some 
money, and more he after received at the 
hands of Labroth. 

But at length, perceiving himself frus- 
trated of all expectation that he had, either 
by France, or yet by the promise of the 
cardinal, he concluded to leave France, and 
to seek the favours of England, and so be- 
gan to draw a faction against the governor; 
and in hatred of the other's inconstancy, 
many favoured him in the beginning; for 
there assembled at the Yule, in the town of 
Ayr, the earls of Angus, Glencairn, Cas- 
sillis, the lords Maxwell, * the 
laird of Drumlanrig, the sheriff of Ayr, 
with all the force that they, and the lords 
that remained constant at the opinion of 
England, might make ; and after the Yule 
they came to Leith. The governor and 
cardinal, with their forces, kept Edinburgh, 
for they were slackly pursued. Men excuse 
the earl of Lennox in that behalf, and laid 
the blame upon some that had no will of 
Stewart's regimen. Howsoever it was 
such an appointment was made, that the 
said earl of Lennox was disappointed of his 
purpose, and narrowly escaped ; and first got 



* There is no blank in the suppressed copy. 



S3 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1513 



him to Glasgow, and after to Dumbarton, 
Sir George Douglas was delivered to be 
kept as pledge. The earl his brother was 
[in the lent, sup. copy] after taken in the 
Lentern, at the siege of Glasgow. It was 
bruited, that both the brethren, and others 
with them, had lost their heads, if by the 
providence of God the English army had not 
arrived the sooner. After that the cardi- 
nal had gotten the governor wholly addicted 
to his devotion, and had obtained his intent 
above his enemies, he began to practise how 
that such as he feared, and therefore deadly 
hated, should be set by the ears one against 
another. For in that, thought the carnal 
man, stood his greatest security. The lord 
Ruthven he hated, by reason of his know- 
ledge of God's word. The lord Gray he 
feared, because at that time he used the 
company of such as professed godliness, and 
bore small favour to the cardinal. Now, 
thus reasoned the worldly wise man, " If I 
can put enmity betwixt these two, I shall 
be rid of a great number of unfriends ; for 
the most of the country will either assist 
the one or the other; and so will they 
otherwise be occupied, than to watch for 
my displeasure." He finds the means with- 
out long process; for he laboured with 
John Charteris, a man of stout courage and 
many friends, to accept the provostry of St 
Johnstone, which he purchased unto him 
by donation of the governor, with charge 
to the said town to obey him as their law- 
ful provost. Whereat, not only the said 
lord Ruthven, but also the town, being of- 
fended, gave a negative answer, alleging, 
that such intruding of men in office was 
hurtful to their privilege and freedom ; 
which granted unto them free election of 
their provost from year to year, at a certain 
time appointed, which they could not, or 
would not prevent. Hereat the said John 
offended said, " That he would occupy that 
office by force, if that they would not grant 
it unto him by benevolence ;" and so de- 
parted, and communicated the matter with 
the lord Gray, with Norman Leslie, and 
others his friends, whom easily he per- 
suaded in that pursuit, because he appeared 
to have the governor's right, and had not 
only a charge unto the town, as said is, but 
also he purchased letters to besiege it, and 



to take it by strong hand, if any resistance 
were made unto him. Such letters, we 
say, made many to favour his action. 
The other made defence, and so took the 
master of Ruthven — the lord that after de- 
parted in England — the maintenance of 
the town, having in his company the laird 
of Moncrief, and other friends adjacent. 
The said John made frack [prepared] for 
the pursuit ; and upon the Magdalene day, 
in the morning anno 1543, approached with 
his forces. The lord Gray took upon him 
the principal charge. It was appointed, 
that Norman Leslie with his friends should 
have come by ship, with munition and 
ordnance, as they were in readiness. But 
because the tide served not so soon as they 
would, the other thinking himself of suffi- 
cient force, for all that were in the town, 
entered in by the bridge, where they found 
no resistance, till that the foremost part 
was entered a pretty space from the Fish 
Gate ; and then the said master of Ruthven 
with his company, stoutly rencountered 
them, and so readily repulsed the foremost, 
that such as were behind gave back. The 
place of the retire was so strait, that men 
that durst not fight, could not fly at their 
pleasure ; for the most part of my lord 
Gray's friends were upon the bridge ; and so 
the slaughter was great ; for there fell in 
the edge of the sword threescore men. The 
cardinal had! rather that the unhap had 
fallen on the other part ; but howsoever it 
was, he thought that such trouble was to 
his comfort and advantage. The knowledge 
whereof came to the ears of the party that 
had received the discomfiture, and was unto 
them no small grief; for as many entered 
of them in that action for his pleasure, so 
thought they to have had his fortification 
and assistance, whereof finding themselves 
frustrated, they began to look more nar- 
rowly to themselves, and did not so much 
attend upon the cardinal's devotion, as they 
had wont to do before ; and so was a new 
jealousy engendered amongst them; for 
whosoever would not play to him the good 
valet, was reputed amongst his enemies. 
The cardinal drew the governor to Dundee ; 
for he understood that the earl of Rothes 
and Mr Henry Balnaves were with the 
lord Gray in the castle of Huntly. The 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



39 



governor sent and commanded the said earl 
and lord, with the foresaid Mr Henry, to 
come unto him to Dundee, and appointed 
the next day, at ten hours before noon, 
which hour they decreed to keep; and for 
that purpose assembled their folks at Bal- 
gowy, or thereby. The cardinal, advertised 
of their number — they were more than 
three hundred men — thought it not good, 
that they should join with the town, for he 
feared his own estate; and so he persuaded 
the governor to pass forth of Dundee before 
nine hours, and to take the straight way to 
St Johnstone [Perth] ; which perceived by 
foresaid lords, they began to fear that they 
would come to pursue them, and so put 
themselves in order and array, and marched 
forward of purpose to have bidden the 
uttermost [stood the worst]. But the 
crafty fox foreseeing, that in fighting stood 
not his security, ran to his last refuge, that 
is, to manifest treason ; and so consultation 
was taken, how that the force of the others 
might be broken. And at the first were sent 
the laird of Grange, and the provost of St 
Andrews, knowing nothing of treason, to 
ask why they molested my lord governor in 
his journey? Whereto they answered, 
" That they meant nothing- less, for they 
came at his grace's commandment, to have 
kept the hour in Dundee appointed by him, 
which because they saw prevented, and 
knowing- the cardinal to be their unfriend, 
they could not but suspect their unprovided 
coming forth of the town ; and, therefore, 
they put themselves in order, not to invade, 
but to defend in case they were invaded." 
This answer reported, was sent to them the 
bishop of St Andrews, the abbot of Paisley, 
Mr David Painter, the lairds of Buccleugh 
and Coldinknows, to desire certain of the 
other company to talk with them, which 
they easily obtained, for they suspected no 
treason. After long communication, it was 
demanded, if that the earl, and lord, and Mi- 
Henry foresaid, would not be content to talk 
with the governor, providing that the car- 
dinal and his company were of [on, s. c.) the 
ground ? They answered, " That the gover- 
nor might command them in all things lawful ; 
but they had no will to be in the cardinal's 
mercy." Fair promises enew were made 



for their security ; then was the cardinal 
and his band commanded to depart ; as that 
he did according to the purpose taken. The 
governor remained, and a certain [number] 
with him ; to whom came without company 
the said ear), lord, and Mr Henry. After 
many fair words given unto them all, to 
wit, " That he would have them agreed with; 
the cardinal ; and that he would have Mi- 
Henry Balnaves the worker and instru- 
ment thereof." He drew forwards with 
him towards St Johnstone, whereto the 
cardinal was ridden. They began to sus- 
pect, albeit it was too late ; and, therefore, 
they desired to have returned to their folks, 
for putting order to them. But it was an- 
swered, " They should send back from the 
town ; but they must needs go forward with 
my lord governor." And so, partly by 
flattery, and partly by force, they were 
compelled to obey; and how soon that ever 
they were within the town they were appre- 
hended, and upon the morn sent all three to 
the Blackness, where they remained so 
long as it pleased the cardinal's graceless 
grace, and that was till that the band of 
man-rent and of service, set some of them 
at liberty. And thus the cardinal with his 
craft prevailed on every side ; so that the 
Scotish proverb was true of him, " So long 
runs the fox as he foot has." 

Whether it was at this his journey, or at 
another, that that bloody butcher executed 
his cruelty upon the innocent persons in 
St Johnstone, we cannot affirm ; neither 
yet study we to be curious, but rather we 
travail to express the verity, whensoever it 
was done, than scrupulously and exactly to 
appoint the times, which yet We omit not, 
when the certainty occurs. The verity of 
that cruel fact is this : at St Paul's day, be- 
fore the first burning of Edinburgh, come to 
St Johnstone the governor and cardinal, 
and there, upon envious delation, were a 
great number of honest men and women, 
called before the cardinal, accused of he- 
resy ; and albeit they could be convicted of 
nothing, but only of suspicion that they had 
eaten a goose upon Friday, four men were 
adjudged to be hanged, and a woman to be 
drowned ; which cruel and most unjust sen- 
tence was without mercy put in execution. 



4.0 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1544 



The husband was hanged, and the wife, hav- 
ing- a sucking- babe upon her breast, was 
drowned. " O Lord, the land is not yet 
purged from such beastly cruelty, neither 
has thy just vengeance yet stricken all that 
were criminal of their blood; but the day 
approaches when that the punishment of 
that cruelty and others, will evidently ap- 
pear." The names of the men that were 
hanged, were James Hunter, William Lamb, 
William Anderson, James Rannalt, burg-esses 
of St Johnstone. At that time were ba- 
nished Sir Henry Elder, John Elder, 
Walter Piper, Laurence Pullar, with divers 
others, whose names came not to our know- 
ledge. That sworn enemy of Christ Jesus, 
and unto all in whom any spunk of know- 
ledge appeared, had about that same time 
in prison divers ; among-st whom was John 
Roger, a black friar, godly, learned, and 
one that fruitfully preached Christ Jesus, to 
the comfort of many in Angus and Mearns, 
whom that bloody man had caused murder 
in the ground of the Sea Tower of St An- 
drews, and then caused to cast him over the 
craig- [rock], sparsing- [spreading-] a false 
bruit [report], " That the said John, seeking 
to fly, had broken his own craig [neck]." 
Thus ceased not Satan by all means to main- 
tain his kingdom of darkness, and to sup- 
press the light of Christ's evangel. But 
potent is he against whom they fought ; for 
when the wicked were in greatest security, 
then began God to show his anger ; for the 
third day of May, in the year of God 1544 
years, without knowledge of any man in 
Scotland, we mean of such as should have 
had the care of the realm, was seen a great 
navy of ships arriving towards the firth. 
The posts come to the governor and car- 
dinal, who both were in Edinburgh, what 
multitude of ships were seen, and what 
course they took. This was upon the 
Saturday before noon. Question was had, 
what should they mean? Some said, it 
is no doubt but they are Englishmen, and 
we fear that they shall land. The cardinal 
skrippit [laughed or derided], and said, " It 
is but the island fleet, they are come to 
make us a show, and to put us in fear. I 
shall lodge the men-of-war in my eye, that 
shall land in Scotland." Still sits the car- 



dinal at his dinner, showing as that there 
had been no danger appearing. Men con- 
vene to gaze upon the ships, some to the 
Castle-hill, some to craigs, and other places 
eminent. But there was no question with 
what force shall we resist, if that we be in- 
vaded. Some, after six hours at , night, 
were arrived, and had casten anchor in the 
road of Leith, more than two hundred 
sail. Shortly thereafter, the admiral shot 
[launched] a float boat, which from Gran- 
toun craigs, till by east Leith, sounded the 
deep, and so returned to her ship. Hereof 
were divers opinions; men of judgment 
foresaw what it meant, but no credit was 
given to any that would say they mind 
[intend] to land, and so passed all men to his 
rest, as if those ships had been a guard for 
their defence. Upon the point of day, upon 
Sunday the fourth day of May, addressed 
they for landing, and ordered then their 
ships, so that a galley or two laid their 
snouts [heads] to the craigs. The small 
ships, called pinnaces, and heiche [light] 
horsemen, approached as near as they 
could. The great ships discharged their 
soldiers in the smaller vessels, and then by 
boats, set upon dry land before ten hours, 
ten thousand men, as were judged, and 
more. The governor and cardinal seeing 
then the thing they could not, or at least 
would not believe afore, after that they 
had made a brag to fight, fled as fast as 
horse would carry them ; so that after, they 
approached not within twenty miles of the 
danger. The earl of Angus, and Sir George 
Douglas were that night freed of ward — 
they were in Blackness — the said Sir 
George in merriness said, " I thank king- 
Henry and my gentle masters of England." 

The English army betwixt twelve and 
one hour* entered in Leith, found the 
tables covered, and the dinners pre- 
pared ; such abundance of wine and vic- 
tuals, besides the other substance, that the 
like riches within the like bounds were 
not to be found, neither in Scotland nor 
England. Upon the Monday the fifth 
of May, came to them from Berwick and 



* The suppressed edition makes it between 
one and two o'clock. 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



41 



the border, two thousand horsemen, who 
being- somewhat reposed, the army upon 
Wednesday marched towards the town of 
Edinburgh, spoiled and burned the same, 
and so did they the palace of Holyrood- 
house ; the horsemen took the house of 
Craigmillar, and got great spoil therein ; 
for it being- the strongest house near the 
town, other than the castle of Edinburgh, 
all men sought to save their moveables 
therein, but the stoutness of the laird gave 
it over without shot of hackbut, and for 
his reward was caused to march upon his 
feet to London. He is now captain of 
Dunbar, and provost of Edinburg-h. The 
Englishmen seeing no resistance, hurled by 
force of men cannons up the causeway to 
the Butter-trone, and above, and hazarded 
a shot at the fore-entry of the castle ; but 
that was to their own pains; for they 
lying without trench or gabion, were ex- 
posed to the force of the whole ordnance of 
the said castle, which shot, and that not all 
in vain, for the wheel and axletree of one of 
the English cannons were broken, and some 
of their men slain, and so they left with 
small honour that enterprise, taken rather 
of rashness than of any advised counsel. 
When the most part of the day they had 
spoiled and burnt, towards the night they 
returned to Leith, and upon the morn re- 
turned to Edinburgh, and executed the rest 
of God's judgments for that time; and so 
when they had consumed both the towns, 
they loaded the ships with the spoil there- 
of, and they by land returned to Berwick, 
using the country for the most part at their 
own pleasure. This was a part of the 
punishment which God took upon the 
realm for infidelity of the governor, and 
for the violation of his solemn oath. But 
this was not the end ; for the realm Avas 
divided into two factions, the one favoured 
France, and the other the league lately con- 
tracted with England ; the one did in no 
things thoroughly credit the other ; so that 
the country M as in extreme calamity ; for 
to the Englishmen were delivered certain 
strengths, such as Carlaverock, Lochmaben, 
and Langholm. The most part of the bor- 
derers were confederate with England. 
And albeit at first, at Ancram-muir, in Fe- 



bruary, in the year of God 1544, was Sir 
Ralph Ewars, with many other E iglislt* 
men slain, and the year after were some of 
the said strengths recovered; yet was it not 
without great loss and detriment of the 
commonwealth ; for in the month of June, 
in the year of God 1545, Monsieur de Lourg, 
with bands of men of war, came from 
France for a further destruction to Scot- 
land; for upon their brag was an army 
raised. Forwards go they towards Wark, 
even in the midst of the harvest. The 
cardinal's banner was that day displayed, 
and all his fials [retainers] were charged 
to be under it. Many before had promised, 
but at the point it was left so bare, that 
with shame it was shut up in the poke 
again, and they after a show returned 
with more shame to the realm, nor scathe 
to the enemies. The black book of 
Hamilton makes mention of great vassalage 
done at that time by the governor, and the 
French captain ; but such as with their eyes 
saw the whole progress, knew that to be a 
lie, " and do repute it among the venial 
sins of that race, which is to speak the best 
of themselves they can." 

That winter following so nurtured the 
Frenchmen, that they learned to eat, yea, 
to beg cakes, which at their entry they 
scorned. Without jesting, they were so 
miserably entreated, that few returned to 
France again with their lives. The cardinal 
then had almost fortified the castle of St 
Andrews, which he made so strong, in his 
opinion, that he regarded neither England 
nor France. The earl of Lennox, as said 
is, disappointed of all things in Scotland, 
passed to England, where he was received 
of king Henry in protection, who gave him 
to wife lady Margaret Douglas, of whom 
was born Henry, umquhille [deceased] hus- 
band to our Jezebel and mistress. 

While the inconstant governor was some- 
times dejected, and sometimes raised up 
again by the abbot of Paisley, who before 
was called " chaster nor any maiden," be- 
gan to show himself; for, after he had 
taken by craft the castles of Edinburgh and 
Dunbar, he also took possession of his 
enemy's wife, the lady Stenhouse. The 
woman is, and has been famous, and is 

F 



42 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1545 



called lady Gilton ; her ladyship was holden 
always iii property;* but how many wives 
and virgins he has had since that in 
common the world knows, albeit not all, 
and his bastard birds bear some witness. 
Such is the example of holiness that the 
flock may receive of these papistical bishops. 

In the midst of all the calamities that 
came upon this realm after the defection of 
the governor from Christ Jesus, comes in 
Scotland that blessed martyr of God, Mi- 
George Wishart,f in company of the com- 
missioners before-mentioned, in the year of 
God 1544 ; a man of such graces as before 
him were never heard in this realm, yea, 
and rare to be found yet in any man not- 
withstanding this great light of God that 
since his days has shined unto us. He was 
not only singularly learned, as well in godly 
knowledge as in all human science, but also 
he was so clearly illuminated with the spirit 
of the prophecy, that he saw not only things 



* This is evidently a misprint. Poverty is 
the word in the other editions, including the 
suppressed one. — Ed. 

f " The person to whom our Reformer (Knox) 
was most indebted," says Dr M'Crie, £ " was 
George Wishart, a gentleman of the house of 
Pittarow, in M earns. Being driven into ba- 
nishment by Cardinal Beaton, for teaching the 
Greek New Testament in INIontrose, he had re- 
sided for some years in the University of Cam- 
bridge. In the year 1544, he returned to his 
native country, in the company of the commis- 
sioners, who had been sent to negotiate a treaty 
with Henry VIII. of England. Seldom do we 
meet in ecclesiastical history, with a character 
so amiable and interesting as that of George 
Wishart." See the account at length in M'Crie's 
Life of Knox, especially a most striking graphi- 
cal view of his character and person, by one of 
his Cambridge pupils. — Ed. 

\ Knox no doubt believed that his friend 
possessed the spirit of prophecy ; and Wishart 
seems to have thought so himself, as appears by 
his address to the people of Dundee, particularly 
these words- " If it be long prosperous with 
you, I am not led by the Spirit of God." He 
was sure, that the word of God spoken by him 
would be fulfilled ; which as an abstract propo- 
sition, I suppose, no one will deny. God will 
fulfil his word, speak it who may. But the 
question is, Did God speak by him any thing 
but what is contained in the holy scriptures? 
To maintain the affirmative, would be to admit 
a new revelation ; and if we admit such a thing 
in the sixteenth century, there is no reason why 
we may not expect the same in the nineteenth, or 
any futurp century; then it will follow, that the 
canon of divine revelation is not yet finished, at 
least we cannot know that it is. It is probable, 
however, that Wishart meant no more than 



pertaining to himself, but also such things 
as some towns, and the whole realm after- 
wards found, which he forespake, not in se- 
cret, but in audience of many, as in their 
own places shall be declared. % The be- 
ginning of his doctrine was into Montrose; 
therefrom he departed to Dundee, where, 
with great admiration of all that heard him, 
he taught the Epistle to the Romans, till 
that by procurement of the cardinal, Ro- 
bert Mill, then one of the principal men in 
Dundee, and a man who of old had pro- 
fessed knowledge, and for the same had suf- 
fered trouble, gave, in the queen and go- 
vernor's name, inhibition to the said George, 
that he should trouble their town no more, 
for they would not suffer it. And this was 
said to him, being in the public place, which 
heard, he mused a little space, with his 
eyes bent unto heaven, and thereafter look- 
ed sorrowfully at the speaker, and to the 
people, he said, " God is witness that I 



being led by the Spirit of God to make applica- 
tion of the word contained in scripture, particu- 
larly the judgments threatened against gospel 
despisers ; and in the fervency of his spirit, he 
might feel assured, that Dundee would suffer 
some severe visitation of divine wrath for the 
treatment which they gave to the gospel message. 
This explanation may tend to exculpate Wishart 
and Knox and others, from the presumption of 
professing to be inspired to deliver original pre- 
dictions. But still there was a mistake in their 
view of the matter; for God does not usually 
punish the rejection of the gospel by temporal 
judgments. He that believeth not shall not see 
life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him. He 
may, notwithstanding, enjoy the greatest degree 
of temporal prosperity. When Jesus Christ up- 
braided the cities in which most of his mighty 
works were done, because they believed not, he 
did not threaten any temporal calamity, but 
said, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and 
Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. It 
so happened that Dundee was visited by the 
plague soon after Wishart left it, which was ta- 
ken as a fulfilment of his prophecy. But the 
plague was no uncommon thing in those days, 
perhaps occasioned by the uncomfortable habita- 
tions of the people, and their manner of living. 
There are other instances of his apparently su- 
pernatural knowledge of things, that I do not 
pretend to explain, particularly how he knew of 
a secret conspiracy to assassinate himself. Knox 
does not profess to have been a witness of this. 
He must have had it from others ; and from 
the state of his own mind, he was predis- 
posed to believe it. Yet were it possible to cross- 
examine the witnesses, it might turn out, that 
what they took for supernatural knowledge, was 
no more than shrewd suspicion. — Ed. 




-Published ly BlackU .TuOartan, Jt Cf Glasq 



Book 1.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



43 



never minded [intended] your trouble, but 
your comfort ; yea, your trouble is more 
dolorous unto me than it is unto your- 
selves ; but I am assured, that to refuse 
God's word, and to chase from you his mes- 
senger, shall not preserve you from trouble, 
but it shall bring- you into it ; for God shall 
send unto you messengers, who will not be 
afraid of horning", nor yet for banishment. 
I have offered unto you the word of salva- 
tion, and with the hazard of my life I have 
remained among you. Now ye yourselves 
refuse me, and therefore man [must] I leave 
my innocence to be declared by my God ; if 
it long prospers with you, I am not led 
with the spirit of truth ; but and [if] trouble 
unlooked for apprehend you, acknowledge 
the cause, and turn to God, for he is merci- 
ful ; but if ye turn not at the first, he will 
visit you with fire and sword." These 
words pronounced, he came down from 
the preaching place. In the kirk present 
were the lord Marshall, and divers noble- 
men, who would have had the said Mr 
George to have remained, or else to have 
gone with them in the country, but for 
no request would he either tarry in the 
town, or on that side of Tay any longer, 
but with possible expedition passed to the 
west land, where he began to offer God's 
word, which was of many gladly received, 
till that the bishop of Glasgow, Dunbar, by 
instigation of the cardinal, come with his 
gatherings to the town of Ayr, to make re- 
sistance to the said Mr George, and did 
first occupy the kirk ; the earl of Glencairn 
being thereof advertised, repaired with his 
friends to the town with diligence, and so 
did divers gentlemen of Kyle, — among 
whom was the laird of Lochnoris, a man 
far different from him that now liveth, anno 
1566, in maimers and religion, — of whom, 
to this day, yet many live, and have declar- 
ed themselves always zealous and bold in 
the cause of God, as after will be heard. 
When all were assembled, conclusion was 



* D. B. must have seen that he could not 
translate this " old hishops," and so he does not 
translate it at all. They must have been the 
poor of the town, who depending on the church 
for their living, durst not offend the clergy by 
going to hear Wishart. — Ed. 



taken, that they have, the kirk ; whereto 
the said Mr George utterly repugned, say- 
ing, " Let him alone, his sermon will not 
much hurt ; let us go to the market-cross." 
And so they did, where he made so notable 
a sermon, that the very enemies themselves 
were confounded. The bishop preached to 
his jackmen, and to some old bosses * of 
the town ; the sum of all his sermon was, 
" They say we should preach, why not ? 
Better late thrive, nor never thrive : Hold 
us still for your bishop, and we shall provide 
better the next time." This was the begin- 
ning and end of the bishop's sermon, who 
with haste departed the town, but returned 
not to fulfil his promise. The said Mr 
George remained with the gentlemen in 
Kyle, till that he got sure knowledge of 
the estate of Dundee. He preached com- 
monly at the kirk of Galston, and used much 
in the Bar. f He was required to come 
to the kirk of Mauchlin, as that he did ; 
but the sheriff of Ayr caused man the kirk, 
for the preservation of a tabernacle that 
was very beautiful to the eye. The per- 
sons that held the kirk, were George Camp- 
bell of Mingarswood, that yet liveth, anno 
1566, Mungo Campbell of Brownside, 
George Reid in Dawdilling, the laird of 
Templeland. Some zealous of the parish- 
ioners, amongst whom was Hugh Campbell 
of Kingyeancleuch, offended they should 
be debarred their parish kirk, concluded 
by force to enter. But the said Mr George 
withdrew the said Hugh, and said unto 
him, " Brother, Christ Jesus is as potent 
upon the fields as in the kirk ; and I find 
that himself oftener preached in the desert, 
at the seaside, and other places judged pro- 
fane, than that he did in the temple of 
Jerusalem. It is the word of peace, which 
God sends by me : the blood of no man 
shall be shed this day for the preaching of 
it." And so withdrawing the whole peo- 
ple, he came to a dike in a muir edge, upon 
the south-west side of Mauchlin, upon the 



t i. e. He preached mud) at this place. In 
the sequel we find this was one of Knox's 
preaching stations ; and the laird of Bar was 
one of those who brought him to Ayrshire. 
—Ed. 



44 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1545 



which he ascended. The whole multitude 
stood and sat about him, God gave the day 
pleasaut and hot, he continued in preach- 
ing more nor three hours. In that sermon j 
God wrought so wonderfully with him, 
that one of the most wicked men that was 
in that country, named Lawrence Ranken, 
laird of Sheil, was converted. The tears 
ran from his eyes in such abundance, that 
all men wondered; his conversion was with- 
out hypocrisy, for his life and conversation 
witnessed it in all times to come. While 
this faithful servant of God was thus occu- 
pied in Kyle, word rose, that the plague of 
pestilence rose in Dundee, which began 
four days after the said Mr George was in- 
hibited preaching, and was so vehement, 
that it passed almost credibility, to hear 
what number departed every four and 
twenty hours. The certainty understood, 
the said Mr George took his leave of Kyle, 
and that with the regret of many: but no 
request could make him to remain ; his 
reason was, " They were now in trouble, and 
they need comfort ; perchance this hand of 
God will make them now to magnify and 
reverence that word, which before, for the 
fear of men, they set at light part." Com- 
ing unto Dundee, the joy of the faithful 
was exceeding great. He delayed no time, 
but even upon the morn gave signification 
that he would preach. And because the 
most part were either sick, or else were in 
company with them that were sick, he 
chose the head of the east port of the 
town for his preaching place, and so the 
whole stood or sat within, the sick and 
suspected without the port. The text upon 
the which his first sermon was made, he 
took from the hundred and seventh psalm ; 
the sentence thereof, " He sent his word 
and healed them;" and therewith joined 
these words, " It is neither herb nor plas- 
ter, O Lord, but thy word heals all." In 
the which sermon, he most comfortably did 
entreat the dignity and utility of God's 
word, the punishment that comes for the 
contempt of the same ; the promptitude of 
God's mercy to such as truly turn unto him; 
yea, the great happiness of them whom God 
takes from this misery, even in his own gen- 
tle visitation, which the malice of men can 



neither eik nor pair [add or diminish]. By 
the which sermon he raised up the hearts of 
all that heard him, that they regarded not 
death, but judged them more happy that 
should depart, than such as should remain 
behind. Considering that they knew not if 
they should have such a comforter with 
them at all times, he spared not to visit 
them that lay in the very extremity. He 
comforted them as that he might in such a 
multitude ; he caused minister all things 
necessary to them that might use meat and 
drink, and in that point was [to] the town 
wondrous beneficial, for the poor were no 
more neglected than were the rich. While 
he was spending his life to comfort the af- 
flicted, the devil ceased not to stir up his 
own son the cardinal again, who corrupted 
by money a desperate priest, named Sir 
John Wighton, to slay the said Mr George, 
who looked not in all things so circum- 
spectly as worldly men would have wished. 
And upon a day, the sermon ended, and 
the people departing, no man suspecting 
danger, and therefore not heeding the said 
Mr George, the priest that was corrupted 
stood waiting at the foot of the steps, his 
gown loose, and his whinger drawn into 
his hand under his gown, the said Mi- 
George, as that he was most sharp of eye 
andjudgment, marked him, and as he came 
near, he said, " My friend, what would ye 
do ?" And therewith he clapped his hand 
upon the priest's hand wherein the whinger 
was, which he took from him. The priest 
abashed, fell down at his feet, and openly 
confessed the verity as it was. The noise 
rising 1 , and coming - to the ears of the sick, 
i they cried, 14 Deliver the traitor to us, or 
else we will take him by force;" and so 
they thrust in at the gate ; but Mr George 
took him in his arms, and said, " Whosoever 
troubles him shall trouble me, for he has 
hurt me in nothing, but he has done great 
comfort both to you and me, to wit, he has 
led us to understand, what we may fear, in 
times to come we will watch better ;" and 
so he appeased both the one part and the 
other, and saved the life of him that sought 
his. 

When the plague was so ceased, that al- 
most there was none sick, he took his leave 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



of them, and said, " That God had almost 
put end to that battle, he found himself 
called to another;" the gentlemen of the 
west had written unto him, " That he 
should meet them at Edinburgh, for they 
would require disputation of the bishops, 
and that he should be publicly heard ;" 
whereto he willingly agreed : but first he 
passed to Montrose to salute the kirk there, 
where he remained, occupied sometimes in 
preaching, but most part in secret medita- 
tion, in the which he was so earnest, that 
night and day he would continue in it. 
While he was so occupied with his God, 
the cardinal drew a secret draught for his 
slaughter ; he caused write unto him a let- 
ter, as it had been from his most familiar 
friend the laird of Kinnier, " Desiring him 
with all possible diligence to come unto 
him, for he was stricken with a sudden 
sickness." In the meantime, had the trai- 
tor provided threescore men, with jacks 
and spears, to lie in wait within a mile and 
a half to the town of Montrose, for his des- 
patch. The letter coming to his hand, he 
made haste at the first, for the boy had 
brought a horse ; and so with some honest 
men he passed forth of the town. But sud- 
denly he stayed, and musing a space, re- 
turned back ; whereat they wondering, he 
said, " I will not go, 1 am forbidden of 
God ; I am assured there is treason. Let 
some of you," said he, " go to yon place, 
and tell me what they find." Diligence 
made, they found the treason as it was; 
which being shown with expedition to Mr 
George, he answered, " I know that I shall 
end my life in that blood-thirsty man's 
hands, but it will not be of this manner." 
The time approaching that he had appoint- 
ed to meet the gentlemen at Edinburgh, he 
took his leave at Montrose, and sore against 
the judgment of the laird of Dun, he enter- 
ed on his journey, and so returned to Dun- 
dee ; but remained not, but passed to the 
house of a faithful brother, named James 
Watson, who dwelt in Innergowrie, distant 
from the said town two miles; and that 
night, as information was given us by Wil- 
liam Spalding and John Watson, both men 
of good credit, before day he passed forth 
into a yard; the said William and John 



followed privily, and took heed what he 
did. When he had gone up and down into 
an alley a reasonable space, with many 
sighs and deep groans, he plat [fell J down 
upon his knees, and sitting thereon, his 
groans increased, and from his knees he 
fell upon his face, and then the persons 
forenamed, heard weeping, and as it were 
an indigested sound, as it were of prayers, 
in the which he continued near an hour, 
and after began to be quiet, and so rose and 
came to his bed. They that awaited pre- 
vented him, as they had been ignorant, till 
that he came in ; and then began they to de- 
mand where he had been ? But that night 
he would answer nothing. Upon the morn 
they urged him again ; and while that he 
dissimuled [evaded, or declined answering], 
they said, " Mr George, be plain with us, 
for we heard your groans; yea, we heard 
your mourning, and saw you both upon 
your knees, and upon your face." With 
dejected visage, he said, " I had rather ye 
had been in your beds, and it had been 
more profitable for you ; for I was scarce 
well occupied." When they instantly urged 
him to let them know some comfort ; he 
said, " I will tell you that I am assured, 
that my travail is near an end ; and there- 
fore call to God with me, that now I shrink 
not when the battle waxes most hot." 
And while that they wept, and said, " That 
was small comfort unto them ;" he answer- 
ed, " God shall send you comfort after me; 
this realm shall be illuminated with the 
light of Christ's evangel, as clearly as ever 
was any realm since the days of the apos- 
tles; the house of God shall be built into 
it, yea, it shall not want — whatsoever the 
enemy imagine in the contrary — the very 
cape-stone;" meaning, that it should be 
brought to full perfection. " Neither," 
said he, " shall this be long to ; there shall 
not many suffer after me, till that the glory 
of God shall evidently appear, and shall 
once triumph in despite of Satan. But alas! 
if the people shall be after unthankful, 
then fearful and terrible shall the plagues 
be that after shall follow." And with these 
words he marched forward in his journey 
towards St Johnston ; and so to Fife, aud 
then to Leith, where arrived, and hearing 



46 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1545 



no word of them that appointed to meet 
him, to wit, the earl of Cassilis, and the 
gentlemen of Kyle and Cuningham, kept 
himself secret a day or two. But begin- 
ning to wax sorrowful in spirit, and being 
demanded of the cause, of such as were not 
in his company before, he said, " What 
differ I from a dead man, except that 
I eat and drink ? To this time, God has 
used my labours to the instruction of 
others, and to the disclosing of darkness; 
and now I lurk as a man that was asham- 
ed, and durst not show himself before 
men." By these and like words, they that 
heard him understood that his desire was to 
preach ; and therefore said, " most com- 
fortable it were for us to hear you, but be- 
cause we kuovv the danger wherein ye 
stand, we dare not desire you." " But dare 
ye and others hear," said he, " and then let 
my God provide for me, as best pleases 
him." Finally, it was concluded, that the 
next Sunday he should preach in Leith, as 
that he did, and took the text, " The 
parable of the sower that went out to sow 
seed," Matth. xiii., and this the fifteenth 
day before Yule. The sermon ended, the 
gentlemen of Lothian, who then were ear- 
nest professors of Christ Jesus, thought 
not expedient that he should abide in Leith, 
because that the governor and cardinal were 
shortly to come to Edinburgh : and there- 
fore they took him with them, and kept 
him sometimes in Brownston, sometimes in 
Long Niddry, and sometimes in Ormi- 
ston; for these three diligently waited on 
him. The Sunday following, he preached 
in the kirk of Inveresk, beside Musselburgh, 
both before and at afternoon, where there 
was a great confluence of people, amongst 
whom was Sir George Douglas, who after 
the sermon, said publicly, " I know that my 
lord governor, and my lord cardinal shall 
hear that I have been at this preaching — 
for they were then in Edinburgh. — Say 
unto them that I will avow it, and will not 
only maintain the doctrine that I have 
heard, but also the person of the teacher to 
the uttermost of my power ;" which words 
greatly rejoiced the people and gentlemen 
then present. 

One thing notable in that sermon we 



cannot pass by ; amongst others came there 
two gray friars, and standing in the entry 
of the kirk door, they made some whisper- 
ing to such as came in, which perceived, 
the preacher said to the people that stood 
near them, " I heartily pray you to make 
room to these two men, it may be that they 
be come to learn ;" and unto them he said, 
" Come near, — for they stood in the very 
entry of the door — for I assure you ye shall 
hear the word of verity, which shall either 
seal unto you this same day your salvation 
or condemnation ;" and so proceeded he in 
doctrine, supposing that they would have 
been quiet; but when he perceived them 
still to trouble the people that stood near 
them, — for vehement was he against the 
false worshipping of God — he turned unto 
them the second time, and with an awful 
countenance said, " O Serjeants of Satan, 
and deceivers of the souls of men, will ye 
neither hear God's truth, nor suffer others 
to hear it ? Depart, and take this for your 
portion, God shall shortly confound and 
disclose your hypocrisy within this realm ; 
ye shall be abominable unto men, and your 
places and habitations shall be desolate." 
This sentence he pronounced with great 
vehemency in the midst of the sermon ; and 
turning to the people, he said, " Yon 
wicked men have provoked the spirit of 
God to anger;" and so he returned to his 
matter, and proceeded to the end. That 
day's travail ended, he came to Long Nid- 
dry, and the two next Sundays preached in 
Tranent with the like grace, and like con- 
fluence of people. In all his sermons, after 
his departure from Angus, he forespoke the 
shortness of the time that he had to travail, 
and of his death, the day whereof, he said, 
approached nearer than any would believe. 

In the hinder end of those days that are 
called the holidays of Yule, passed he — by 
the consent of the gentlemen — to Hadding- 
ton, where it was supposed the greatest con- 
fluence of people should be, both by reason of 
the town and of the country adjacent. The 
first day before noon the audience were 
reasonable, and yet nothing in comparison 
of that which used to be in that kirk ; but 
the afternoon, and the next day following 
before noon, the auditors were so slender 



Book I.J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



17 



that many wondered. The cause was 
judged to have been, that the earl Both- 
well — who in these bounds used to have 
great credit and obedience — by procurement 
of the cardinal, had given inhibition, as well 
to the town as to the country, that they 
should not hear him under the pain of his dis- 
pleasure. The first night he lay within the 
town with David Forest, now called gene- 
ral, a man that long has professed the truth, 
and upon whom many in that time depend- 
ed. The second night he lay in Lething- 
ton, the laird whereof was ever civil, albeit 
not persuaded in religion. The day follow- 
ing, before the;said Mr George passed to the 
sermon, there came to him a boy with a 
letter from the west land, which received 
and read, he called for John Knox,* who 
had awaited upon him carefully from the 
time he came to Lothian ; with whom he 
began to enter in purpose, " That he weari- 
ed of the world."f The cause of his com- 
plaint was, the gentlemen of the west had 
written unto him, that they could not 
keep diet at Edinburgh. The said John 
Knox wondered that he desired to keep 
any purpose before sermon, for that was 
never his accustomed use before, said, 
" Sir, the time of sermon approaches, I will 
leave you for the present to your medita- 
tion," and so took he the bill containing the 
purpose foresaid, and left him. The said 
Mr George spaced [paced] up and down be- 
hind the high altar more than half an hour, 
his very countenance and visage declared 
the grief and alteration of his mind. At 
last he passed to the pulpit, but the auditory 
was small. He should have begun to have 
entered the second table of the law, but 
thereof in that sermon he spoke very little. 
He began on this manner ; " O Lord, how 
long shall it be, that thy holy word shall be 
despised, and men shall not regard their 
own salvation ? I have heard of thee, Had- 
dington, that in thee would have been at a 
vain clerk-play two or three thousand 
people, and now to hear the messenger of 



* This is Knox's first introduction of himself. 
— Ed. 

•\ Here the London suppressed edition of 
1586 adds, " For be perceived that men began to 
be weary of God." — Ed. 



the eternal God, of all the town or parish 
cannot be numbered one hundred persons. 
Sore and fearful shall the plagues be that 
shall ensue this thy contempt, with fire and 
sword shalt thou be plagued, yea, thou 
Haddington in special, strangers shall pos- 
sess thee, and ye, the present inhabitants, 
shall either in bondage serve the enemies, 
or else ye shall be chaced from your habi- 
tations ; and that because ye have not 
known, nor will not know the time of God's 
merciful visitation." In such vehemency 
and threatening continued that servant of 
God near an hour and a half, in the which 
he declared all the plagues that ensued, as 
plainly as after our eyes saw them perform- 
ed. In the end he said, " I have forgot my- 
self, and the matter that I should have en- 
treated of ; but let these my last words, as 
concerning public preaching, remain in your 
minds, till that God send you new comfort." 
Thereafter he made a short paraphrase upon 
the second table, with an exhortation to pa- 
tience, to the fear of God, and to the works 
of mercy ; and so put an end, as it were, 
making his last testament, as the issue de- 
clared, that the spirit of truth and true 
judgment were both in his heart and mouth ; 
for that same night was he apprehended 
before midnight, in the house of Ormiston, 
by the earl of Bothwell, made for money 
butcher to the cardinal. 

The manner of his taking was this : de- 
parting from the town of Haddington, he 
took his goodnight, as it were, for ever of 
all his acquaintance, especially from Hugh 
Douglas of Long Niddry. John Knox 
pressing to have gone with the said Mr 
George, he said, " Nay, return to your 
bairns [his pupils], and God bless you, one 
is sufficient for a sacrifice." And he caused 
a two-handed sword, which commonly was 
carried with the said Mr George, be taken 
from the said Knox, who — albeit unwill- 
ingly — obeyed, and returned with Hugh 
Douglas of Long Niddry; Mr George 
having to accompany him, the laird of Or- 
miston, John Sandilands of Calder, younger, 
the laird of Brownston, and others, with 
their servants, passed upon their foot — for it 
was a vehement frost — to Ormiston. After 
supper he held a comfortable purpose of the 



48 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 



death of God's chosen children, and mer- 
rily said, " Methinks that I desire earnestly 
to sleep ;" and therewith he said, " We'll 
sing- a psalm ;" and so he appointed the 
fifty-first psalm, which was put in Scotish 
metre, and began thus, " Have mercy on me 
now, good Lord, after thy great mercy ;" 
which being ended, he passed to chamber, 
and sooner nor his common diet, was 
passed to bed, with these words, " God 
grant quiet rest." Before midnight the 
place was beset about, that none could 
escape to make advertisement. The earl 
Bothwell came and cried for the laird, and 
declared the purpose, and said, " It was hut 
vain to make him to hold his house ; for 
the governor and the cardinal, with all their 
power, were coming;" and, indeed, the car- 
dinal was at Elphinston, not a mile distant 
from Ormiston ; " But, and if he would de- 
liver the man unto him, he would promise 
upon his honour, that he should be safe, 
and that it should pass the power of the 
cardinal to do him any harm or scathe." 
Allured with these words, and taking coun- 
sel with the said Mr George — who at the 
first word said, " Open the gates ; the 
blessed will of my God be done," — they re- 
ceived in the said earl Bothwell himself, with 
some gentlemen with him, to whom Mr 
George said, " I praise my God, that so 
honourable a man as you, my lord, receives 
me this night in the presence of these 
noblemen ; for now I am assured, that, for 
your honour's sake, ye will suffer nothing 
to be done unto me besides the order of 
law ; I am not ignorant that their law is 
nothing but corruption, and a cloak to shed 
the blood of the saints ; but yet I less fear 
to die openly, than secretly to be murder- 
ed." The said earl Bothwell answered, " I 
shall not only preserve your body from all 
violence, that shall be purposed against you 
without order of law, but also I promise, 
here in the presence of these gentlemen, 
that neither shall the governor nor cardinal 
have their will over you; but I shall re- 
tain you in my own hands, and in my own 
place, till that either I shall make you free, 
or else restore you in the same place where 
I receive you." The lairds foresaid said, 
" My lord, if ye will do as ye have spoken, 



and as we think your lordship will do, then 
do we here promise unto your lordship, that 
not only we ourselves shall serve you all 
the days of our life, but also we shall pro- 
cure the whole professors within Lothian to 
do the same. And upon either the per- 
suasion* of this our brother, or upon his 
delivery unto our hands again, we being 
reasonably advertised to receive him, that 
we, in the name and behalf of our friends, 
shall deliver to your lordship, or any suffi- 
cient man, that shall deliver again to us this 
servant of God, our band of man-rent, in 
manner foresaid." And this promise made 
in the presence of God, and hands straikit 
[struck] upon both the parties for observa- 
tion of the promise ; the said Mr George 
was delivered in the hands of the said 
earl Bothwell, who immediately departing 
with him, came to Elphinston where the 
cardinal was, who knowing that Calder, 
younger, and Brownston were with the 
laird of Ormiston, sent back with expedi- 
tion to apprehend them also. The noise 
of horsemen being heard, the servants gave 
advertisement, that more than were de- 
parted, or that were there before were re- 
turned ; and while that they dispute, what 
should be the motive, the cardinal's garrison 
had seized both the outward and inward 
closs; they called for the laird, and for the 
laird of Calder, who, presenting themselves, 
demanded what their commission was? 
" To bring you two, and the laird of 
Brownston, to my lord governor," say they. 
They were nothing content, as they had no 
cause ; yet they made fair countenance, and 
" entreated the gentlemen to take a drink, 
and to bait their horses, till that they might 
put themselves in readiness to ride with 
them." In this meantime, Brownston con- 
veyed himself first secretly, and then by 
speed of foot to Ormiston wood, and from 
that to Drundallan, and so escaped that 
danger. The other two were put in the 
castle of Edinburgh, where the one, to wit, 
Calder younger, remained, while his band 
of man-rent till the cardinal was the means 
of his deliverance ; and the other, to wit 
Ormiston, freed himself, by leaping the 



* 8vo. Preservation. 



Book I. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



4<) 



castle-wall betwixt ten hours and eleven 
before noon ; and so breaking- ward, he 
escaped prison, which he unjustly suffered. 

The servant of God, Mr George Wish- 
art, was carried first to Edinburgh, there- 
after brought back, for the fashion's sake, to 
the house of Hailes again, which was the 
principal place that then the earl of Both- 
well had in Lothian ; but as gold and wo- 
men have corrupted all worldly and fleshly 
men from the beginning, so did they him ; 
for the cardinal gave gold, and that largely; 
and the queen, with whom the said earl was 
then in the glonders [«• e> there was a cool- 
ness between them], promised favours in all 
his lawful suits to women, if he would de- 
liver the said Mr George to be kept in the 
castle of Edinburgh. He made some re- 
sistance at the first, by reason of his pro- 
mise ; but an effeminate man cannot long- 
withstand the assaults of a gracious queen ; 
and so was the servant of God transported 
to Edinburgh castle, where he remained not 
many days ; for that bloody wolf the cardi- 
nal, ever thirsting the blood of the ser- 
vant of God, so travailed with the abused 
governor, that he was content that God's 
servant should be delivered to the power of 
that tyrant. And so small inversion being 
made, Pilate obeyed the petition of Caia- 
phas, and of his fellows, and adjudged Christ 
to be crucified. The servant of God de- 
livered to the hand of that proud and merci- 
less tyrant, triumph was made by the 
priests. The godly lamented, and accused 
the foolishness of the governor ; for, by the 
retaining of the said Mr George, he might 
have caused protestants and papists — rather 
proud romanists — to have served ; the one 
to the end that the life of their preacher 
might have been saved ; the other for fear 
that he should have set him at liberty again, 
to the confusion of the bishops ; but where 
God is left — as he had renounced him 
plainly before — what can counsel or judg- 
ment avail ? How the servant of God was 
entreated, and what he did from the day 
that he entered within the sea tower of St 



* Keith says, " This bishop is shamefully mis- 
represented by Mr Knox."— Ed. 1824, p. 258. 
But according to this author, nil the Scotish 



Andrews, which was in the end of January, 
in the year of God 1546, unto the first of 
March the same year, when he suffered, we 
cannot tell, except we understand lie wrote 
somewhat being in prison ; but that was 
suppressed by the enemies. The cardinal 
delayed no time, but caused all bishops, 
yea, all the clergy that had any preemi- 
nence, to be convocated to St Andrews 
against the penult of February, that con- 
sultation might be had in that question, 
which in his mind was no less resolved 
than Christ's death was in the mind of 
Caiaphas ; but that the rest should bear 
the like burden with him, he would that 
they should before the world subscribe 
whatsoever he did. In that day was 
wrought no less a wonder, than was at the 
accusation and death of Christ, when that 
Pilate and Herod, who before were enemies 
were made friends, by consenting of them 
both to Christ's condemnation, differs no- 
thing, except that Pilate and Herod were 
brethren under their father the devil, in the 
estate called temporal, and these two, of 
whom we are going to speak, were breth- 
ren — sons to the same father the devil — in 
the estate ecclesiastical. If we interlace 
merriness with earnest matters, pardon us, 
good reader, for the fact is so notable that 
it deserves long memory. 

The cardinal was known proud ; and 
Dunbar, archbishop of Glasgow, was known 
a glorious fool ; * and yet, because some- 
times he was called the king's master, he 
was chancellor of Scotland. The cardinal 
comes even the same year, in the end of 
harvest before to Glasgow, upon what 
purpose we omit ; but while they remained 
together, the one in the town, the other in 
the castle, question rises for bearing of 
their cross. The cardinal alleged, by rea- 
son of his cardinalship, and that he was 
legatus ncttus, and primate within Scotland, 
in the kingdom of antichrist, that he should 
have the preeminence, and that his cross 
should not only go before, but that also it 
should only be borne, wheresoever he was. 



bishops, with few exceptions, were excellent and 
learned men, both before and after the reforma- 
tion, not excepting cardinal Beaton. — Ed. 



50 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



I a. d. 1546 



Good gowkston glaikston,f the foresaid 
archbishop lacked no reasons, as he thought, 
for maintenance of his glory. " He was 
an archbishop in his own diocese, and in his 
own cathedral see and kirk ; and, there- 
fore, ought to give place to no man : the 
power of the cardinal was but begged 
from Rome, and appertained but to his own 
person, and not to his bishoprick ; far it 
might be that his successor should not 
be cardinal ; but his dignity was annex- 
ed with his office, and appertained to 
all that ever should be bishops of Glasgow. 
Howsoever these doubts were resolved by 
the doctors of divinity of both the prelates ; 
yet the decision was as ye shall hear. 
Coming forth or going in — all is one — at 
the choir door of Glasgow kirk, began 
striving for state betwixt the two cross- 
bearers j so that from glooming they came 
to shouldering, from shouldering" they went 
to buffets, and from dry blows by neives 
and neirelling; and then for charity's sake, 
they cried, " Dispersit, dedit pauperibus" 
and assayed which of the crosses were 
finest metal, which staff was strongest, and 
which bearer could best defend his master's 
preeminence ; and that there should be no 
superiority in that behalf, to the ground 
went both the crosses. And then began 
no little fray, but yet a merry game, 
for rockets were rent, tippets were torn, 



* ie Good gowkston glaikston." It is the same 
in the suppressed London edition, andall therest ; 
hut no explanation is given in any of them. It is 
difficult, if not impossible to find a meaning for 
these words as they stand, without connection 
with what goes either before or after; and the 
sen«e of the passage is complete without them. 
Gowk is the vulgar Scotish appellation for a fool, 
and glaikery for merriment, or light-heartedness. 
I suppose, therefore, that the words were origi- 
nally written in the margin, to indicate that the 
paragraph contained " a good piece of merrv or 
wanton folly;" and from the margin they have 
been inadvertently taken into the text. "There 
are many such marginal indices in the old copy; 
for instance, the words " a merry fact ;" are "in 
the margin of the paragraph that relates the 
casting of the Virgin Mary's image into the 
water, by one of the prisoners in the galleys. 
" A merry fact," I believe to have as good a 



light to a place in the text as " good gowkston 
glaikston." The Glasgow MS. copv has none 
ot these notes ; but David Buchanan's is full of 
them, by which a reader may know the contents 
of a page by casting his eye over tbe side margin. 
Most or ail of them, howe'ver, are of David's own 



crowns were knypsit [knapped], and side 
[long] gowns might have been seen wan- 
tonly wag from the one wall to the other : 
many of them lacked beards, and that was 
the more pity ; and therefore could not 
buckle other by the byrss [take one another 
by the beard], as some bold men would 
have done. But fie on the jackmen, they 
did not their duty ; for had the one part of 
them rencountered the other, then had all 
gone right ; but the sanctuary, we suppose, 
saved the lives of many. How merrily that 
ever this be written, it was bitter boarding 
[i. e. bitter mirth, edition 1586] to the car- 
dinal and his court. It was more than ir- 
regularity, yea, it might w r ell have beeu 
Judged lese majesty to the son of perdition, 
I the pope's own person ; and yet the other 
j in his folly, as proud as a peacock, would 
let the cardinal know that he was a bishop, 
w r hen the other was but Beaton, before he 
got Arbroath. This enmity was judged 
mortal, and without all hope of reconcilia- 
tion. But the blood of the innocent ser- 
vant of God buried in oblivion all that 
bragging and boast. For the archbishop of 
Glasgow was the first unto whom the car- 
dinal wrote, signifying unto him what was 
done, and earnestly craving of him, that he 
would assist with his presence and counsel, 
how that such an enemy unto their estate 
might be suppressed. And thereto was not 



making ; and those in the suppressed copy are 
probably the work of Voultrollier. The words 
in question are in the text of the Glasgow MS., 
so that the error, if it be one, is not his, but pro- 
bably that of John Knox of Melrose, or some 
still earlier transcriber. If they have the mean- 
ing which I have affixed to them, and I cannot 
imagine any other, they indicate the contents of 
the paragraph very correctly, and also the good 
humoured state of the author's mind. Knox 
had a lively perception of the ludicrous; and 
grave and repulsive, as most people suppose him 
to have been, there is a vein of good humour that 
runs through his whole book, except when he 
had to reprove the enemies of the truth, and of 
his country. He sometimes mingles a little 
raillery with kis relation of very grave matters. 
Here, for instance, he introduces the trial and 
martyrdom of his friend Wishart, with a bur- 
lesque account of a battle royal between two 
bishops and their followers and cross-bearers, 
in the High Church-yard of Glasgow ; which 
he presents in bold contrast with the subsequent 
friendship between the same bishops, when they 
had to compass the death of an innocent mam— 
Ed. 



Book L] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



51 



the other slow, but kept time appointed, 
sat next to the cardinal, voted and sub- 
scribed first in the rank, and lay over the 
cast blockhouse with the said cardinal, till 
the martyr of God was consumed with fire. 
For this we must note, that as all these 
beasts consented in heart to the slaughter 
of that innocent, so did they approve it 
with their presence, having 1 the whole ord- 
nance of the castle of St Andrews bent to- 
wards the place of execution — which was 
near to the said castle — ready to have shot 
if any would have made defence, or rescue 
to God's servant. The manner of his accu- 
sation, process, and answers following, as 
we have received the same from the book 
of the martyrs, which, word by word, we 
have here inserted, and that because the 
said book, for the great price thereof, is 
rare to be had. 

Upon the last of February, was sent to the 
prison, where the servant of God lay, the 
dean of the town, by the commandment of 
the cardinal and his wicked council, and 
there summoned the said Mr George, that 
he should upon the morn following appear 
before the judge, then and there to give an 
account of his seditious and heretical doc- 
trine. To whom the said Mr George an- 
swered, " What needed," said he, " my 
lord cardinal to summon me to answer for 
my doctrine openly before him, under 
whose power and dominion I am thus 
straitly bound in irons ? May not my lord 
compel me to answer to his extorted power? 
Or, believed he, that I am unprovided to 
render an account of my doctrine ? To ma- 
nifest yourselves what men ye are, it is 
well done, that ye keep your old ceremo- 
nies and constitution made by men." Upon 
the next morn, my lord cardinal caused his 
servants to dress themselves in their most 
warlike array, with jack, knapstall, splent, 
spear and axe, more seeming to the war 
than for the preaching of the true word of 
God. And when these armed champions, 
marching in warlike order, had convoyed 
the bishops into the abbey church, in- 
continently they send for Mr George, who 
was conveyed unto the said church by 
the captain of the castle, and the num- 
ber of an hundred men, dressed in man- 



ner foresaid, like a lamb led they him 
to sacrifice. As he entered in the abbey 
church door, there was a poor man lying 
vexed with great infirmities, asking of hia 
alms, to whom he flung his purse ; and 
when he came before the cardinal, by and 
by the sub-prior of the abbey, called dean 
John Wirnam, stood up in the pulpit, and 
made a sermon to all the congregation there 
then assembled, taking his matter out of 
the xiii. chapter of Matth., whose sermon 
was divided in four principal parts, in the 
first was a short and brief declaration of 
the evangelist. The second, of the inter- 
pretation of the good seed ; and because he 
called the word of God the good seed, and 
heresy the evil seed, he declared what he- 
resy was, and how it should be known ; he 
defined it on this manner : " Heresy is 
a false opinion defended with pertinacity, 
clearly repugning to the word of God." The 
third part of his sermon was the cause of 
heresy within that realm, and all other 
realms. " The cause of heresy," said he, " is 
the ignorance of them which have the cure 
of men's souls, to whom it belongeth ne- 
cessarily to have the true understanding of 
the word of God, that they may be able to 
win again the false doctors of heresies, 
' with the sword of the Spirit, which is 
the word of God :' And not only to win 
again, but also to overcome, as says the 
apostle Paul, A bishop must be faultness, 
as it becometh the minister of God, not 
stubborn, not angry, no drunkard, no light- 
er, not given to filthy lucre, but harberous 
[hospitable], one that loveth goodness, sober 
minded, righteous, holy, temperate, and 
such as cleaveth unto the true word of 
doctrine, that he may be able to exhort 
with wholesome learning, and to improve 
that which they say against him." The 
fourth part of his sermon was, how heresy 
should be known. " Heresy," said he, 
" may be known in this manner, as the 
goldsmith knoweth the fine gold from the 
imperfect, by the touchstone ; so likewise 
we may know heresy by the undoubted 
touchstone, that is, the true, sincere, and 
undefiled word of God." At the last, he 
added, " That heretics should be put down 
in this present life ; to the which proposi- 



52 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1546 



tion the gospel appeareth to repugn, which 
he entreated of, ' Let them both grow 
unto the harvest.' The harvest is the end 
of the world, nevertheless, he affirmed, 
that they should be put down by the civil 
magistrate and law." And when he ended 
his sermon, incontinent they caused Mr 
George to ascend in the pulpit, there to 
hear his accusation and articles, for right 
against him stood up one of the fed flock, a 
monster, John Lauder, laden full of curs- 
ings, threatenings, maledictions, and words 
of devilish spite and malice, saying to the 
innocent Mr George, so many cruel and abo- 
minable words, and hit him so spitefully 
with the pope's thunder, that the ignorant 
people dreaded lest the earth then would 
have swallowed him up quick. Notwith- 
standing he stood still with great patience, 
hearing their sayings, not once moving or 
changing his countenance. When that this 
fed sow had read through all his lying me- 
nacings, his face running down with sweat, 
and frothing at the mouth like a bear, he 
spat at Mr George's face, saying, " What 
answerest thou to these sayings, thou rene- 
gade, traitor, and thief, which we have duly 
proved by sufficient witness against thee." 
Mr George hearing this, sat down upon his 
knees in the pulpit, making his prayers 
unto God. When he had ended his prayer, 
sweetly and christianly he answered unto 
them all in this manner. 

mr george's oration. 

" Many and horrible sayings unto me a 
christian man, many words abominable for 
to hear, ye have spoken here this day, 
which not only to teach, but also to think, 
I thought it ever great abomination. Where- 
fore, I pray your discretions quietly to hear 
me, that ye may know what were my say- 
ings, and the manner of my doctrine. This 
my petition, my lords, I desire to be heard 
for three causes : The first is, through 
preaching of the word of God, his glory is 
made manifest ; it is reasonable, therefore, 
for the advancing of the glory of God, that 
ye hear me truly teaching the pure and sin- 
cere word of God, without any dissimula- 
tion. The second reason is, because that 
your health springs of the word of God, for 



he worketh all things by his word ; it were 
therefore an unrighteous thing if ye should 
stop your ears from me teaching truly the 
word of God. The third reason is, because 
your doctrine speaketh forth many pestilen- 
tious, blasphemous, and abominable words, 
not coming by the inspiration of God, but 
of the devil, on no less peril than my life, 
It is j ust, therefore, and reasonable for your 
discretions to know what my words and 
doctrine are, and what I have ever taught 
in my time in this realm, that I perish not 
unjustly, to the great peril of your souls? 
wherefore, both for the honour and glory 
of God, your own health, and safeguard of 
my life, I beseech your discretions to hear 
me ; and, in the meantime, I shall recite my 
doctrine without any colour. 

" First, and chiefly, since the time that I 
came in this realm, I taught nothing but 
the ten commandments of God, the twelve 
articles of the faith, and the prayer of the 
Lord in the mother tongue. Moreover, in 
Dundee, I taught the epistle of St Paul to 
the Romans ; and I shall show your discre- 
tions faithfully what fashion and manner I 
used, when I taught without any human 
dread, so that your discretions give me 
your ears, benevolence, and attention." 
Suddenly then, with a high voice, cried 
the accuser, the fed sow, " Thou heretic, 
renegade, traitor, and thief, it was not law- 
ful for thee to preach, thou hast taken the 
power at thine own hand, without any au- 
thority from the church ; we fore think that 
thou hast been a preacher so [too] long." Then 
said the whole congregation of the prelates, 
with their complices, these words, " If we 
give him licence to preach, he is so crafty, 
and in holy scriptures so exercised, that 
he will persuade the people to his own 
opinion, and raise them against us." Mr 
George, seeing their malicious and wicked 
intent, appealed to an indifferent and equal 
judge. To whom the accuser, John Lau- 
der foresaid, with hoggish voice, answered, 
" Is not my lord cardinal the second person 
within this realm, chancellor of Scotland, 
archbishop of St Andrews, bishop of Meri- 
pois, commendator of Arbroath, legatus natus, 
legatus a latere ;" and so reciting as many 
titles of his unworthy honours as would 



Book I. 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



53 



have laden a ship, much sooner an ass ; 
" is not he," said John Lauder, " an equal 
judge apparently to thee ? Whom other 
desirest thou to be thy judge?" To whom 
this humane man answered, saying 1 , " I re- 
fuse not my lord cardinal, but I desire the 
word of God to be my judge, and the tem- 
poral estate, with some of your lordships 
mine auditory ; because I am here my lord 
governor's prisoner." Hereupon the pride- 
ful and scornful people that stood by, mock- 
ed him, saying-, " Such man, such judge," 
speaking seditious and reproachful words 
against the governor, and others the nobles, 
meaning them also to be heretics. And in- 
continent, without all delay, they would 
have given sentence upon Mr George, and 
that without farther process, had not cer- 
tain men there counselled my lord cardinal 
to read again the articles, and to hear his 
answers thereupon, that the people might 
not complain of his wrongful condemnation. 
And shortly for to declare, these were the 
articles following, with his answers, as far 
as they would give him leave to speak ; for 
when he intended to mitigate their leasings 
[falsehoods], and show the manner of his 
doctrine, by and by they stopped his mouth 
with another article. 

The first article. — " Thou false here- 
tic, renegade, traitor, and thief, deceiver of 
the people, despisest the holy church's, and 
in like case contemnest my lord governor's 
authority. And this we know of surety, that 
when thou preachedst in Dundee, and wert 
charged by my lord governor's authority to 
desist, nevertheless thou wouldst not obey, 
but perseveredst in the same ; and there- 
fore the bishop of Brechin cursed thee, and 
delivered thee into the hands of the devil, 
and gave thee in commandment, that thou 
shouldst preach no more; yet notwithstand- 
ing thou didst coutinue obstinately." 

The answer. — " My lords, I have read 
in the acts of the apostles, that it is not 
lawful, for the threatenings and menacings 
of men, to desist from the preaching of the 
evangel ; therefore, it is written, * We shall 
rather obey God nor [than] man.' I have also 
read the prophet Malachi, ' I shall curse your 
blessings, and bl^ss your cursings, saith the 



Lord;' believing firmly, that he would tarn 
your cursings into blessings." 

The second article. — " Thou false he- 
retic didst say, that a priest standing at tin* 
altar saying mass, was like a fox wagging 
his tail in July." 

The answer. — " My lords, I said not so. 
These were my sayings ; the moving of the 
body outward, without the inward moving 
of the heart, is nought else, but the playing 
of an ape, and not the true serving of God ; 
j for God is a secret searcher of men's hearts ; 
i therefore, who will truly adorn and honour 
God, he must in spirit and truth honour 
him." Then the accuser stopped his mouth 
with another article. 

The third article. — " Thou false here- 
tic preachest against the sacraments, say- 
ing, that there are not seven sacraments." 

The answer. — " My lords, it is by your 
pleasures, I taught never of the number of 
the sacraments, whether they were seven 
or an eleven : so many as are instituted by 
Christ, and are shown to us by the evan- 
gel, I profess openly ; except it be the word 
of God, I dare affirm nothing." 

The fourth article. — " Thou false 
heretic hast openly taught, that auricular 
confession is not a blessed sacrament ; and 
thou sayest we should only confess us to 
God, and to no priest ?" 

The answer — " My lords, I say, that 
auricular confession, seeing that it had no 
promise of the evangel, therefore it cannot 
be a sacrament. Of the confession to be 
made to God, there are many testimonies in 
the scripture, as when David sayeth, 4 I 
thought that I would acknowledge my ini- 
quity against myself unto the Lord, and he 
forgave the trespass of my sins.' Here con- 
fession signifieth the secret knowledge of 
our sins before God ; when I exhorted the 
people on this manner, I reproved no man- 
ner of confession. And further, St James 
sayeth, ' Acknowledge your sins one to an- 
other, and so let you have peace amongst 
yourselves.' Here the apostle means no- 
thing of auricular confession, but that we 
should acknowledge and confess ourselves 
to be sinners before our brethren, and be- 
fore the world, and not to esteem ourselves 
| as the gray friars do, thinking themselves 



54 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1546 



alreacty purged." When that he had said 
these words, the horned bishops and tiieir 
complices cried, and grinned with their 
teeth, saying-, " See ye not what colours he 
had in his speech, that he might beguile 
us, and seduce us to his opinion." 

The fifth article. — " Thou heretic 
didst say openly, that it was necessary for 
every man to know and understand his 
baptism, and that it was contrary to general 
councils, and the estate of the holy church." 

The answer. — " My lords, I believe 
there be none so unwise here, that will 
make merchandize with a Frenchman, or 
any other unknown stranger, except he 
know and understand the condition, or 
promise made by the Frenchman or stran- 
ger; so likewise I would that we under- 
stood what thing we promise in the name of 
the infant unto God in baptism : for this 
cause, I believe, ye have confirmation." 
Then said Mr Blecter, chaplain, " That he 
had the devil within him, and the spirit of 
error." Then answered him a child, saying, 
" The devil cannot speak such words, as 
yonder man does speak." 

The sixth article. — " Thou false here- 
tic, traitor, and thief, thou saidst, that the 
sacrament of the altar was but a piece of 
bread, baken upon the ashes, and no other 
thing else ; and all that is there done is but 
a superstitious rite against the command- 
ment of God." 

The answer. — " O Lord God ! so mani- 
fest lies and blasphemies the scripture doth 
not so teach you. As concerning the sa- 
crament of the altar, my lords, I never 
taught any thing against the scripture, the 
which I shall by God's grace make mani- 
fest this day, I being therefore ready to 
suffer death. The lawful use of the sacra- 
ment is most acceptable unto God ; but the 
great abuse of it is very detestable unto 
him ; but what occasion they have to say 
such words of me, I shall shortly show your 
lordships : I once chanced to meet with a 
Jew, when I was sailing upon the water 
of Rhine ; I did inquire of him, what was 
the cause of his pertinacity, that he did 
not believe that the true Messiah was 
come, considering that they had seen all 
the prophecies which were spoken of him 



to be fulfilled : moreover, the prophecies 
taken away, and the sceptre of Judah. By 
many other testimonies of the scripture, I 
vanquished him, and approved that the Mes- 
siah was come, the which they called Jesus 
of Nazareth. The Jew answered again unto 
me, « When the Messiah cometh he shall 
restore all things, and he shall not abrogate 
the law, which was given unto our fathers, 
as ye do ; for why ? We see the poor al- 
most perish through hunger among you, 
yet you are not moved with pity towards 
them ; but amongst us Jews, though we 
be poor, there are no beggars found. Se- 
condly, It is forbidden by the law to feign 
any kind of imagery of things in heaven 
above, or in the earth beneath, or in the 
sea under the earth ; but one God only to 
honour; but your sanctuaries and churches 
are full of idols. Thirdly, A piece of bread 
baken upon the ashes, ye adore and wor- 
ship, and say, that is your God.' I have 
rehearsed here but the sayings of the Jew, 
which I never affirmed to be true." Then 
the bishops shook their heads, and spat 
unto the earth, and what he meant in this 
matter further, they would not hear. 

The seventh article. — " Thou false 
heretic didst say, that extreme unction was 
no sacrament." 

The answer. — " My lords, I never 
taught of extreme unction in my doctrine, 
whether it were a sacrament or not." 

The eighth article. — " Thou false 
heretic sayest, that holy water was not so 
good as wash, and such like ; thou con- 
temnest conjuring, and sayest, that holy 
church's cursing availeth not." 

The answer. — " My lords, as for holy 
water, what strength it is of, I taught 
never in my doctrine. Conjurings and 
exorcisms, if they were conformable to the 
word of God, I would commend them ; 
but in so far as they are not conformable 
to the commandment and word of God, I 
reprove them." 

The ninth article.—" Thou false he- 
retic and renegade hast said, that every 
layman is a priest; and such like, thou 
sayest, that the pope hath no more power 
than another man." 

The answer,—" My lords, I taught no- 



Book l.J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



55 



thing 1 but the word of God. I remember, 
that 1 have read in some places of St John 
and St Peter, of the which one sayeth, ' He 
hath made us kings and priests,' the other 
sayeth, ' He hath made us the kingly priest- 
hood:' wherefore I have affirmed, any man, 
being cunning and perfect in the word of 
God, and the true faith of Jesus Christ, to 
have his power given him of God, and not 
by the power or violence of man, but by the 
virtue of the word of God, the which word 
is called the power of God, as witnesseth 
St Paul evidently enough. And again I 
say, any unlearned man, and not exercised 
in the word of God, nor yet constant in his 
faith, whatsoever estate or order he be of; 
I say, he hath no power to bind nor to loose, 
seeing he wants the instrument by the 
which he bindeth or looseth, that is to 
say, the word of God." After that he had 
said these words, all the bishops laughed, 
and mocked him. When that he beheld 
their laughter, " Laugh ye," said he, " my 
lords ? though that these my sayings ap- 
pear scornful, and worthy of derision to your 
lordships, nevertheless they are very weighty 
unto me, and of a great value ; because they 
stand not only upon my life, but also the 
honour and glory of God." In the meantime 
many godly men beholding the wodness 
[fury] and great cruelty of the bishops, and 
the invincible patience of the said Mr 
George, did greatly mourn and lament. 

The tenth article. — " Thou false he- 
retic saidst, that a man had no free will, but 
is like to the stoics, which say, * That it is 
not in man's will to do any thing, but that 
all concupiscence and desire cometh of God, 
of whatsoever kind it be of.' " 

The answer. — " My lords, I said not so 
truly ; I say, that as many as believe in 
Christ firmly, unto them is given liberty, 
conformable to the saying of St John, 
' If the Son make you free, then shall ye 
verily be free.' Of the contrary, as many 
as believe not in Christ Jesus, they are 
bound servants of sin : ' He that sinneth is 
bound to sin.' " 

The eleventh article. — " Thou false 
heretic sayest, it is as lawful to eat flesh 
upon Friday as on Sunday." 

The answer. — " Please your lordships, I 



have read in the epistles of St Paul, 1 That 
who is clean, unto them all things are clean.' 
Of the contrary, 'to the filthy man, all 
things are unclean.' A faithful man, dean 
and holy, sanctified by the word the crea- 
ture of God, but the creature maketh no 
man acceptable unto God ; so that a crea- 
ture may not sanctify any impure and un- 
faithful man. But to the faithful man all 
things are sanctified, by the prayer of the 
word of God." After these sayings of Mi- 
George, then said all the bishops with 
their complices, " What needed us any 
witnesses against him, hath he not here 
openly spoken blasphemy." 

The twelfth article. — " Thou false 
heretic didst say, that we should not pray 
to saints, but to God only; say whether 
thou hast said this or not, say shortly." 

The answer. — " For the weakness and 
infirmity of the hearers," he said, " without 
doubt plainly, that saints should not be ho- 
noured nor incalled upon. My lords," said 
he, " there are two things worthy of note ; 
the one is certain, the other uncertain. It 
is found plainly and certain in Scriptures, 
that we should worship and honour one 
God, according to the saying of the first 
commandment, ' Thou shalt worship and 
honour the Lord thy God with all thine 
heart ;' but as to praying to and honouring 
of saints, there is great doubt among many, 
whether they hear or not invocation made 
unto them ; therefore, I exhorted all men 
equally in my doctrine, that they should 
leave the unsure way, and follow the way 
which was taught us by our master Christ. 
' He is only our mediator, and maketh in- 
tercession for us to God his Father. He the 
door by the which we must enter in : He 
that enters not in by this door, but clirnb- 
eth an other way, is a thief and a mur- 
derer ; he is the verity and life.' He that 
goeth out of this way, there is no doubt 
but he shall fall into the mire, yea, verily 
he is fallen in it already. This is the 
fashion of my doctrine, the which I have 
ever followed. Verily that which 1 have 
heard and read in the word of God, I 
taught openly and in no corners, and now 
ye shall witness the same if your lordships 
will hear me : except it stand by the word 



50 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. n. 1546 



of God, I dare not be so bold as to affirm any 
thing." These sayings he rehearsed divers 
times. 

The thirteenth article. — " Thou false 
heretic hast preached plainly, saying-, that 
there is no purgatory, and that it is a feign- 
ed thing, for any man, after this life, to be 
punished in purgatory." 

The answer. — " My lords, as I have 
oftentimes said heretofore, without express 
witness and testimony of scripture, I dare 
affirm nothing. I have oft and divers times 
read over the bible, and yet such a term 
found I never, nor any place of scripture 
applicable thereto ; therefore I was asham- 
ed ever to teach of that thing which I could 
not find in scripture." Then said he to 
Mr John Lauder, his accuser, " If you 
have any testimony of the scripture, by the 
which ye may prove any such place, show 
it now before this auditory." But that 
dolt had not a word to say for himself, but 
was as dumb as a beetle in that matter. 

The fourteenth article. — " Thou false 
heretic hast taught plainly against the vows 
of monks, friars, nuns, and priests, saying, 
that whosoever was bound to such like 
vows, they vowed themselves to estate of 
the damnation. Moreover, that it was lawful 
for priests to marry wives, and not to live 
solitary." 

The answer. — " Of such, my lords, I 
have read in the evangel, that there are 
three kind of chaste men, some are gelded 
from their mother's womb, some are geld- 
ed by men, and some have gelded them- 
selves for the kingdom of heaven's sake ; 
verily, I say, these men are blessed by the 
scripture of God ; but as many as have not 
the gift of chastity, nor yet for the evangel 
have overcome the concupiscence of flesh, 
and have vowed chastity, ye have appear- 
ance, although I should hold my tongue, 
to what inconveniences they have vowed 
themselves." When he had said these 
words they were all dumb, thinking it bet- 
ter to have ten concubines nor one wife. 

The fifteenth article. — " Thou false 
renegade and heretic sayest, that thou wilt 
not obey our general or provincial councils." 

The answer. — " My lords, what your 
general councils are, I know not; I was 



never exercised in them ; but to the pure 
word of God I gave my labours. Read 
here your general councils, or else give me 
a book, wherein they are contained, that I 
may read them, if that they agree Avith the 
word of God,I will not disagree." Then the 
ravening wolves turned unto madness, and 
said, " Whereunto let we him speak any 
farther ? read forth the rest of the articles, 
and stay not upon them." Amongst these 
cruel tigers there was a false hypocrite, 
a seducer of the people, called John Scott, 
standing behind John Lauder's back, has- 
tening him to read the rest of the articles, 
and not to tarry upon his witty and godly 
answers ; " For we may not abide them," 
said he, " no more nor the devil may abide 
the sign of the cross, when it is named." 

The sixteenth article. — " Thou here- 
tic sayest, that it is vain to build to the 
honour of God costly churches, seeing that 
God remaineth not in churches made by 
men's hands, nor yet can God be in so little 
space, as betwixt the priest's hands." 

The answer. — " My lords, Solomon 
says, ' If that the heaven of heavens cannot 
comprehend thee, how much less this house 
which I have built.' And Job consenteth to 
the same sentence, saying, ' Seeing that he is 
higher than the heavens, therefore, what 
canst thou build unto him ? He is deeper 
than the hell, then how shalt thou know 
him? He is longer than the earth, and 
broader than the sea ;' so that God cannot 
be comprehended in one place, because that 
he is infinite. These sayings, notwithstand- 
ing, I said never that churches should be 
destroyed ; but of the contrary, I affirmed 
ever that churches should be maintained 
and upholden, that the people should be 
congregated in them to hear the word of 
God preached. Moreover, wheresoever is 
the true preaching of the word of God, and 
the lawful use of the sacraments, undoubt- 
edly there is God himself: so that both 
these sayings are true together ; God can- 
not be comprehended into any one place ; 
' And wheresoever are two or three gather- 
ed in his name, there is he present in the 
midst of them.' " Then said he to his ac- 
cuser, " If thou thinkest any otherwise than 
I say, show forth thy reasons before this 



Book 1.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



57 



auditory.' " Then he without all reason 
was dumb, and could not answer one word. 

The seventeenth article. — " Thou 
false heretic contemnest fasting 1 , and sayest, 
thou shouldest not fast." 

The answer. — " My lords, I find that 
fasting 1 is commended in the scripture ; 
therefore I were a slanderer of the gospel, 
if I contemned fasting 1 . And not so only, 
but I have learned by experience, that fast- 
ing 1 is g-ood for the health and conservation 
of the body ; but God knoweth only who 
fastcth the true fast." 

The eighteenth article. — " Thou false 
heretic hast preached openly, saying-, that the 
souls of men shall sleep to the latter day 
of judgment, and shall not obtain life im- 
mortal until that day." 

The answer. — " God full of mercy and 
goodness forgive them that say such 
things of me. I wot and know surely by 
the word of God, that he which hath be- 
gun to have the faith of Jesus Christ, and 
believeth firmly in him ; I know surely, 
that the soul of that man shall never sleep, 
but ever shall live an immortal life, the 
which life, from day to day, is renewed in 
grace and augmented, nor yet shall ever 
perish, or have an end, but shall ever live 
immortal with Christ their head, to the 
which life all that believe in him, shall 
come, and rest in eternal glory." Amen. 

When that the bishops with their com- 
plices had accused this innocent man, in 
manner and form aforesaid, incontinently 
they condemned him to be burnt as a here- 
tic, not having respect unto his godly an- 
swers and true reasons which he alleged, 
nor yet their own consciences, thinking 
verily, that they should do to God good 
sacrifice, conformable to the sayings of 
Jesus Christ in the gospel of St John, the 
xvi. chapter ; " They shall excommunicate 
you, yea, and the time shall come, that he 
that killeth you shall think that he has done 
to God good service." 



* D. B. has a long interpolation here, from 
which I extract the following: — " The captain 
<>t the castle with some friends came to him, and 
asked, if he would hreakfast with them. He an- 
swered, most willingly, for I know you to be 
honest and godly men. So all being ready, he 



THE PRAYER OF MR GEORGE. 

" O immortal God, how long shalt thou 
suffer the wodness [madness] and great 
cruelty of the ungodly to exercise their 
fury upon thy servants, w hich do further 
thy word in this world, seeing they desire 
to do the contrary, that is, to choke and de- 
stroy thy true doctrine and verity, by the 
which thou hast shown thyself unto the 
world, which was all drowned in blind- 
ness and misknowiedge of thy name. O 
Lord, we know surely, that thy true ser- 
vants must needs suffer persecution for thy 
name's sake, affliction and troubles in this 
present life, which is but a shadow, as 
thou hast shown unto us by thy prophets 
and apostles ; but yet we desire thee, merci- 
ful Father, that thou conserve, defend, and 
help thy congregation, which thou hast cho- 
sen before the beginning of the world, and 
give them thy grace to hear thy word, and 
to be thy true servants in this present 
life." 

Then, by and by, they caused the com- 
mon people to remove, whose desire was 
always to have heard that innocent man 
speak. And the sons of darkness pro- 
nounced their sentence definitive, not hav- 
ing respect to the judgments of God. 
When all this was done and said, my lord 
cardinal caused his tormentors to pass again 
with the meek lamb unto the castle, until 
such time as the fire was made ready. 
When he was come into the castle, then 
there came unto him two gray fiends, friars 
Scott and his mate, saying, " Sir, ye must 
make your confession unto us." He an- 
swered and said, " I will make no confes- 
sion unto you. Go fetch me yonder man 
that preached this day, and I will make my 
confession unto him." Then they sent for 
the subprior of the abbey, who came to him 
with all diligence : but what he said in this 
confession, I cannot show.* When the fire 
was made ready, and the gallows at the 
west part of the castle, near to the priory, 
my lord cardinal dreading that Mr George 



desired them to sit down, and hoar him a while 
with patience. Then he discoursed to them 
about half an hour concerning the Lord's supper, 
his sufferings, and death for US. He exhorted 
them to love one another, laying aside all ran- 
cour, envy, and vengeance, as'perfect members of 
H 



58 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1546 



should have been taken away by his friends, 
therefore, he commanded to bend all the 
ordnance of the castle right against the 
place of execution, and commanded all his 
gunners to be ready, and stand beside 
their guns, unto such time as he were burnt. 
All this being- done, they bound Mr George's 
hands behind his back, and led him forth 
with their soldiers, from the castle to the 
place of their cruel and wicked execution. 
As he came forth of the castle gate, their 
met him certain beggars asking of him alms 
for God's sake. To whom he answered, 
" 1 want my hands, wherewith I had wont 
to give you alms, but the merciful Lord, of 
his benignity and abundant grace, that feed- 
eth all men, vouchsafe to give you neces- 
saries both unto your bodies and souls." 
Then afterwards met him two false fiends, 
I should say friars, saying, Mr George, 
" pray to our lady, that she may be a me- 
diatrix for you to her Son." To whom he 
answered meekly, " Cease, tempt me not, 
my brethren." 

After this he was led to the fire, with a 
rope about his neck, and a chain of iron 
about his middle. When that he came to 
the fire he sat down upon his knees, and 
rose up again ; and thrice he said these 
words, " O thou Saviour of the world, have 
mercy upon me : Father of heaven, I com- 
mend my spirit into thy holy hands." 
When he had made this prayer, he turned 
him to the people, and said these words, 
" I beseech you, christian brethren and 
sisters, that ye be not offended at the word 
of God, for the affliction and torments 
which you see already prepared for me. 
But I exhort you, that you love the word 

Christ, who intercedes continually for us with 
God the father. After this he gave thanks, and 
blessing the bread and wine ; he took the bread, 
and brake it, and gave to every one of it, bidding 
each of them remember that Christ died for 
them, and feed on it spiritually; so taking the 
cup, he bade them remember that Christ's blood 
was shed for them, &c. And after he gave 
thanks and prayed for them. When he had done, 
he told them that he would eat nor drink more 
in this life; and so retired to his chamber. Im- 
mediately after, came to him, sent from the car- 
dinal, two executioners. One brought him a 
coat of linen dyed black, and put it upon him ; 
another brought some bags full of (gun) powder, 
which they tied to several parts of his body. 
Thus having dressed him, they brought him to 
an oncer room near the gate of the castle. Then 



of God, your salvation, and suffer patiently, 
and with a comfortable heart, for the word's 
sake, which is your undoubted salvation, 
and everlasting comfort. Moreover, I pray 
you, show my brethren and sisters, which 
have heard me oft before, that they cease 
not, nor leave off to learn the word of God 
which 1 taught unto them, after the grace 
given unto me, for no persecutions nor 
troubles in this world which lasteth not : 
and show unto them that my doctrine was 
no wives' fable, after the constitutions made 
by men ; and if I had taught men's doc- 
trine, I had gotten greater thanks by men ; 
but for the word's sake and true evangel, 
which was given unto me by the grace of 
God, I suffer this day by men, not sorrow- 
fully, but with a glad heart and mind. For 
this cause I was sent, that I should suffer 
this fire for Christ's sake. Consider and 
behold my visage, ye shall not see me 
change my colour ; this grim fire I fear 
not, and so I pray you for to do, if that 
any persecution come unto you for the 
word's sake ; and not to fear them that slay 
the body, and afterwards have no power to 
slay the soul. Some have said of me, that 
I taught the soul of man shall sleep until 
the last day ; but T know surely, and my 
faith is such, that my soul shall sup this 
night with my Saviour — or it be six hours 
— for whom I suffer this." Then he pray- 
ed for them which accused him, saying, ' I 
beseech the Father of heaven to forgive 
them that have of any ignorance, or else of 
any evil mind, forged lies upon me ; I forgive 
them with all my heart : I beseech Christ 
to forgive them that have condemned me to 
death this day ignorantly." And last of all, 

the fire was made ready, and the stake at the 
west port of the castle, near to the priory. Over 
against the place of execution, the castle windows 
were hung with rich hangings and velvet 
cushions, laid for the cardinal and the prelates, 
who from thence did feed their eyes with the 
torments of this innocent man." This, the 
reader will bear in mind, is not in Knox's nar- 
rative, and the circumstance of the bags of gun- 
powder tied round his body, is not consistent 
with what follows ; for had that been the case, 
the bags would have exploded, and he would 
have been made insensible the moment the 
fire reached them ; whereas, we find him sensi- 
ble, and able to speak of the torment which his 
body suffered after the fire had become so violent 
as not only to torment his own body, but injure 
one who came near him. — Ed. 



Book I ] OF RELIGION 

he said to the people on this manner ; " I 
beseech you, brethren and sisters, to exhort 
your prelates to the learning - of the word of 
God, that they at the least may be ashamed 
to do evil, and learn to do good ; and if 
they will not convert themselves from 
their wicked errors, there shall hastily 
come upon them the wrath of God, which 
they shall not eschew." Many faithful 
words said he in the meantime, taking - no 
heed or care of the cruel torments which 
were then prepared for him. Then, last of 
all, the hangman that was his tormentor, 
sat down upon his knees, and said, " Sir, I 
pray you forgive me, for I am not guilty of 
your death." To whom he answered, 
" Come hither to me." When he was come 
to him, he kissed his cheek, and said, " Lo 
here is a token that I forgive thee; my 
heart, do thy office ;" and then by and by, 
he was put upon the gibbet, and hanged, 
and there burnt to powder.* When that 
the people beheld the great tormenting of 
that innocent, they might not withhold 
from piteous mourning, and complaining of 
that innocent lamb's slaughter. After the 
death of this blessed martyr of God, began 
the people in plain speaking - to damn 
and detest the cruelty that was used ; yea, 



* Here D. B. has an interpolation of half a 
folio page, of which the following is the most 
important : — " The captain of the castle, for the 
love he bore to Mr Wishart, drew so near to the 
fire, that the flame thereof did him harm. He 
wished Mr Wishart to be of good courage, and 
beg from God the forgiveness of his sins, to 
whom Mr Wishart answered thus : " This fire 
torments my body, but no ways abates my 
spirit." Then Mr W'ishart, looking towards 
the cardinal said, " He ivlio in such state, from 
that high place, feedeth his eyes with my torments, 
within few days shall be hanged out at the same 
window, to be seen ivith as much ignominy as he 
now leanelh there in pride.''' This is the famous 
prophecy which has long been ascribed to Wish- 
art. 1 hold it almost an axiom in theology, that 
the gift of prophecy ceased with that of inspira- 
tion, and the power of working miracles; and 
when writing on this subject in my notes on the 
Scots Worthies, I found Wishart's case one of 
the hardest to get over. It was understood to 
rest on the authority of Knox, the intimate 
friend of Wishart, who, if not a witness of his 
martyrdom, must, while in St Andrews after- 
wards, have conversed with many who were. It 
was difficult to resist the authority of such a 
competent and credible witness. But now it 
turns out that Knox bears witness to no such 
thing. It was put into his history seventy years 
a*'ter his death, and a hundred years after Wish- 



1N SCOTLAND. 59 

men of great birth, estimation, ami honour, 
at open tables avowed, " That the blood of 
the said Mr George should be revenged, or 
else they should lose life for life." 
Amongst whom John Leslie, brother to the 
earl of Rothes, was the chief, for he in all 
companies spared not to say, " That same 
whinger, showing forth his dagger, and 
that same hand should be priests f to 
the cardinal." These bruits came to 
the cardinal's ears ; but he thought him- 
self stout enough for all Scotland : for 
in Babylon, that is, in his new block house, 
he was sure, as he thought ; and upon the 
field he was able to match all his enemies : 
and, to write the truth, the most part of 
the nobility of Scotland had either given 
unto him their bands of man-rent [bond of 
engagement!, or else were in confederacy, 
and promised amity with him.J He only 
feared them in whose hands God delivered 
him, and for them he had laid his nets so 
secretly, as that he made a full count, that 
their feet could not escape, as we shall 
after hear; and something of his former 
practice Ave must recount. After the Pasche 
[Easter] he came to Edinburgh, to hold 
the synod, as the papists term their unhappy 
assembly of Baal's shaven sort. It was 



art's. This not only reduces the prediction to a 
story without proof — it decidedly disproves it ; 
for had it been true Knox must have known it ; 
and, for the honour of his martyred friend, 
would have recorded it. He spent montlts of 
the same year in the castle of St Andrews, with 
the very men who slew the cardinal, including 
Melvin, who declared that he did it for the 
very purpose, of punishing him for the murder of 
Wishart. Had the report of such a remarkable 
prophecy then existed, all these men would have 
known it, and would often have been talking 
about it. From what Knox has said of Wish- 
art, as having foreknowledge of things future, he 
was sufficiently predisposed to believe this, had 
there been any evidence in its favour. Spots- 
wood relates, and, I suppose, believed in it; but 
he is not an original authority, having written 
a hundred years after the event. — Ed. 

f I will be his priest, meaning that he would 
prepare, or send him to the other world. — Ed. 

| D. B. inserts here,— "and so he gave his 
bastard eldest daughter in marriage to the earl 
of Crawford's eldest son and heir, and caused 
the wedding to be celebrated with as much state, 
as if she had been a prince's lawful daughter." 
This, though omitted by Knox, is confirmed by 
other historians, who add, that he gave his 
daughter four thousand marks as her mawiage 
portion. — Ed. 



GO 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[A, 



n. i546 



bruited that something was purposed 
against him at that time by the earl of 
Angus and his friends, whom he mortally 
hated, and whose destruction he sought; 
but it failed, and so returned he to his 
strength ; yea, to his God and only comfort, 
as well in heaven as in earth ; and there he 
remained without all fear of death, pro- 
mising unto himself no less pleasure nor did 
the rich man of whom mention is made by 
our Master in the evangel ; for he did not 
only rejoice and say, " Eat and be glad, my 
soul, for thou hast great riches laid up in 
store for many days;" but also he said, 
" Tush, a fig for the feud, and a button for 
the bragging of all the heretics and their 
assistance in Scotland. Is not my lord go- 
vernor mine ? Witness his eldest son their 
pledge at my table. Have I not the queen 
at my own devotion ? — He meant of the 
mother of Mary that now mischievously 
reigns — Is not France my friend, and I 
friend to France ? What danger should I 
fear ?" And thus in vanity the cardinal 
delighted himself a little before his death. 
But yet he had devised to have cut off such 
as he thought might cumber him ; for he 
had appointed the whole gentlemen of Fife 
to have met him at Falkland the Monday 
after that he was slain upon the Saturday. 
His treasonable purpose was not under- 
stood but by his secret council ; and it was 
this, that Norman Leslie, sheriff of Fife, 
and apparent heir to his father the earl of 
Rothes ; the said John Leslie, father 
brother to Norman ; the lairds of Grange, 
elder and younger ; Sir James Learmonth 
of Darsie, and provost of St Andrews ; and 
the faithful laird of Raith, should either 
have been slain, or else taken, and after to 
have been used at his pleasure. This en- 
terprise was disclosed after his slaughter, 
partly by letters and memorials found in 
his chamber, but plainly affirmed by such 
as were of the council. Many purposes 
were devised, how that wicked man might 
have been taken away ; but all failed, till 
Friday the 28th of May, anno 1546, when 



* " Wicked gate" the suppressed London edi- 
tion calls it, which shows that Mons. Voultrol- 
lier was not well acquainted with the original 
language ot the author. What must the English 



the foresaid Norman came at night to St 
Andrews, William Kirkaldy of Grange, 
younger, was in the town before, awaiting 
upon the purpose. Last came John Leslie 
foresaid, who was most suspected: what 
conclusion they took that night it was not 
known but by the issue that followed. 
But early upon the Saturday in the morn- 
ing, the 29th of May, were they in sundry 
companies in the abbey kirk-yard, not far 
distant from the castle. First, the gates 
being open, and the drawbridge let down 
for receiving of lime and stones, and other 
things necessary for building, for Babylon 
was almost finished : first, we say, assayed 
William Kirkaldy of Grange, younger, and 
with him six persons, and getting entrance, 
held purpose with the porter, " If my lord 
cardinal was waking?" who answered, 
"No:" and so it was, indeed, for he had 
been busy at his accounts with mistress 
Marion Ogilvy that night, who was espied 
to depart from him by the private pos- 
tern that morning; and therefore quiet- 
ness, after the rules of physic, and a morn- 
ing sleep, were requisite for my lord. While 
the said William and the porter talked, and 
his servants made them to look [to] the 
work and the workmen, approached Nor- 
man Leslie with his company; and be- 
cause they were no great number, they 
easily got entrance. They address them to 
the midst of the closs, and immediately 
came John Leslie, somewhat rudely, and 
four persons with him. The porter fearing, 
would have drawn the bridge, but the said 
John being entered thereon, stayed, and 
leapt in : and while the porter made him 
for defence, his head was broken, the keys 
were taken from him, and he cast into the 
fosse, and so the place was seized. The 
workmen, to the number of more than one 
hundred, ran off the walls, and were with- 
out hurt put forth at the wicket gate.* 
The first thing that ever was done, William 
Kirkaldy took the guard of the private 
postern, fearing that the fox should have 
escaped. Then go the rest to the gentle- 



have thought of our Scotish hishops, when they 
read they had an entrance to their places called 
" the wicked gate ?" — Ed. 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



61 



men's chambers, and without violence 
done to any man, they put more than 
fifty persons to the gate : the number 
that enterprised and did this, were but 
sixteen persons. The cardinal wakened 
with the houts, asked from his window, 
" What meant that noise ?" It was an- 
swered, " That Norman Leslie had taken 
his castle;" which understood, he ran to 
the postern ; but perceiving- the passage to 
be kept without, he returned quickly to his 
chamber, and took his two-handed sword, 
and made chamberchild [made his servant] 
cast chests, and other impediments to the 
door. In this meantime came John Leslie 
unto it, and bids open. The cardinal j 
asking, " Who calls ?" He answered, " My j 
name is Leslie." He re-demands, " Is that 
Norman ?" The other says, " Nay, my 
name is John." " I will have Norman," 
says the cardinal, " for he is my friend." 
" Content yourself with such as are here, 
for other shall ye get none." There were 
with the said John, James Melvin, a man 
familiarly acquainted with the said Mr 
George Wishart, and Peter Carmichael, a 
stout gentleman. In this meantime, while 
they force at the door, the cardinal hides a 
box of gold under coals that were laid in a 
secret corner. At length he asketh, " Will 



* The London edition of 1586 has in the 
margin here, " The godly fact and words of 
James Melvin," for which Knox has been so 
much reproached ; but there is no evidence that 
they are Knox's words. They are not in the 
Glasgow MS., and were probably added by the 
publisher. 

It has been alleged that this marginal note 
was omitted in subsequent editions on account 
of the odium against Knox which it excited. 
But this could have no influence on the writer 
of the Glasgow MS., which is at least five years 
older than the printed edition which contains 
tbe obnoxious sentence. But after all, I have 
little sympathy with those who condemn Knox 
on this account, even if he had written it; be- 
cause such persons are shamefully partial in 
their judgment. When the cardinal had crown- 
ed his other crimes by the murder of Wishart, 
his conduct was applauded by his brethren, as 
showing a becoming zeal for the holy catholic 
church. The archbishop of Glasgow, and all 
the rest who gave their concurrence, must have 
considered the burning of Wishart a very godly 
action. Such writers as Keith, quoted in a for- 
mer note, if they do not positively call it godly, 
yet l-egard it as a trille not worth mentioning in 
their history of the cardinal's life. Thus Keith, 
though a protestant, does not make the ^ost 



ye save my life ?" The said John answer- 
ed, " It may be that we will." " Nay," 
says the cardinal, « swear unto m<: by God's 
wounds, and I shall open unto you." Tin I 
answered the said John, " It that was said, 
is unsaid ;" and so he cried, " Fire, fire," for 
the door was very strong, and so was brought 
a chimley [grate] full of burning coals, 
which perceived, the cardinal or his cham- 
ber-child — it is uncertain — opened the door, 
and the cardinal sat down in a chair, and 
cried, "lama priest, I am a priest, ye will 
not slay me." The said John Leslie, ac- 
cording to his former vows, struck him 
once or twice, and so did the said Peter ; 
but James Melvin, a man of nature most 
gentle and most modest, perceiving them 
both in choler, withdrew them, and said 
" This work and judgment of God, although 
it be secret, yet ought to be done with 
greater gravity." And presenting unto 
him the point of the sword, said, " Repent 
thee of thine former wicked life, but espe- 
cially of the shedding of the blood of that 
notable instrument of God, Mr George 
Wishart, which albeit the flame of fire 
consumed before men, yet cries it, a ven- 
geance upon thee, and we from God are 
sent to revenge it;* for here before my 
God, I protest, that neither the hatred of 



distant allusion to it; but he concludes his nar- 
rative with these words, " He was murdered in 
his own palace at St Andrews, on Saturday 
the 29th May 1546." If this author was really 
a protestant, he must have regarded the,cardinal 
himself as a murderer. It is certain that Knox 
did so. Then he must have regarded his death 
as the execution of justice according to the will 
of God, which is much the same as to call it a 
godly fact; like that of Samuel, who hewed 
Agag in pieces before the Lord. According to 
the law of Moses, private persons punished the 
crime of murder by the death of the criminal. 
The reformers were in some instances mistaken 
with regard to the application of that law under 
the christian dispensation; and, admitting that 
they were mistaken in this instance, neither 
Melvin who committed the fact, nor Knox who 
recorded it apparently with approbation, are to 
be condemned as murderers from principle. 
Though in an organized state of society, where 
there is law and government, it is Unlawful for 
private persons to take the punishment of crimes 
into their own hands ; yet, in the case of car- 
dinal Beaton, though his punishment had not 
the sanction of proper authority, the thing itself 
(the death of a murderer) was just and right- 
eous, according to the laws of God and man. 1 1 
is for expressing something like approbation of 



02 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 15 16 



thy person, the love of thy riches, or the 
fear of any trouble thou couldst have done to 
me in particular, moved, or moveth me to 
strike thee; but only because thou hast 
been, and remainest an obstinate enemy to 
Christ Jesus and his holy evangel." And 
so he struck him twice or thrice through 
with a stoge [thrusting, or long small] 
sword : and so he fell, never word heard out 
of his mouth, but " I am a priest, 1 am a 
priest, lie, lie, all is gone !"* 

While they were thus occupied with the 
cardinal, the fray rises in the town ; the 
provost assembles the commonalty, and 
comes to the fosse's side, crying, " What 
have ye done with my lord cardinal ? Where 
is my lord cardinal ? Have ye slain my lord 
cardinal ? Let us see my lord cardinal." 
They that were within answered gently, 
" The best it were to you to return to your 
own houses ; for the man you call the car- 
dinal has received his reward, and in his 
own person will trouble the world no 
more." But then more enragedly, they 
cried, " We shall never depart till that we 
see him." And so was he brought to the 
east Blockhouse-head, and shown dead over 
the wall to the faithless multitude, which 
would not believe before that it saw. And 
so they departed, without requiem cetemam, 
et requiescat in pace, sung for his soul. 
Now, because the weather was hot, for it 



this that Knox has been branded by certain 
writers, who have no censure to spare for the 
cardinal, who was confessedly guilty of the mur- 
der of an innocent man. Yes, but the cardinal 
was a minister of state, and an archbishop, and the 
innocent man was only a christian minister. This 
accounts for the difference. The only thing that 
can be pleaded in extenuation of the cardinal's 
conduct is, that the archbishop of Glasgow and 
a few more, were as guilty as himself, and there- 
fore deserved the same reward, though most of 
them were suffered to die in their beds. I con- 
clude this long note with stating the fact, that 
Knox was remarkably scrupulous with regard 
to what might affect human life. When his 
friends were, contrary to treaty, detained in a 
French prison, they wrote for his advice, whe- 
ther they might lawfully effect their escape if 
they could? to which he replied, that he thought 
they might, if it could be done without blood- 
shed ; but that they ought not, for the sake of 
their own liberty, to take the life of a fellow 
creature. — Ed. 

* Cardinal Uavid Beaton was nephew of 
James Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow, aud af- 



was in May, as ye have heard, and his fu- 
nerals could not suddenly be^ prepared, it 
was thought best — to keep him from stink- 
ing — to give him great salt enough, a cope 
of lead, and a nuik in the bottom of the 
sea tower, a place where many of God's 
children had been imprisoned before, to 
await what exequies his brethren the 
bishops would prepare for him. These 
things we write merrily, but we would that 
the reader should observe God's just judg- 
ments, and how that he can deprehend the 
worldly wise in their own wisdom, make 
their table to be a snare to trap their 
own feet, a and their own presupposed 
strength to be their own destruction. 
These are the works of our God, whereby 
he would admonish the tyrants of this 
earth, that in the end he will be revenged 
of their cruelty, what strength soever they 
make in the contrary. But such is the 
blindness of man, as David speaks, " That 
the posterity does ever follow the footsteps 
of their wicked fathers, and principally in 
their impiety ;" for how little differs the 
cruelty of that bastard, that yet is called 
bishop of St Andrews, from the cruelty of 
the former, we will after hear. 

The death of this foresaid tyrant was do- 
lorous to the priests, dolorous to the gover- 
nor, and most dolorous to the queen dowa- 
ger ; for in him perished faithfulness to 



terwards of St Andrews. At an early period 
of life he was sent to Fiance for perfecting his 
education ; and there he was initiated into the 
mysteries of both church and state politics. His 
first preferment at home was no greater than 
the rectory of Campsie ; but when his uncle was 
promoted to St Andrews, he resigned in his fa- 
vour the abbacy of Arbroath, which gave him a 
seat in parliament. From this he rose to the 
highest offices in church and state. The cause 
and manner of his death are sufficiently related 
in the text ; but as affording information with 
regard to the manners of the times, it is right 
to add, that gentlemen, even of noble birth, 
were not ashamed to treat his dead body with 
disgusting contumely, such as persons of the 
lowest degree would not now be guilty of to the 
carcass of a dog. See his life in Iconographia 
Scotica. Knox was a gentleman both by birth 
and education ; but, considering the character of 
the times, as appears by the above fact, it was 
not to be expected that he should possess all the 
refinement of a more polished state of society — 
Ed. 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCO FLA NO. 



69 



Franco, and the comfort to all gentlewo- 
men, and especially to wanton widows; his 
death must be revenged. 

To the court again repairs the earl of 
Angus, and his brother Sir George. La- 
bour is made for the abbacy of Arbroath, 
and a grant was once made of the same, in 
memory whereof, George Douglas, bastard 
son to the said earl, is yet called Postulate. 
But it was more proper — think the Hairiil- 
tons — for the governor's kitchen [for one 
of his servants], nor for reward to the 
Douglasses ; and yet in esperance [hope] 
thereof, the said earl and George his bro- 
ther were the first that voted, that the cas- 
tle of St Andrews should be besieged. The 
bishop, to declare the zeal that he had 
to revenge the death of him that was his 
predecessor, — and yet for his wish he would 
not have had him living again, — still blew 
the coals. And first, he caused summon, 
then denounce accursed, then last rebels, 
not only the first enterprisers, but all such 
also as after did accompany them ; and last 
of all, siege was concluded, which began in 
the end of August. For the 23d day there- 
of departed the soldiers from Edinburgh 
and continued near to the end of January ; 
at what time, because they had no other 
hope of winning it but by hunger, and 
thereof also they were despaired, for they 
within had broken through the east wall, 
and made a plain passage by an iron gate 
to the sea, which greatly relieved the besieg- 
ed, and abased the besiegers ; for then they 
saw that they could not stop them of vic- 
tuals, unless that they should be masters of 
the sea, and that they clearly understood 
they could not be ; for the English ships had 
Mice been there, and had brought William 
tvirkaldy from London, and with much 
difficulty — because the said gate was not 
dien prepared — and some loss of men, had 
•endered him to the castle again, and had 
taken with them to the court of England, 
John Leslie and Mr Henry Balnaves, for 
perfecting of all contracts betwixt them 
and king Henry, who promised to take 
them in his protection, upon condition 
only, that they should keep the governor's 
oon, my lord of Arran, and stand friends to 
the contract of marriage, whereof before 



we have made mention. TJiesc things < lear- 
ly understood, we say, by the governor and 
his council, the priests and shaven sort, 
they conclude to make an appointment, to 
the end that under truth they might either 
get the castle betrayed, or else sonic prin- 
cipal men of the company taken at una- 
wares. In the which head was the abbot 
of Dunfermline principal, and for that pur- 
pose had the laird of Monwherry, which 
was most familiar with them of the castle, 
laboured at foot and hand, and proceeded 
so in his traffic, that from entries upon day- 
light at his pleasure, he got licence to come 
in upon the night whensoever it pleased 
him. But God had not appointed so many 
to be betrayed, albeit that he would that 
they should be punished, and that justly, as 
hereafter we will hear. 

THE HEADS OF THE COLOURED APPOINTMENT 
WERE. 

T. That they should keep the castle of 
St Andrews, aye and until that the governor 
and authority of Scotland should get unto 
them a siifncient absolution from the pope, 
antichrist of Rome, for the slaughter of the 
cardinal foresaid. 

II. That they should deliver pledges for 
delivery of that house, how soon the abso- 
lution foresaid was delivered unto them. 

III. That their friends, familiars, and 
servants, and others to them pertaining, 
should never be pursued in the law, by the 
authority, for the slaughter foresaid. But 
that they should brook commodities spi- 
ritual and temporal, whatsoever they pos- 
sessed before the said slaughter, even as 
if it never had been committed. 

IV. That they of the castle should keep 
the earl of Arran, so long as their pledges 
were kept. 

And such like articles liberal enough, for 
they never minded to keep [one] word of 
them, as the issue did declare. 

The appointment made, all the godly were 
glad ; for some esperance [hope! they had, 
that thereby God's word should somewhat 
bud, as indeed so it did. For John Rough 
— who soon after the cardinal's slaughter 
entered within the castle, and had conti- 
nued with them the whole siege — began to 



64 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1547 



preach in St Andrews ; and albeit he was 
not the most learned, yet was his doctrine 
without corruption, and therefore well liked 
of the people. At the Pasch after, anno 
1547, came to the castle of St Andrews 
John Knox, who wearied of removing from 
place to place, by reason of the persecution 
that came upon him by this bishop of St 
Andrews, was determined to have left Scot- 
land, and to have visited the schools of Ger- 
many — of England then he had no pleasure, 
by reason that the pope's name being- sup- 
pressed, his laws and corruptions remained 
in full vigour, — but because he had the care 
of some gentlemen's children, whom certain 
years he had nourished in godliness, their 
fathers solicited him to go to St Andrews 
that himself might have the benefit of the 
castle, and their children the benefit of his 
doctrine ; and so, we say, came he the time 
foresaid to the said place, and having in his 
company Francis Douglas of Longniddry, 
George his brother, and Alexander Cock- 
burn, then eldest son to the laird of Ormis- 
ton, began to exercise them after his accus- 
tomed manner. Besides their grammar, and 
other humane authors, he read unto them a 
catechism, account whereof he caused them 
give publicly in the parish kirk of St An- 
drews. He read moreover unto them the 
evangel of John, proceeding where he left 
at his departing from Longniddry, where 
before his residence was ; and that lecture 
he read in the chapel within the castle, at 
a certain hour. They of the place, but es- 
pecially Mr Henry Balnaves, and John 
Rough, preacher, perceiving the manner of 
his doctrine, began earnestly to travail 
with him, that he would take the preaching 
place upon him. But he utterly refused, 
alleging, " That he would not run where 
God had not called him ;" meaning, that he 
would do nothing without a lawful voca- 
tion. Whereupon they privily amongst 
themselves advising, having with them in 
company Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, 
they concluded, that they would give a 
charge to the said John, and that publicly 
by the mouth of their preacher. And so 
upon a certain day, a sermon had of the 
election of ministers, " what power the con- 
gregation, how small that ever it was, pass- 



ing the number of two or three, had above 
any man, in whom they supposed and espied 
the gifts of God to be, and how dangerous 
it was to refuse, and not to hear the voice 
of such as desire to be instructed :" these 
and other heads, we say, declared ; the said 
John Rough, preacher, directed his words 
to the said John Knox, saying, " Brother, 
ye shall not be offended, albeit that I speak 
unto you that which I have in charge, 
even from all these that are here present, 
which is this : In the name of God, and of 
his son Jesus Christ, and in the name of 
these that presently call you by my mouth, 
I charge you, that ye refuse not this holy 
vocation, but as ye tender the glory of God, 
the increase of Christ's kingdom, the edifi- 
cation of your brethren, and the comfort of 
me, whom ye understand well enough to 
be oppressed by the multitude of labours, 
that ye take upon you the public office and 
charge of preaching, even as ye look to 
avoid God's heavy displeasure, and desire 
that ye shall multiply his graces with you." 
And in the end he said to those that were 
present, '* Was not this your charge unto 
me ? And do ye not approve this vocation ?" 
They answered, " It was, and we approve 
it." Whereat the said John abashed, burst 
forth in most abundant tears, and withdrew 
himself to his chamber; his countenance 
and behaviour, from that day till the day 
that he was compelled to present himself to 
the public place cf preaching, did sufficient- 
ly declare the grief and trouble of his heart; 
for no man saw any sign of mirth of him, 
neither yet had he pleasure to accompany 
any man, many days together. 

The necessity that caused him to enter 
in the public place, besides the vocation 
foresaid, was dean John Annan, a rotten 
papist, [who] had long troubled John Rough 
in his preaching. The said John Knox had 
fortified the doctrine of the preacher by his 
pen, and had beaten the said dean John 
from all defences, that he was compelled to 
fly to his last refuge, that is, to the authority 
of the church, " Which authority," said he, 
" damneth all Lutherans and heretics ; and, I 
therefore, he needed no further disputation." 
John Knox answered, " Before that we hold 
ourselves, or that ye can prove us sufficient- 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION 1 



N SCOTLAND. 



65 



ly convict, we must define the church, by 
the right notes given to us in God's scrip- 
tures of the true church. We must decern 
the immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ from 
the mother of confusion, spiritual Babylon, 
lest that imprudently we embrace a harlot 
instead of the chaste spouse. Yea, to speak 
it in plain words ; lest that we submit our- 
selves to Satan, thinking that we submit 
ourselves to Jesus Christ ; for, as for your 
Roman kirk, as it is now corrupted, and 
the authority thereof, whereon stands the 
hope of your victory, I no more doubt but 
that it is the synagogue of Satan, and the 
head thereof, called the pope, to be that 
man of sin, of whom the apostle speaks, 
than that I doubt that Jesus Christ suffered 
by the procurement of the visible church of 
Jerusalem. Yea, I offer myself, by word or 
write, to prove the Roman church this day 
further degenerated from the purity which 
was in the days of the apostles, than was 
the church of the Jews from the ordinance 
given by Moses, when they consented to 
the innocent death of Jesus Christ." These 
words were spoken in open audience in the 
parish church of St Andrews, after that the 
said dean John Annan had spoken what it 
pleased him, and had refused to dispute. 
The people hearing the offer, cried with one 
consent, " We cannot all read your writ- 
ings, but we may all hear your preachings; 
therefore, we require you in the name of 
God, that ye will let us hear the probation 
of that which ye have affirmed ; for if it be 
true, we have been miserably deceived." 
And so the next Sunday was appointed to 
the said John to express his mind in the 
public preaching place, which day approach- 
ing, the said John took the text written in 
Daniel the vii. chapter, beginning thus : 
" And another king shall rise after them, 
and shall be unlike to the first, and he shall 
subdue three kings, and shall speak words 
against the Most High, and shall consume 
the saints of the Most High, and think that 
he may change times and laws, and they 
shall be given unto his hands, until a time, 
and times, and dividing of times." In the 
beginning of the sermon, he showed the 
great love of God towards his church, 
whom it pleased to forewarn of dangers to 



come so many years before they came to 
pass. He briefly entreated [treated of j the 
estate of the Israelites, who then were in 
bondage in Babylon, for the most part ; and 
made a short discourse of the four empires, 
the Babylonian, the Persian, that of the 
Greeks, and the fourth of the Romans, in the 
destruction whereof rose up that last beast, 
which he affirmed to be the Roman church; 
for to none other power that ever has yet 
been, do all the notes that God has shown 
to the prophet appertain, except to it alone, 
and unto it they do so properly appertain, 
that such as are not more than blind, may 
clearly see them. But before he began to 
open up the corruption of the papistry, he 
defined the true kirk, showed the true 
notes of it, whereupon it was built, why it 
was the pillar of verity, and why it could 
not err, to wit, " Because it heard the voice 
of its own pastor, Jesus Christ, would not 
hear a stranger, neither yet would be car- 
ried about with every kind of doctrine." 

Every one of these heads sufficiently de- 
clared, he entered upon the contrary ; and 
upon the notes given in his text, he showed 
that the Spirit of God in the New Testa- 
ment gave to this king other names, to wit, 
" The man of sin, the antichrist, the whore 
of Babylon." He show r ed, that this man 
of sin, or antichrist, was not to be restrain- 
ed to the person of any one man only, no 
more than by the fourth beast was to be 
understood the person of any one emperor. 
But by such names the Spirit of God would 
forewarn his chosen of a body and a multi- 
tude, having a wicked head, who should 
not only be sinful himself, but that also 
should be occasion of sin to all that should 
be subject unto him, as Christ Jesus is the 
cause of justice to all the members of his 
body ; and is called the antichrist, that is 
to say, one contrary to Christ, because that 
he is contrary unto him in life, doctrine, 
laws, and subjects. And there began he to 
decipher the lives of divers popes, and the 
lives of the shavelings [clergy] for the most 
part; their doctrine and laws he plainly 
proved to repugn directly to the laws and 
doctrine of God the Father, and of Christ 
Jesus his Son. This he proved by confer- 
ring the doctrine of justification expressed 



66 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1547 



iu the scriptures, which teach that man is 
" justified by faith only; that the blood of 
Jesus Christ purges us from all our sins :" 
and the doctrine of the papists, which at- 
tributed justification to the works of the 
law, yea, to the works of men's invention, 
as pilgrimages, pardons, and other such 
baggage. That the papistical laws repugn- 
ed to the laws of the evangel, he proved by 
the laws made of observation of days, ab- 
staining from meats, and from marriage, 
which Jesus Christ made free; and the for- 
bidding whereof, St Paul calls " the doc- 
trine of devils." In handling the notes of 
that beast given in the text, he willed men 
to consider if these notes — there shall one 
arise, unlike unto the other, having a mouth 
speaking great things and blasphemous — 
could be applied to any other but to the 
pope and his kingdom : " For if these," said 
he, " be not great words and blasphemous, 
the successor of Peter, the vicar of Christ, 
the head of the kirk, most holy, most bless- 
ed, that cannot err ; that may make right 
a wrong, and wrong of right ; that of no- 
thing may make somewhat ; and that had 
all verity in the shrine of his breast ; yea, 
that has power of all, and none power of him; 
nay, not [even] to say, that he does wrong, 
although he draw ten thousand million souls 
with himself to hell. If these," said he, "and 
many other able to be shown in his own 
canon law, be not great and blasphemous 
words, and such as never mortal man spake 
before, let the world judge. And yet," said 
he, " is there one most evident of all, to 
wit, John, in his Revelation, says, ' That the 
merchandise of that Babylonian harlot, 
amongst other things, shall be the bodies 
and souls of men.' Now, let very papists 
themselves judge, if ever any before them 
took upon them power to relax the pains 
of them that were in purgatory, as they af- 
firm to the people that daily they do, by 
the merits of their mass, and of their other 
trifles." In the end, he said, " If any here 
— and there were present Mr John Mair, 
the university, the sub-prior, and many 
canons, with some friars of both the orders 
— that will say, that I have alleged scrip- 
tures, doctor, or history, otherwise than it 
is written, let them come unto me with suf- 



ficient witnesses, and by conference I shall 
let them see, not only the original where 
my testimonies are written, but I shall 
prove, that the writers meant as I have 
spoken." Of this sermon, which was the 
first that ever John Knox made in public, 
were there divers bruits : Some said, others 
hewed the branches of papistry, but he 
striketh at the root, to destroy the whole. 
Others said, if the doctors, and magistri 
nostri, defend not now the pope and his au- 
thority, which in their own presence is so 
manifestly impugned, " The devil have my 
part of him, and his laws both." Others 
said, " Mr George Wishart spake never so 
plainly, and yet he was burnt, even so will 
he be." In the end, others said, " The 
tyranny of the cardinal made not his cause 
the better, neither yet the suffering of God's 
servant made his cause the worse. And 
therefore we would counsel you and them, 
to provide better defences than fire and 
sword, for it may be that else ye shall be 
disappointed ; men now have other eyes 
than they had then." This answer gave 
the laird of Niddry, a man fervent and up- 
right in religion. The bastard bishop, who 
was not yet execrated, consecrated they call 
it, wrote to the subprior of St Andrews, 
who, sede vacante, was vicar-general, " That 
he wondered that he suffered such hereti- 
cal and schismatical doctrine to be taught, 
and not to oppose himself to the same." 
Upon this rebuke, was a convention of grey 
friars and black fiends appointed, with the 
said subprior dean John Winram, in St Leo- 
nard's Yards, whereunto was first called 
John Rough, and certain articles read unto 
him ; and thereafter was John Knox call- 
ed for. The cause of their convention, and 
why that they were called, is exponed ; 
and the articles were read, which were 
these : 

I. No mortal can be the head of the church. 

II. The pope is an antichrist, and so is 
no member of Christ's mystical body. 

III. Man may neither make nor devise a 
religion that is acceptable to God, but man 
is bound to observe and keep the religion 
that from God is received, without chopping 
or changing thereof. 

IV. The sacraments of the New Testa- 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



67 



ment, ought to be ministered as they Avere 
instituted by Christ Jesus, and practised by 
his apostles ; nothing ought to be added 
unto them, nothing ought to be diminished 
from them. 

V. The mass is abominable idolatry, blas- 
phemous to the death of Christ, and a pro- 
fanation of the Lord's Supper. 

VI. There is no purgatory, in the which 
the souls of men can neither be pained or 
purged after this life ; but heaven rests to 
the faithful, and hell to the reprobate and 
unfaithful. 

VII. Praying for the dead is vain, and to 
the dead is idolatry. 

VIII. There are no bishops, except they 
preach even by themselves, without any 
substitute. 

IX. The teinds by God's law do not ap- 
pertain of necessity to the kirkmen. 

" The strangeness," said the subprior, " of 
these articles which are gathered forth of 
your doctrine have moved us to call for 
you, to hear your own answers." John 
Knox said, " I for my part praise my God, 
that I see so honourable, and apparently so 
modest and quiet an auditory ; but because 
it is long since that I have heard, that ye 
are one that is not ignorant of the truth, I 
must crave of you, in the name of God, yea, 
and I appeal your conscience before that 
supreme Judge, that if ye think any article 
there expressed, contrary unto the truth of 
God, that ye oppone yourself plainly unto 
it, and suffer not the people therewith to 
be deceived ; but, and if in your conscience 
ye know the doctrine to be true, then will 
I crave your patrocinie [adherence] there- 
to ; that by your authority the people may 
be moved the rather to believe the truth, 
whereof many doubt by reason of our 
youth." The subprior answered, " I came 
not here as a judge, but only familiarly to 
talk, and, therefore, I will neither allow nor 
yet condemn ; but if ye list, I will reason. 
Why may not the kirk," said he, " for 
good causes devise ceremonies to decore 
the sacraments, and other God's service ?" 

John Knox. — " Because the kirk ought 



to do nothing, but in faith, and ought not to 
go before, but is bound to follow the voice 
of the true pastor." 

The subprior. — " It is in faith that the 
ceremonies are commanded, and they have 
proper signification to help our faith, as the 
hards* in baptism signify the roughness 
of the law, and the oil the softness of God's 
mercy ; and likewise every one of the cere- 
monies has a godly signification; and there- 
fore they both proceed from faith, and are 
done to faith." 

John Knox. — " It is not enough that 
a man invent a ceremony, and then give a 
signification according to his pleasure. For 
so might the ceremonies of the gentiles, and 
this day the ceremonies of Mahomet be 
maintained. But if any thing proceed 
from faith, it must have the word of God 
for the assurance ; for ye are not ignorant, 
4 That faith comes by hearing, and hearing 
by the word of God,' Now, if ye will prove 
that your ceremonies proceed from faith, 
and do please God, ye must prove that God 
in express words has commanded them ; or 
else shall ye never prove that they proceed 
from faith, nor yet that they please God ; 
but that they are sin, and so displease him, 
according to the words of the apostle, 
' Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.' " 

The subprior. — " Will ye bind us so 
strait, that w r e may do nothing without the 
express word of God ? What, and I ask a 
drink ? think ye that 1 sin ? and yet have 
I not God's word for me '?" This answer 
gave he, as might appear, to shift over the 
argument upon the friar, as that he did. 

John Knox. — " I would we [ye, sup. ed.] 
should not jest in so grave a matter, neither 
would I that ye should begin to elude the 
truth with sophistry ; and if ye do, I will 
defend me the best that I can. And, hist, 
to your drinking, I say, that if ye either eat 
or drink without assurance of God's word, 
that in so doing ye displease God, and ye 
sin in your very eating and drinking; 
for says not the apostle, speaking even of 
meat and drink, ' That the creatures are 
sanctified unto man, even by the word and 



* It is hands in the suppressed edition, perhaps 
for the gentle strokes which are given to the 



child, to signify the hardships he may meet with 
in the course of his lite. — /.'>/. 



68 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1547 



by prayer.' The word is this, ' All things 
are clean to the clean.' Now, let me hear 
this much of your ceremonies, and I shall 
give you the argument ; but I wonder that 
ye compare things profane and holy things 
so indiscreetly together ; the question was 
not, nor is not of meat or drink, whereinto 
the kingdom of heaven consists not ; but 
the question is of God's true worshipping, 
without the which we can have no society 
with God. And, here it is doubted, if we 
may take the same freedom in the using of 
Christ's sacraments, that we may do in eat- 
ing and drinking. One meat I may eat, 
another I may refuse, and that without 
scruple of conscience. I may change one 
with another, even as oft as I please. 
Whether may we do the same in matters 
of religion ? May we cast away what we 
please, and retain what we please ? If I be 
well remembered, Moses, in the name of 
God, says to the people of Israel, ' All that 
the Lord thy God commands thee to do, 
that do thou to the Lord thy God, add no- 
thing to it, diminish nothing from it.' By 
this rule, think I, that the kirk of Christ 
will measure God's religion, and not by that 
which seemeth good in their own eyes." 

The subprior. — " Forgive me, I speak 
it but in mowes [jest], and I was dry. And 
now, father," said he to the friar, " follow 
the argument, ye have heard what I said, 
and what is answered to me again." 

Arbuckle grayfriar.. — " I shall prove 
plainly that ceremonies are ordained by 
God." 

John Knox. — " Such as God has ordain- 
ed we aliow, and with reverence we use 
them ; but the question is of those that God 
has not ordained, such as in baptism, are spit- 
tle, salt, candle, cuid*-— except it be to keep 
the bairn from cold — hards, oil, and the rest 
of the papistical inventions." 

Arbuckle. — " I will even prove these 
that ye damn to be ordained of God." 

John Knox. — " The proof thereof I 
would gladly hear." 

Arbuckle. — " Says not St Paul, ' that, 
any other foundation than Jesus Christ, 
may no man lay.' But upon this founda- 

• Cude, a cloth to cover the child's face. See 
Jf?tfi. Vict. 



tion some build gold, silver, and precious 
stones, some, hay, stubble, and wood. The 
gold, silver, and precious stones are the ce- 
remonies of the church, which do abide the 
fire, and consume not away," &c. This 
place of scripture is most plain, says the 
foolish fiend. 

John Knox. — " I praise my God, through 
Jesus Christ, for I find his promise sure, 
true, and stable. Christ Jesus bids us ? Not 
fear, when we shall be called before men, to 
give confession of his truth for he pro- 
mises f That it shall be given unto us in 
that hour what we shall speak.' If I had 
sought the whole scriptures, I could not 
have produced a place more proper for 
my purpose, nor more potent to confound 
you. Now to your argument : the cere- 
monies of the kirk, say ye, are gold, silver, 
and precious stones, because they are able 
to abide the fire ; but I would learn of you, 
what fire it is which your ceremonies does 
abide ? And in the meantime, till that ye 
be advised to answer, I will show my mind, 
and make an argument against your's upon 
the same text. And, first, I say, that I 
have heard this text adduced for a proof of 
purgatory; but for defence of ceremonies 
I never heard, nor yet read it. But omit- 
ting whether ye understand the mind of the 
apostle or not, I make my argument, and 
say, that which may abide the fire, may 
abide the word of God ; but your ceremonies 
may not abide the word of God. Ergo, 
they may not abide the fire ,• and if they 
may not abide the fire, then are they not 
gold, silver, nor precious stones. Now, if 
ye find any ambiguity in this term, fire, 
which I interpret to be the word, find 
ye me another tire, by the which things 
built upon Christ Jesus should be tried 
than God and his word, which both in the 
scriptures are called fire, and I shall cor- 
rect my argument." 

Arbuckle. — " I stand not thereupon ; 
but I deny your minor, to wit, that our 
ceremonies may not abide the trial of 
God's word." 

John Knox — " T prove that abides not 
the trial of God's word, which God's 
word condemneth ; but God's word con- 
demns your ceremonies : therefore, they 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



69 



do not abide the trial thereof; but as a 
thief abideth the trial of the inquest, and 
thereby is condemned to be hanged ; even 
so may your ceremonies abide the trial of 
God's word, but not else. And now, in 
few words to make plain that wherein ye 
may seem to doubt, to wit, that God's word 
iamneth your ceremonies, it is evident, for 
the plain and strait commandment of God 
is, " Not that thing which appeareth good 
in thy eyes, shalt thou do to the Lord thy 
God, but what the Lord thy God has com- 
manded thee, that do you ; add nothing to 
it, diminish nothing from it.' Now, unless 
ye be able to prove, that God has command- 
ed your ceremonies, this his former com- 
mandment will damn both you and them." 

The friar, somewhat abashed what first 
to answer, while he wanders about in the I 
mist he falls in a foul mire ; for, alleging j 
that we may not be so bound to the word, j 
he affirmed, " That the apostles had not J 
received the Holy Ghost when they did 
write their epistles ; but after they received 
him, and then they did ordain the cere- 
monies." Few would have thought, that 
so learned a man would have given so fool- 
ish an answer ; and yet it is even as true 
as he bore a grey cowl. John Knox hear- 
ing the answer, started and said, " If that be 
true, I have long been in an error, and I 
think I shall die thereintill." The subprior 
said to him, " Father, what say ye ? God 
forbid that ye affirm that, for then farewell 
the ground of our faith." The friar, asto- 
nished, made the best shift that he could to 
correct his fault, but it would not be : John 
Knox brought him oft again to the ground 
of the argument, but he would never an- 
swer directly, but ever fled to the authority 
of the church ; whereto the said John an- 
swered, oftener than once, " That the spouse 
of Christ had neither power nor authority 
against the word of God." Then said the 
friar, " If so be, ye will leave us no kirk." 
" Indeed," said the other, " in David I read, 
that there is a church of the malignants, 
for he says, * Odi ecclesiam malignantium ;' 
that church ye may have without the 
word, and doing many things directly fight- 
ing against the word of God ; of that church 
if ye will be, I cannot impede you ; but as 



for me, I will be of none other church, ex- 
cept of that which hath Christ Jesus to be 
their pastor, which hears his voice, and will 
not hear a stranger." 

In this disputation many other things 
were merrily scoffed over; for the friar 
after his fall could speak nothing to any pur- 
pose. For purgatory he had no better proof 
but the authority of Virgil, in the sixth of 
his JEneid ; and the pains thereof to him 
was an evil wife. How John Knox an- 
swered that and many other things, himself 
did witness, in a treatise that he did write 
in the galleys, containing the sum of his 
doctrine, and the confession of his faith, 
and sent it to his familiars in Scot- 
land, with his exhortation, that they should 
continue in the truth which they had pro- 
fessed, notwithstanding any worldly adver- 
sity that might ensue thereof. This much 
of that disputation have we inserted here, 
to the intent that men may see how that 
Satan ever travails to obscure the light; 
and yet how that God, by his power, work- 
ing in his weak vessels, confounds his craft, 
and discloses his darkness. 

After this the papists nor friars had no 
great heart of further disputation or reason- 
ing, but invented another shift, which ap- 
peared to proceed from godliness ; and it 
was this : every learned man, in the abbey 
and in the university, should preach in the 
parish kirk his Sunday about. The sub- 
prior began — followed the official, called 
Spittal — sermons penned — to offend no 
man — followed all the rest in their ranks ; 
and so John Knox smelled out the craft, 
and in his sermons, which he made upon 
the week days, he prayed to God that they 
should be as busy in preaching where 
there should be more mister [need] of it 
than there was there then. " Always, [how- 
ever]," said he, " I praise God, that Christ 
Jesus is preached, and nothing is said pub- 
licly against the doctrine that ye have 
heard ; if in my absence they shall speak 
any thing, which in my presence they do 
not, I protest that ye suspend your judg- 
ment, till that it please God ye hear me 
again." 

God so assisted his weak soldier, and so 
blessed his labours, that not only all those 



70 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1547 



of the castle, but also a great number of 
the town, openly professed, by participation 
of the Lord's table, in the same purity that 
now it is ministered in the kirks of Scot- 
land, with that same doctrine that he had 
taught unto them ; amongst whom was he 
that now either rules or else misrules Scot- 
land, to wit, Sir James Balfour, sometimes 
called master James, the chief and principal 
protestant that then was to be found in 
this realm. This we write, because that 
we have heard that the same Mr James al- 
leges that he was never of this our religion ; 
but that he was brought up in Martin's 
[Luther's] opinion of the sacrament, and, 
therefore, he cannot communicate with us : 
but his own conscience, and two hundred 
witnesses besides know, that he lies ; and 
that he was one of the chief — if he had not 
been after cups — that would have given his 
life, if men might credit his words, for de- 
fence of the doctrine that the said John 
Knox taught. But albeit, " That those that 
never were of us — as none of Mone- 
quhaime's* sons have showed themselves to 
be — depart from us," it is no great wonder ; 
for it is proper and natural, that the chil- 
dren follow the father; and let the godly 
beware of that race and progeny ; for if in 
them be either fear of God, or love of 
virtue, farther than the present commodity 
persuades them, men of judgment are de- 
ceived. But to return to our history. 

The priests and bishops enraged at all 
these proceedings that were in St Andrews, 
ran now upon the governor, now upon the 
queen, now upon the whole council; and 
there might have been heard complaints and 
cries, " What are we doing? Shall we 
suffer this whole realm to be infected with 
pernicious doctrine ? Fie upon you, and 
fie upon us." The queen and Monsieur 
d'Oysel, who then was a secretis mulierum 
in the court, comforted them, and willed 
them to be quiet, for they should see remedy 
ere it were long ; and so was proven, indeed ; 
for upon the penult of June, appeared in 
the sight of the castle of St Andrews 



* I can find no certain clue to the meaning of 
this ; perhaps it was the name of the family estate. 
.Balfour became a statesman, and made some 



twenty-one French galleys, with a great 
army, the like whereof was never seen in 
that firth before. This treasonable mean had 
the governor, the bishop, the queen, and 
Monsieur d'Oysel, under the appointment 
drawn. But to excuse their treason, eight 
days before, they had presented unto them 
an absolution, as sent from Rome, contain- 
ing, after the aggravation of the crime, this 
clause, remittimus irremissibile, that is, we 
remit the crime that cannot be remitted ; 
which considered by the most of the company 
that was in the castle, answer was given, 
" That the governor and council of the 
realm, had promised unto them a sufficient 
and assured absolution, which that appeared 
not to be ; and, therefore, could they not 
deliver the house, neither thought they that 
any reasonable man would require them so 
to do, considering that promise was not 
kept unto them." The next day after that 
the galleys arrived, they summoned the 
house, which being denied, because they 
knew them no magistrates in Scotland ; 
they prepared for siege. And, first, they 
began to assault by sea, and shot two days ; 
but thereof they neither got advantage nor 
honour ; for they knocked down the slates 
of houses, but neither slew man, nor did 
harm to any wall; but the castle handled 
them so, that Sancta Barbara — the gunner's 
goddess — helped them nothing ; for they lost 
many of their rowers, men chained in the 
galleys, and some soldiers both by sea and 
land ; and farther, one galley that approached 
nearer nor the rest, was so struck with can- 
non, and other ordnance, that she was stopped 
[stricken, s. c] under water, and so almost 
drowned, and so had been, were not that the 
rest gave her succour in time, and drew her 
first to the west sands, without the shot of 
the castle, and thereafter to Dundee, where 
they remained, till that the governor, who 
was then at the siege of Longhope, came 
unto them, with the rest of the French 
faction, The siege by land was confirmed 
about the castle of St Andrews, the 28th 
day of July. The trenches were cast, ord- 



figure in these troublesome times ; but I do not 
find that ever he returned to the faith from Which 
he had departed. — Ed. 



IJook 1.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



nance was planted upon the abbey kirk, and 
upon St Salvator's college, and yet was the 
steeple thereof burnt, which so annoyed the 
castle, that neither could they keep their 
block-house, the sea-tower head, nor the 
west wall ; for in all these places men were 
slain by great ordnance ; yea, they mount- 
ed the ordnance so high upon the abbey 
kirk, that they might discover the ground 
of the closs in divers places. Moreover, 
within the castle was the pest [plague], and 
divers therein died, which more afrayed 
some that were therein, than did the external 
force without ; but John Knox was of an- 
other judgment; for he ever said "That 
their corrupt life could not escape punish- 
ment of God ;" and that was his continual 
advertisement, from the time that he was 
called to preach. When they triumphed of 
their victory — the first twenty days they had 
many prosperous chances — he lamented, and 
ever said, " They saw not what he saw." 
When they bragged of the force and thick- 
ness of their Avails, he said, " They should 
be but egg-shells." When they vaunted, 
England will rescue us, he said, " Ye shall 
not see them ; but ye shall be delivered in 
your enemies' hands, and shall be carried 
unto a strange country." 

Upon the penult of July, at night, was the 
ordnance planted for the battery ; fourteen 
cannons, whereof four were cannons royal, 
called double cannons, besides other pieces. 
The battery began at four hours in the 
morning, and, before ten hours of the day, 
the whole south quarter, betwixt the fore 
tower and the east block-house, was made 
saltabill [assailable]. The lower trench 
was condemned, divers slain in it, and the 
east block-house was shot off from the rest 
of the place betwixt ten hours and eleven. 
There fell a shower of rain, that continued 
near an hour, the like whereof had seldom 
been seen ; it was so vehement that no man 
might abide without a house [sotlial] ; the 
cannons were left alone. Some within the 
castle were of judgment, that men should 
have issued, and put all in the hands of God ; 
but because that William Kirkaldy was 
coming with the prior of Capua, who had 
the commission of that journey from the 
king of France, nothing was enterprised; and 
so was appointment made, and the castle 



rendered upon Saturday the last of July. 
The heads of the appointment were, " That 
the lives of all within the castle should be 
saved, as well English as Scotish ; that they 
should be safely transported to France ; 
and in case that, upon conditions that by 
the king of France should be offered unto 
them, they could not be content to remain 
in service and freedom there, they should, 
upon the king of France his expense, be 
safely conveyed to what country they would 
require, other than Scotland." With the 
governor they would have nothing ado, 
neither yet with any Scotsman ; for they 
had all traitorously betrayed them. " Which," 
said the laird of Grange elder — a man 
simple, and of most stout courage — " I am 
assured God will revenge, ere it be long." 
The galleys, well furnished with the spoil 
of the castle foresaid, after certain days re- 
turned to France ; and escaping a great 
danger — for, upon the back of the sands 
they all chopped — they arrived first at 
Fecamp, and thereafter passed up the water 
of Seine, and lay before Rouen ; where the 
principal gentlemen, who looked for free- 
dom, were dispersed, and put in sundry 
prisons ; the rest were left in the galleys, 
and there miserably entreated, amongst 
whom the foresaid Mr James Balfour was, 
with his two brethren, David and Gilbert, 
men without God ; which we -write, be- 
cause we hear that the said Mr James, 
principal misguider now of Scotland, denies 
that he had any thing to do with the castle 
of St Andrews, or yet that ever he was in 
the galleys. Then was the joy of the 
papists, both in Scotland and France, even 
in full perfection, for this was their song of 
triumph : 

Priests content you now, priests content you now ; 
For Norman and his company have filled the galleys Imi. 

The pope wrote his letters to the king of 
France, and so did he to the governor of 
Scotland, thanking them heartily for taking 
pains to revenge the death of his kind crea- 
ture the cardinal of Scotland; desiring them 
to continue in their begun severity, that 
such things after should not be attempted ; 
and so were all those that Mere depre- 

i hended in the castle, damned to perpetual 
prison: and, so judged the ungodly, that after 

j that in Scotland should Christ Jesus never 



72 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1547 



have triumphed. One thing we cannot 
pass by, from Scotland was sent a famous 
clerk — laugh not reader — Mr John Hamil- 
ton of Millburn, with credit to the king- of 
France, and unto the cardinal of Lorraine, 
and yet had neither French nor Latin, and 
some say his Scotish tongue was not very 
good. The sum of all his negotiation was, 
that those of the castle should be sharply 
handled ; in which suit he was heard with 
favours, and was despatched from the court 
of France with letters, and great credit, 
which that famous clerk forgot by the way ; 
for he passing up to the craig of Dumbarton, 
before his letters were delivered, he broke 
his neck ; and so God took away a proud 
ignorant enemy. But now to our history. 
These things against promise — but princes 
have no fidelity farther than for their own 
advantage — done at Rouen, the galleys de- 
parted to Nantes, in Brittany, where upon 
the water of Loire they lay the whole 
winter. 

In Scotland that summer was nothing but 
mirth ; for all went with the priests at their 
own pleasure. The castle of St Andrews 
was rased to the ground, the block-house 
thereof cast down, and the walls round 
about demolished. Whether this was to 
fulfil their law, which commands places 
where cardinals are slain so to be used ; or 
else for fear that England should have taken 
it, as after they did Broughty craig, we re- 
mit it to the judgment of such as were of 
council. 

The same year, in the beginning of Sep- 
tember, entered into Scotland an army of 
ten thousand men from England, by land, 
and some ships with ordnance came by 
sea. The governor and the bishop, hereof 
advertised, gathered together the forces of 
Scotland, and assembled at Edinburgh. The 
protector of England, with the earl of War- 
wick, and their army, remained at Preston, 
and about Prestonpans : for they had cer- 
tain offers to be proponed unto the nobility 
of Scotland, concerning the promise before 
made by them, unto the which king Henry 
before his death gently required them to 
stand fast ; and if they so would do, of him 
nor of his realm they should have no 
trouble, but the help and the comfort that 



he could make them in all things lawful. 
And hereupon was there a letter direct 
unto the governor and council, which 
coming to the hands of the bishop of St 
Andrews, he thought it could not be for his 
advantage that it should be divulged ; and, 
therefore, by his craft it was suppressed. 

Upon the Friday the seventh of Septem- 
ber, the English army marched towards 
Leith, and the Scotish army marched from 
Edinburgh to Inveresk. The whole Scotish 
army was not assembled, and yet the skir- 
mishing began, for nothing was concluded 
but victory without stroke. The protector, 
the earl of Warwick, the lord Grey, and all 
the English captains, were playing at dice : 
no men were stouter nor [than] the priests 
and canons, with their shaven crowns and 
black jacks. The earl of Warwick and the 
lord Grey, who had the chief charge of the 
horsemen, perceiving the host to be molest- 
ed with the Scotish preachers, and knowing 
that the multitude were neither under or- 
der nor obedience, — for they were divided 
from the great army, — sent forth certain 
troops of horsemen, and some of their bor- 
derers, either to fight them, or else to put 
them out of their sight, so that they might 
not annoy the host. The skirmish grew 
hot, and at length the Scotsmen gave 
way, and fled without gane- turn [rally- 
ing]. The chase continued far, both to- 
wards the east and towards the west ; in 
the which many were slain, and he that 
now is lord Home was taken, which was 
the occasion that the castle of Home was 
after rendered to the Englishmen. The loss 
of these men neither moved the governor 
nor yet the bishop, his bastard brother ; they 
should revenge the matter well enough upon 
the morn, for they were hands anew ; no 
word of God; the English heretics they 
had no faces, * they would not abide. 

Upon the Saturday, the armies of both 
sides passed to array. The English army 
takes the middle part of Faside hill, having 
their ordnance planted before them, and 
having their ships and two galleys brought 
as near the land as water would serve. 
The Scotish army stood first in a reasonable 



* Durst not show their faces. 



Kook 1.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



73 



strength and good order, having betwixt 
them and the English army the water of 
Esk, otherwise called Musselburgh water. 
But at length a charge was given in the go- 
vernor's behalf, with sound of trumpet, that 
all men should march forward, and go over 
the water. Some say, that this was pro- 
cured by the abbot of Dunfermline, and Mr 
Hugh Rigg, for preservation of Carberry. 
Men of judgment liked not the journey ; 
for they thought it no wisdom to leave 
their strength. But commandment upon 
commandment, and charge upon charge was 
given, which urged them so, that unwil- 
lingly they obeyed. The earl of Angus be- 
ing in the vanguard, had in his company 
the gentlemen of Fife, Angus, Mearns, and 
the west land, with many others that of 
love resorted unto him, and especially those 
that were professors of the evangel; for 
they supposed that England would not 
have made great pursuit of him. He passed 
first through the water, and arrayed his 
host direct before the enemies. Follow- 
ed the earl of Huntly, with his north- 
land men. Last came the duke, having 
in his company the earl of Argyle, with 
his own friends, and the body of the 
realm. The Englishmen perceiving the 
danger, and how that the Scotsmen in- 
tended to have taken the top of the hill, 
made haste to prevent the peril. The lord 
Grey was commanded to give the charge 
with his men of arms, which he did, albeit 
the army [hazard, sup. copy] was very un- 
likely ; for the earl of Angus's host stood 
even as a wall, and received the first assault- 
ers upon the points of their spears — which 
were longer than those of the Englishmen 
— so rudely, that fifty horse and men of the 
first rank lay dead at once, without any 
hurt done to the Scotish army, except that 
the spears of the former two ranks were 
broken; which discomfiture received, the 
rest of the horsemen fled ; yea, some pass- 
ed beyond Faside hill. The lord Grey him- 
self was hurt in the mouth, and plainly de- 
nied to charge again; for he said, " It is 
alike to run against a wail." The galleys 
and the ships — and so did the ordnance 
planted upon the middle hill — shot terribly; 
but the ordnance of the galleys shooting 



alongst the Scotish army frayed them gret- 
tumlie [dreadfully]; and while that every 
man labours to draw from the north, from 
whence the danger appeared, they begin to 
reel, and with that were the English foot- 
men marching forward, albeit some of their 
horsemen were upon the llight. The earl 
of Angus's army stood still, looking that 
either the earl of Huntly, or the duke, 
should have rencountered the next battle ; 
but they had decreed, that the favourers of 
England, and the heretics — as the priests 
called them — and the Englishmen should 
part it betwixt them for that day. 

The fear rises, and at an instant they 
which before were victors, and were not 
yet assaulted with any force, except with 
ordnance, as said is, cast from them their 
spears and fled ; so that God's power was 
so evidently seen, that in one moment, yea, 
at an instant time, both the armies were 
flying. The shout came from the hill, from 
those that hoped no victory upon the English 
part; the shout rises, we say, " They fly, 
they fly ;" but at the first it could not be 
believed, till at the last it was clearly seen, 
that all had given back, and then began the 
cruel slaughter, which w r as greater by rea- 
son of the late displeasure of the men of 
arms. The chase and slaughter lasted till 
near Edinburgh upon the one part, and by 
west Dalkeith upon the other. 

The number of slain upon the Scotish 
side, was near ten thousand men judged. 
The earl of Huntly was taken and carried 
to London; but he relieved himself, being- 
surety for many ransoms, honestly or un- 
honestly we know not, but as the bruit 
w as, he used policy with England. In that 
same battle was slain the master of Erskine, 
dearly beloved of the queen, for whom she 
made great lamentation, and bore his death 
many days in mind. When the certainty 
of the discomfiture came, she was in Edin- 
burgh, abiding upon tidings; but with ex- 
pedition she posted that same night to Stir- 
ling, with Monsieur d'Oysel, who was as 
lleyed [frightened] as " a fox when his hole 
is smoked." And thus did God take the 
second revenge upon the perjured governor, 
with such as assisted him to defend an un- 
just quarrel ; albeit many innocents fell 

K 



74 



HISTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1548 



among the midst of the wicked. The Eng- i 
lish army came to Leith, and there taking 
order with their prisoners and spoil, they 
returned with this victory, which they look- 
ed not for, to England. That winter follow- 
ing were great herships made upon all the 
borders of Scotland, Broughty craig was ta- 
ken by the Englishmen, besieged by the go- 
vernor, but still kept ; and at it was slain 
Gavin, the best of the Hamiltons, and the 
ordnance left. Whereupon the Englishmen 
encouraged, began to fortify upon the hill 
above Broughty house, which was called 
the fort of Broughty, and was very noisome 
to Duudee, which it burnt and laid waste ; 
and so did it the most part of Angus that 
was not assured, and under friendship with 
them. 

That lantran [lent] following was Had- 
dington fortified by the Englishmen : the 
most part of Lothian, from Edinburgh east, 
was either assured or laid waste. Thus 
did God plague in every quarter ; but men 
were blind, and would not, nor could not 
consider the cause. The lairds Ormiston 
and Brunstan were banished, and after for- 
feited, and so were all those of the castle 
of St Andrews. The sure knowledge of 
the troubles of Scotland coming to France, 
there were prepared a navy and army. The 
navy was such as never was seen to come 
from France for the support of Scotland ; 
for besides the galleys, being then twenty- 
two in number, they had threescore great 
ships, besides victuallers. How soon soever 
they took the plain seas, the red lion of 
Scotland was displayed, and they holden as 
rebels unto France, — such policy is no false- 
hood in princes, — for good peace stood be- 
twixt France and England — and the king 
of France approved nothing that they did. 
The chief men to whom the conducting of 
that army was committed, were Monsieur 
Dandelote, Monsieur de Termes, and Pierre 
de Strois. Tn their journey they made some 
herships upon the coast of England, but it 
was not great. They arrived in Scotland 
in May anno 15-19. * The galleys did visit 
the fort of Broughty, but did no more at that 
time. Preparations were made for the siege 

* Both Spotswood and Buchanan make it 
1548, and they are evidently right Ed. 



of Haddington, but it was another thing 
that they meant, as the issue declared. 
The whole body of the realm assembled, 
the form of a parliament was set to be 
holden there, to wit, in the abbey of Had- 
dington. The principal head was the mar- 
riage of the princess — by them before con- 
tracted to king Edward — to the king of 
France, and of her present delivery, by rea- 
son of the danger that she stood into, by 
the invasion of our old enemies of England. 
Some were corrupted with buds [bribes], 
some deceived by flattering promises, and 
some for fear were compelled to consent ; 
for the French soldiers were the officers of 
arms in that parliament. The laird of Buc- 
cleugh, a bloody man, with many God's 
wounds, swore, " They that would not con- 
sent should do war [worse.]" The governor 
got the dukedom of Chatelherault, with the 
order of the Cockle, with a full discharge of 
all intromissions with king James the Fifth, 
his treasure and substance whatsoever, with 
possession of the castle of Dumbarton, till 
that issue should be seen of the queen's 
body. With those and other conditions 
stood he content to sell his sovereign forth 
of his own hands, which in the end will be 
his destruction ; God thereby punishing his 
former wickedness, if speedy repentance 
prevent not God's judgments, which we 
heartily wish. Huntly, Argyle, and Angus, 
were likewise made knights of the Cockle ; 
and for that and other good deeds received, 
they sold also their part. Shortly, none 
was found to resist that unjust demand. 
And so was she sold to go to France, to the 
end that in her youth she should drink of 
that liquor that should remain with her all 
her lifetime, for a plague to this realm, and 
for her final destruction. And therefore, 
albeit that now a fire comes out from her 
that consumes many, let no man wonder, 
she is God's hand, in his displeasure pu- 
nishing our former ingratitude. Let men 
patiently abide, and turn unto their God, 
and then shall he either destroy that whore 
in her whoredom, or else he shall put it in 
the hearts of a multitude to take the same 
vengeance upon her that has been taken of 
Jesebel and Athalia, yea, and of others of 
whom profane histories make mention ; for 



OF RELIGION 

greater abomination was never in the na- j 
ture of any woman than is in her, whereof 
we have but seen only the buds, but we 
will after taste of the ripe fruit of her im- 
piety, if God cut not her days short. * But 
to return to our histoiy. 

This conclusion taken, that our queen, 
but [without] farther delay, should be deli- 
vered to France, the siege continues : great 
shooting, but no assaulting, and yet they 
had fair occasion offered unto them ; for 
the Englishmen approaching to the town, 
for the comforting of the besieged, with 
powder, victuals, and men, lost an army of 
six thousand men. Sir Robert Bowes was 
taken, and the most part of the borderers 
were either taken or slain. And so might 
the town justly have despaired of any far- 
ther succours to have been looked for : 



* As I mentioned in the introduction, this 
passage is omitted by David Buchanan, and he 
supplies its place by some reflections of his own 
in a less offensive style. I doubt if it be lawful, 
in any circumstances, for a christian to write 
or speak of his sovereign in such language as 
the above ; but Knox, and all the reforming mi- 
nisters, claimed the privilege of addressing their 
princes as the inspired prophets did the wicked 
kings of Israel and Judah ; and as they did so 
with equal hazard of their lives, we cannot doubt 
their sincerity, however much they were mis- 
taken in the principle. It was not long till Knox 
witnessed the deliverance for which he here so 
strongly expressed his desire. In the margin of 
the London suppressed copy, opposite this part 
of the paragraph, we have the following note : 
Perfice quod cepisti, mi Deus, propter tui nominis 
gloriam, \bth June, 1567 — Finish what thou hast 
begun, O my God, for the glory of thy name. 
This was exactly the time when Mary surren- 
dered herself to the nobles, at Carbery hill, 
rather than abide the event of a battle, finding 
that her followers had no heart to right for her. 
This was virtually the end of her reign, for she 
was thrown into prison, and soon compelled to 
resign the crown to her infant son. This note 
was no doubt written by Knox immediately on 
hearing of the event, for the manuscript of this 
first book was then in his own hands unfinished, 
being dated, as we have seen, near the beginning, 
156(3, and at the end 1563. I never saw this ex- 
pression of exultation on the fall of the queen, 
brought against Knox by any of the authors who 
accuse him of barbarity towards her. It existed 
only in the suppressed* copy of the book, which 
few persons have seen for two centuries at least; 
but having it thus brought to light, it will no 
doubt excite the clamour of many against " * the 



* In my account of cash received for building Knox's 
Monument, inl826, there is the following- entry: " A Royal 
Bank note, indorsed as follows ; « a matron's mite, for 
erecting at Glasgow a monument to the memory ol the 
great Reformer of Scotland, John Knox, from a lineal 



IN SCOTLAND. ?- r > 

but yet it held good, for the stout courage 
and prudent government of Sir James Wil- 
frid, general; who so encouraged the whole 
captains and soldiers, that they determined 
to die upon the walls. But, from the time 
that the Frenchmen had got the bone for 
the which the dog barked, the pursuit of 
the town was slow. The siege was raised, 
and she was convoyed by the west seas to 
France, with four galleys and some ships. 
And so the cardinal of Lorraine got her in 
his keeping ; a morsel, I assure you, meet 
for his own mouth. 

We omit many things that occurred in 
this time, as the sitting down of the ship 
called the Cardinal, the fairest ship in 
France, betwixt St Colme's Inch and Cra- 
mond, without any occasion, except negli- 
gence, for the day was fair, and the weather 



rude or rustic reformer," as some of his friends 
have called him. " O what a savage he must 
have been, thus to exult over the ruin of a beau- 
tiful and accomplished woman." Yes ; but un- 
fortunately for herself and the country, this 
woman was a queen ; who had ruined herself in 
the esteem of all the virtuous part of the king- 
dom ; who, in spite of the remonstrances of her 
best friends, married a married man, the mur- 
derer of her husband, affording a strong pre- 
sumption at least, that she had been accessory to 
the crime ; who was driving measures tending 
to the ruin of the commonwealth ; and when a 
nation is ruined, it is but poor consolation to re- 
flect that the author of their misery was beauti- 
ful. Knox had not imbibed the'slavish senti- 
ments inculcated by cardinal Wolsey, in the 
reign of Henry VIII., when he told the citizens 
of London, " It were better that some of you 
should lose your heads than that the king should 
want money." There are certain hyperloyal 
authors, who seem to reverse the maxim* of 
Caiaphas, and who would say, " It were bet- 
ter that the whole nation should perish, than 
that one should suffer, if that individual should 
be a king or a queen, however guilty." Knox 
certainly believed that sovereigns might law- 
fully be deposed, when they made their govern- 
ment oppressive and ruinous, and refused to 
be reclaimed ; and he rejoiced and gave thanks 
to God when Mary was removed. The princi- 
ple was admitted atid acted upon by the three 
kingdoms at the revolution in 16SS, and we have 
had no cause to repent of it. For the glory of 
God, and the good of his country, Knox would 
have sacrificed much more than the favour of a 
beautiful woman, and the good opinion of her 
admirers in all generations. — Ed. 



descendant Of that rustic apostle's grandfather, E. D. 
Knox, L.I.' " I do not know the ladv who made me 
this communication ; but if this should meet her eye, I 
hope she will not be offended by finding her name re- 
corded in her kinsman's great work.. -.Erf. 



76 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1549 



calm ; but, God would show, that the coun- 
try of Scotland can bear no cardinals. In 
this time also was there a combat betwixt 
the galleys and the English ships. They shot 
frankly awhile. An English ship took fire, 
or else the galleys had come short home ; 
and, as it was, they fled without mercy till 
that they were above St Colme's Inch. The 
captains left the galleys, and took a fort made 
upon the Inch for their defence ; but the 
English ships made no pursuit, except that 
they burnt the Cardinal where that she lay, 
and so the galleys and the galley men did 
both escape. 

Order was taken that, next September, 
some galleys should remain in Scotland, and 
that the rest should return to France, as 
that they did all, except one, that was ta- 
ken by an English ship — by an English 
ship only, we say — as that they were pass- 
ing betwixt Dover and Calais. 

That winter remained Monsieur de 
Termes in Scotland, with the bands of 
Frenchmen : they fortified Inveresk, to stay 
that the Englishmen should not invade 
Edinburgh and Leith. Some skirmishes 
there were betwixt the one and the other, 
but no notable thing done, except that the 
Frenchmen had almost taken Haddington ; 
the occasion whereof was this. 

The Frenchmen thinking themselves 
more than masters in all parts of Scotland, 
and in Edinburgh principally, thought they 
could do no wrong to a Scotsman ; for a 
certain Frenchman delivered a culverin to 
George Tod, Scotsman, to be stocked, who 
bringing it through the street, another 
Frenchman claimed it, and would have reft 
it from the said George, but he resisted, al- 
leging, that the Frenchman did wrong ; and 
so began parties to assemble, as well to the 
Scotsman as to the French ; so that two of 
the Frenchmen were struck down, and the 
rest chased, from the Cross to the Niddry 
Wynd head. The provost being upon the 
street, apprehended two of the Frenchmen, 
and was carrying them to the tolbooth ; 
but from Monsieur d'Essies' lodging and 
close issued forth Frenchmen, to the num- 
ber of threescore persons, with drawn 
swords, and resisted the said provost. But 
yet the town assembling repulsed them, till 



I that they came to the Netherbow, and 
! there Monsieur la ChappelJ, with the whole 
bands of Frenchmen in arms, rencountered 
the provost, and violently repulsed him, — 
for the town was without weapons for the 
most part, — and made invasion upon all that 
they met. And first in the throat of the 
Bow were slain, David Kirk and David 
Barbour, being at the provost's back, and 
thereafter were slain the said provost him- 
self, being laird of Stenhouse and captain 
of the castle, James Hamilton his son, Wil- 
liam Chapman, a godly man, Mr Walter 
Stewart, William Purves, and a woman 
named Elizabeth Stewart; and thereafter 
tarried within the town by force, from five 
hours, till after seven at night, and then re- 
tired to their Canongate, as to their recepta- 
cle and refuge. 

The whole town, yea, the governor and no- 
bility, commoved at the unworthiness of this 
bold attempt, craved justice upon the male- 
factors, or else they would take justice of 
the whole. The queen crafty enough, 
Monsieur de Essies, and Monsieur d'Oysel, 
laboured for pacification, and did promise, 
" That, unless the Frenchmen, by themselves 
alone, should do such an act as might re- 
compense the wrong that they had done, 
that then they should not refuse, but that 
justice should be executed upon them to 
the rigour." These fair words pleased our 
fools, and so were the French bands the 
next night directed to Haddington, to the 
which they approached a little after mid- 
night, so secretly, that they were never 
espied, till that the former were within 
the bass court, a.nd the whole company in 
the church-yard, not two pair of butt's 
[ridges, or bowshots] length distant from 
! the town. The English soldiers were all 
asleep, except the watch, which was slender, 
and yet the shout rises, " Bows and bills ! 
Bows and bills!" which is a signification 
of extreme defence, to avoid the present 
danger, in all towns of war. The afraid 
I arise, weapons that first came to hand 
! serve for the need. One amongst many 
came to the east port, where lay two great 
pieces of ordnance, and where the enemies 
were known to be, and cries to his fellows 
j that were at the gate making defence, 



Rook ].] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



7 7 



Beware before ;" and so fires a great piece, 
and thereafter another, which God so con- 
ducted, that after them was no farther pur- 
suit made ; for the bullets rebounded from 
the wall of the Friar kirk, to the wall of St 
Catherine's chapel, which stood direct for- 
nent it, and from the wall of the said cha- 
pel to the wall of the said kirk again, so 
oft that there fell more than one hundred 
of the Frenchmen at these two shots only. 
They shot often, but the Frenchmen retired 
with diligence, and returned to Edinburgh, 
without harm done, except the destruction 
of some drinking beer, which lay in the 
said chapel and kirk ; and this was satisfac- 
tion more than enough for the slaughter of 
the said captain and provost, and for the 
slaughter of such as were slain with him. | 
This was the beginning of the French 
fruits. 

This winter, in the time of Christmas, 
was the castle of Home recovered from the 
Englishmen, by the negligence of the 
captain, named Dudley. This winter also 
did the laird of Raith most innocently 
suffer, and after was forfeited, because that 
he wrote a bill to his son, John Melvin, 
who then was in England, which was al- 
leged to have been found in the house of 
Ormiston; but many suspected the pauks 
[artifice] and craft of Ninian Cockburn, 
now called captain Ringan, to whom 
the said letter was delivered ; but how- 
soever it was, these cruel beasts, the 
bishop of St Andrews and abbot of Dun- 
fermline, ceased not, till that the head 
of the said nobleman was stricken from 
him ; especially because that he was known 
to be one that unfeignedly favoured the 
truth of God's word, and was a great friend 
to those that were in the castle of St An- 
drews ; of whose deliverance, and of God's 
wondrous working with them during the 
time of their bondage, we must now speak, 
lest that in suppressing so notable a work 
of God, we might justly be accused of in- 
gratitude. 



* On this subject DrM'Crie furnishes the fol- 
lowing information. " Henry Balnaves of Hal- 
hill, composed in prison a Treatise on Justifica- 
tion, ami the works and conversation of a justified 
man. This being conveyed to Knox, probably 



And, first, the principals being put in 
sundry houses, as before we have said, great 
labours were made to make them have a 
good opinion of the mass, but chiefly travail 
was taken upon Norman Leslie, the laird of 
Grange, and the laird of Pitmilly, who were 
in the castle of Sherburgh, that they 
would come to the mass with the captain 
who answered, " That the captain had com- 
mandment to keep their bodies, but he had 
no power to command their consciences." 
The captain replied, " That he had power 
to command and to compel them to go 
where he went." They answered, " That 
to go to any lawful place with him, they 
would not refuse ; but to do any thing, 
which was against their conscience, they 
would not, neither for him, nor yet for the 
king." The captain said, " Will ye not go 
to the mass ?" They answered, " No ; and 
if ye would compel us, yet will we displease 
you farther ; for we shall so use ourselves 
there, that all those that are present shall 
know that we despise it." These same 
answers, and somewhat sharper, William 
Kirkaldy, Peter Carmichael, and such as 
were with them in Mont St Michael, gave 
to their captain ; for they said, " They 
would not only hear mass every day, but 
they would help to say it, providing that 
they might stick the priests, or else they 
would not." Mr Henry Balnaves, who 
was in the castle of Rouen, was most 
sharply assaulted of all; for because he 
was judged learned — as he was, and is, in- 
deed, — therefore, learned men were ap- 
pointed to travail with him, with whom 
he had many conflicts; hut God ever so 
assisted him, that they departed confound- 
ed, and he, by the power of God's spirit, re- 
mained constant in the truth and profession 
of the same, without any wavering or de- 
clining to idolatry. In the prison he wrote 
a most profitable treatise of justification, 
and of the works and conversation of a 
justified man ; but how it was suppressed 
we know not. v These that were in the 



after his second return in the galleys from Scot- 
land to France, he was so much pleased with it, 
that he divided it into chapters, added some 
marginal notes, and a concise epitome of its con- 
tents : to the whole he prefixed a recommends- 



78 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1548 



galleys were threatened with torments, if 
they would not give reverence to the mass; 
for at certain times the mass was said in 
the galleys, or else heard upon the shore 
in presence of the forsaris [the exiles], but 
they could never make the poorest of that 
company to give reverence to that idol ; 
yea, when upon the Saturday they sang 
their salve regina, the whole Scotsmen put 
on their caps, their hoods, or such things as 
they had to cover their heads; and when 
that others were compelled to kiss a paint- 
ed board, which they called ndtre dame 
[our lady], they were not pressed after 
once ; for this was the chance. Soon after 
their arrival at Nantes, their great salve 
was sung, and a glorious painted lady was 
brought in to be kissed, and, amongst others, 
was presented to one of the Scotsmen then 
chained * He gently said, " Trouble me 
not; such an idol is accursed; and, there- 
fore, I will not touch it." The patron, and 
the argousin [lieutenant], with two officers, 
having the chief charge of all such matters, 
said, " Thou shalt handle it." And so they 
violently thrust it to his face, and put it 
betwixt his hands, who seeing the extre- 
mity, took the idol, and advisedly looking 
about, he cast it in the river, and said, " Let 
our lady now save herself; she is light 
enough, let her learn to swim." After that 
was no Scotsman urged with that idolatry. 

These are things that appear to be of no 
great importance, and yet if we do rightly 
consider, they express the same obedience 
that God required of his people Israel, when 
that they should be carried to Babylon ; for 
he gave charge unto them, that when they 
should see the Babylonians worship their 
gods of gold, silver, metal, and wood, that 
they should say, " The gods that have not 



tory dedication, intending that it should be pub- 
lished for the use of their brethren in Scotland, 
as soon as an opportunity offered." He adds in 
a note : " The manuscript, there is reason to 
think, was conveyed to Scotland about this time, 
hut it fell aside, and was long considered as lost. 
After Knox's death, it was discovered by his 
servant, Richard Bannatyne, in the house of Or- 
miston, and was printed anno 1584, by Thomas 
Voultrollier, in l*2mo, with the title of Confes- 
sion of Faith, &c. by Henry Balnaves of Hal- 
hill, one of the Lords of Council and Session in 
Scotland. David Buchanan, in his edition of 



made the heavens find earth shall perish 
from the heaven, and out of the earth." 
That confession gave that whole number, 
during the time of their bondage: in the 
which, would God they had continued in 
their freedom ; for then had not Mr James 
Balfour been official, neither yet borne a cap, 
for pleasure of the bishop. But, to proceed, 
the said Mr James and John Knox being 
into one galley, and being wondrous fami- 
liar with him, would oft times ask his judg- 
ment, " If he thought that ever they should 
be delivered ?" whose answer was ever, 
from the day that they entered into the 
galleys, " That God would deliver them 
from that bondage, to his glory, even in this 
life." And lying betwixt Dundee and St 
Andrews, the second time that the galleys 
arrived to Scotland, the said John Knox 
being so extremely sick, that few hoped 
his life; the said master James willed him, 
to look to the land, and asked him, if he 
knew it ? Who answered, " Yes, I know 
it well ; for I see the steeple of that place, 
where God first opened my mouth in public 
to his glory, and I am fully persuaded, how 
weak that ever I now appear, that I shall 
not depart this life, till that my tongue shall 
glorify his godly name in the same place." 
This reported the said Mr James, in pre- 
sence of many famous witnesses, many 
years before that ever the said John set 
his foot in Scotland, this last time, to 
preach. 

William Kirkaldy, then of Grange, 
younger, Peter Carmichael, Robert and 
William Leslie, who were altogether in 
Mont St Michael, wrote to the said John, 
asking his counsel, " If they might with safe 
conscience break their prison ?" whose an- 
swer was, " That if without the blood of 



Knox's History, anno 1644, among his other al- 
terations and interpolations, makes Knox to say 
that this work was published at the time he 
wrote the history ; which may be numbered 
among the anachronisms of that edition, which, 
for sometime, discredited the authenticity of the 
history, and led many to deny that Knox was 
its author. But in the genuine edition Knox 
expresses the very reverse." See as above in the 
text— Ed. 

* This is generally believed to have been Knox 
himself. 



Book I.J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



79 



any shed, or spilt by them for their deliver- 
ance, they might set themselves at freedom, 
that they might safely take it ; but to shed 
any man's blood for their freedom, thereto 
he would never consent." Adding farther, 
" That he was assured that God would de- 
liver them and the rest of that company, 
even in the eyes of the world, but not by 
such means as we had looked for, that was 
by the force of friends, or by their other 
labours." By such means he affirmed they 
should not be delivered, but that God would 
work so in the deliverance of them, that 
the praise thereof should redound to his 
glory only ; he willed, therefore, that every 
one to take the occasion that God has offer- 
ed unto them, providing that they did no- 
thing against God's express commandment 
for the deliverance of themselves. He was 
the more earnest in giving his counsel, be- 
cause that the old laird of Grange, and 
others, repugned to their purpose, fearing 
lest that the escaping of the others should 
be an occasion of their worse entreatment ; 
whereunto the said John answered, " That 
such fear proceeded not from God's spirit, 
but from a blind love of the self; and, 
therefore, that no good purpose was to be 
stayed for things that were in the hands and 
power of God." And added, " That in one 
instant God had delivered all that company 
into the hands of unfaithful men, but so 
would he not relieve them, but some would 
he deliver by one means, and at one time, 
and others must abide for a season upon his 
good pleasure." This counsel in the end 
was embraced upon the king's even, when 
Frenchmen commonly used to drink libe- 
rally. The foresaid four persons having 
the help and conducting of a boy of the 
house, bound all those that were in the cas- 
tle, put them in sundry houses, locked the 
doors upon them, took the keys from the 
captain, and departed without harm done to 
the person of any, or without touching of 
any thing that appertained to the king, the 
captain, or the house. 

Great search was made through the whole 
country for them ; but it was God's good 
pleasure so to conduct them, that they es- 
caped the hands of the faithless, albeit it 
was with long travel, and great pain, and 



poverty sustained ; for the French boy left 
them, and took with [him] the small pose 
[privy purse, or secret hoard] that they bad ; 
and so neither having money, nor the 
knowledge of the country, and farther fear- 
ing lest the boy should describe them, as 
that in very deed he did, they took purpose 
to divide themselves, to change their gar- 
ments, and to go in sundry parts ; the two 
brethren, Kobert and William Leslie — who 
now are become, the said Robert especially, 
enemies to Jesus Christ and to all virtue — 
came to Rouen. William Kirkaldy and 
Peter Carmichael, in beggars' garments, came 
to Conquet, and by the space of twelve or 
thirteen w r eeks they travelled as poor ma- 
riners from port to port, till at length they 
got a French ship, and landed in the west, 
and from thence came to England, where 
they met before them the said John Knox, 
who that same winter was delivered, and 
Alexander Clerk in his company. 

The said John was first appointed preach- 
er to Berwick, then to Newcastle, last he 
was called to London, and to the south 
parts of England, where he remained to the 
death of king Edward the Sixth. When 
he left England, then passed he to Geneva, 
and there remained at his privy study, till 
that he was called by the English congre- 
gation that then were assembled at Frank- 
fort, to be preacher to them ; which voca- 
tion he obeyed, albeit unwillingly, at the 
commandment of that notable servant of 
God, John Calvin. At Frankfort he re- 
mained, till that some of the learned, Avhose 
names we suppress, more given to unprofit- 
able ceremonies than to sincerity of reli- 
gion, began to quarrel with the said John ; 
and because they despaired to prevail before 
the magistrate there, for the establishing of 
their corruptions, they accused him of trea- 
son committed against the emperor, and 
against their sovereign queen Mary, that in 
his admonition to England, he called the 
one little inferior to Nero, aud the other 
more cruel than Jesabel. The magistrate 
perceiving their malice, and fearing that 
the said John should fall in the hands of 
his accusators, by one mean or other gave 
advertisement secretly to him to depart 
their city ; for they could not save him if 



80 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1550 



lie were required by the emperor, or by the 
queen of England in the emperor's name ; 
and so the said John returned to Geneva, 
from thence to Dieppe, and thereafter to 
Scotland, as we shall after hear. 

The time, and [also] that winter, that the 
galleys remained in Scotland, were deliver- 
ed Mr James Balfour, his two brethren 
David and Gilbert, John Auchinleck, John 
Sibbald, John Gray, William Guthrie, and 
Stephen Bell. The gentlemen that remain- 
ed in prisons were, by the procurement of 
the queen dowager to the cardinal of Lor- 
raine and to the king of France, set at liberty 
in the month of July, anno 1550, who short- 
ly thereafter were called home to Scotland, 
their peace proclaimed, and they themselves 
restored to their lands, in despite of their 
enemies ; and that was done in hatred of 
the duke, because that then France had be- 
gun to thirst to have the regimen of Scot- 
land in their own hands. Howsoever it 
was, God made the hearts of their enemies 
to set them at liberty and freedom. There 
rested [remained] a number of common ser- 
vants yet in the galleys, who were all de- 
livered upon the contract of peace that was 
made betwixt France and England, after the 
taking of Boulogne ; and so was the whole 
company set at liberty, none perishing, no 
not before the world, except James Mel- 
vin, who departed from the misery of this 
life in the castle of Brest in Brittany. This 
we write to let the posterity to come un- 
derstand how potently God wrought, in 
preserving and delivering of those that had 
but a small knowledge of his truth, and for 
the love of the same hazarded all ; that if 
either we now in our days, having greater 
light, or our posterity that shall follow us, 
shall see a fearful dispersion of such as op- 
pone themselves to impiety, or take upon 
them to punish the same otherwise than 
laws of men will permit ; if we, I say, or 
they, shall see such left of men, yea, as it 
were, despised and punished of God, yet 
let us not condemn the persons that punish 
vice, and that for just cause ; nor yet de- 



spair but that the same God that dejects for 
causes unknown to us, will raise up again 
the persons dejected, to his glory and their 
comfort. And to let the world understand 
in plain terms what we mean, that great 
abuser of this commonwealth, that poltroon 
and vile knave Davie [David Rizzio], was 
justly punished the ninth of March in the 
| year of God 1565, for abusing of the com- 
j monwealth, and for his other villany * 
I which we list not to express, by the coun- 
| sel and hands of James Douglas earl of 
Morton, Patrick lord Lindsay, and the lord 
j Ruthven, with other assisters in their com- 
! pany, who all, for their just act, and most 
I worthy of all praise, are now unworthily left 
I of their brethren, and suffer the bitterness 
of banishment and exile. But this is our 
j hope in the mercies of our God, that this 
same blind generation, whether it will or 
not, shall be compelled to see that he will 
have respect to them that are unjustly pur- 
sued ; that he will pardon their former of- 
fences ; that he will restore them to the li- 
berty of their country and commonwealth 
again, and that he will punish, in despite of 
men, the head and the tail that now trouble 
the just, and maintain impieties. The head 
is known ; the tail has two branches : the 
temporal lords that maintain her abomina- 
tions, and her flattering counsellors, blas- 
phemous Balfour, now called clerk of re- 
gister, Sinclair dean of Restalrig and bishop 
of Brechin, blind of one eye in the body, 
but of both in the soul, upon whom God 
after shortly took vengeance, [John] Les- 
lie, priest's get [bastard] abbot of Lin- 
dores and bishop of Ross, Simon Preston 
of Craigmillar, a right epicurean, whose end 
will be, ere it be long, according to their 
works. But now to return to our his- 
tory. 

Haddington being kept, and much her- 
ship done about in the country — for what 
the Englishmen destroyed not, that was 
consumed by the Frenchmen — God begins 
to fight for Scotland ; for in the town he 
sent a pest so contagious, that with great 



In the suppressed copy this word is ren- is evidently the work of the printer, who mis- 
di-red William; and in the margin we have, took the word villaine for William. — Ed. 
" The slaughter of that William Davie." This I 



i 



Book I.J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



8 1 



difficulty could they have their dead buried. 
They were oft refreshed with new men, but 
all was in vain. Hunger and pest within, 
and the pursuit of the enemy, with a camp 
volant lay about them, and intercepted all 
victuals, except when they were brought 
by a convoy from Berwick, so constrained 
them that the council of England was com- 
pelled in spring time to call their forces 
from that place ; and so spoiling and burn- 
ing some part of the town, they left it to be 
occupied to such as first should take pos- 
session, and those were the Frenchmen, 
with a mean number of the ancient inhabi- 
tants : and so did God perform the words 
and threatening of Mr George Wishart, 
who said, " That for their contempt of 
God's messenger, they should be visited with 
sword and fire, with pestilence, strangers, 
and famine ; which all they found in such 
perfection, that to this day yet, that town 
has neither recovered the former beauty, 
nor yet men of such wisdom and ability, as 
then did inhabit it. 

Hereafter was peace contracted betwixt 
France, England, and Scotland ; yea, a seve- 
ral [separate] peace was contracted betwixt 
Scotland and Flanders, together with all the 
easterlings, so that Scotland had peace with 
the world. But yet would their bishops make 
war against God : for how soon that ever 
they got any quietness, they apprehended 
Adam Wallace— alias Fean — a simple man, 
without any great learning, but one that 
was zealous in godliness, and of an upright 
life. He, with his wife Beatrix Livingston, 
frequented the company of the lady Ormi- 
ston, for instruction of her children, during 
the trouble of her husband, who then was 
banished. This bastard, called bishop of 
St Andrews, took the said Adam forth of 
the place of Winton, men supposed that 
they thought to have apprehended the laird, 
and carried him to Edinburgh ; where after 
certain days he was presented to judgment 
in the kirk of the Black thieves, alias 
Friars, before the duke, the earl of Huntly, 
and divers others besides. The bishops and 
their rabble they began to accuse him — Mr 
John Lauder was accusator — " That he 
took upon him to preach." He answered, 
" That he never judged himself worthy of 



so excellent avocation, and, therefore, he 
never took upon him to preach ; but he 
would not deny, but sometimes at the 
table, and sometimes in some other private 
places, he would read and had road the 
scriptures, and had given such exhortation 
as God had pleased to give him, to such as 
pleased to hear him." " Knave," said one, 
" what have ye to do to meddle with the 
scriptures ?" " I think," said he, " it is the 
duty of every christian, to seek the will of 
his God, and the assurance of his salvation 
where it is to be found, and that is within 
his Old and New Testament " " What 
then," said another, " shall we leave to the 
bishops and kirkmen to do, if every man 
shall be a babbler upon the Bible ?" " It 
bindeth [becometh, s. c] you," said he, "to 
speak more reverently of God, and of his 
blessed word : if the judge were incorrupt, 
he would punish you for your blasphemy. 
But to your question, I answer, that albeit 
that ye and I, and other five thousand 
within this realm, should read the Bible, 
and speak of it what God should give us to 
speak, yet left we more to the bishops to 
do nor either they will or yet can well 
do ; for we leave to them publicly to 
preach the evangel of Jesus Christ, and to 
feed the flock which he hath redeemed by 
his own blood, and has commanded the 
same to the care of all true pastors : and 
when we leave this unto them, methinks, 
we leave to them a heavy burden ; and 
that we do unto them no wrong, although 
we search our own salvation where it is 
to be found, considering that they are but 
dumb dogs, and unsavoury salt that has al- 
together lost the season [savour]." The 
bishops hereat offended, said, "What prating 
is this ? let his accusation be read." And 
then was begun, " False traitor, heretic; 
thou baptizedst thy own bairn ; thou saidst, 
there is no purgatory ; thou saidst, that to 
pray to saints, and for the dead is idola- 
try, and a vain superstition, &c. What 
sayest thou to these things ?" He an- 
swered, " If I should be bound to answer, I 
would require an upright and indifferent 
judge." The earl of Huntly disdainfully 
said, " Foolish man, wilt thou desire any 
other judge nor my lord duke's grace, grear 
L 



82 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. Ib50 



governor of Scotland, and my lords the 
bishops, the clergy here present." Where- 
to he answered, " The bishops can be no 
judges to me, for they are open enemies to 
me, and to the doctrine that I profess; and 
as for my lord duke, I cannot tell if he has 
the knowledge that should be in him that 
should judge and decern betwixt lies and 
the truth, the invention of men and the true 
worshipping of God. I desire God's word 
— and with that he produced the Bible — to 
be judge betwixt the bishops and me, and 
I am content that ye all hear : and if by 
this book I shall be convicted to have 
taught, spoken, or done, in matters of reli- 
gion, any thing that repugns to God's will, 
I refuse not to die; but if I cannot be 
convicted — as I am assured by God's word 
I shall not — then I, in God's name, desire 
your assistance, that malicious men execute 
not upon me unjust tyranny." The earl of 
Huntly said, " What a bawling fool is this ? 
Thou shalt get none other judges than those 
that sit here." Whereunto the said Adam 
answered, " The good will of God be done : 
but be ye assured, my lord, with such mea- 
sure as ye mete to ethers, with the same 
measure it shall be measured to you again. 
I know that I shall die, but be ye assured, 
that my blood shall be required of your 
hands." 

Alexander, earl of Glencairn, yet alive, 
said to the bishop of Orkney, and others 
that sat near him, " Take you yon, my lords 
of the clergy, for here I protest, for my 
part, that I consent not to his death :" and 
so, without fear, prepared the said Adam to 
answer. And first to the baptizing of his 
own child, he said, " It was and is as 
lawful for me, for lack of a true minister, 
to baptize my own child, as that it was to 
Abraham to circumcise his son Ismael and 
his family ; and as for purgatory, praying 
to saints, and for the dead, I have oft read," 
said he, " both the Old and New Testa- 
ment, but I neither could find mention, nor 
assurance of them ; and, therefore, I believe 
they are but mere inventions of men, de- 
vised for covetousness' sake." " Well," 
said the bishop, " ye hear this, my lords." 
" What sayest thou of the mass ?" asks the 
earl of Huntly. He answered, " I say — 



my lord — as my Master Jesus Christ says, 
' That which is in greatest estimation before 
men, is abomination before God.' " Then 
all cried out, " Heresy, heresy ;" and so was 
the simple servant of God adjudged to the 
fire, which he patiently sustained that same 
day at afternoon upon the castle-hill And 
so began they again to pollute the land which 
God had lately plagued, for yet their 
iniquity was not come to so full ripeness, 
as that God would that they should be mani- 
fested to this whole realm, as this day they 
are, to be faggots prepared for the everlast- 
ing fire, and to be men whom neither plagues 
may correct, nor the light of God's word 
convert from their darkness and impiety. 

The peace, as said is, contracted, the 
queen dowager passed by sea to France, with 
galleys, that for that purpose were prepared, 
and took with her divers of the nobility of 
Scotland, to wit, the earls Huntly, Glen- 
cairn, Marshall, Cassillis, the lords Maxwell, 
Fleming, Sir George Douglas, together 
with all the king's sons, and divers barons, 
and gentlemen of ecclesiastical estate, the 
bishop of Galloway, and many others, with 
promise that they should be richly re- 
warded for their good service. What they 
received we cannot tell, but few made rus 
[boast] at their returning. The dowager 
had to practise somewhat with her brethren, 
the duke of Guise, and the cardinal of Lor- 
raine, the weight whereof the governor 
afterward felt: for shortly after her return- 
ing, was the governor deposed of the go- 
vernment, justly by God, but most unjustly 
by men, and she made regent in the year 
of God 1554 ; and a crown put upon her 
head, as seemly a sight, if men had eyes, as 
to put a saddle upon the back of an unruly 
cow ; and so began she to practise practices 
upon practices how France might be ad- 
vanced, her friends made rich, and she 
brought, to immortal glory : for that was her 
common talk, " So that I may procure the 
wealth and honour of my friends, and a 
good fame unto myself, I regard not what 
God do after with me." And in very deed, 
in deep dissimulation, to bring her own 
purpose to effect, she passed the common 
sort of women, as we will after hear ; but 
j yet God to whose evangel she declared her- 



Book 1.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



83 



self enemy, in the end frustrated her of all 
her devices. 

Thus did light and darkness strive with- 
in the realm of Scotland ; the darkness 
ever before the world suppressing the light, 
from the death of that notable servant of 
God, Mr Patrick Hamilton, until the death 
of Edward the Sixth, that most godly and 
virtuous king, that had been known to 
have reigned in England, or elsewhere, 
these many years bypast, who depart- 
ed the miseries of this life, the sixth of 
July, anno 1553. The death of the prince 
was lamented of all the godly within 
Europe, for the graces given unto him of 
God, as well of nature, as of erudition and 
godliness, passing the measure that accus- 
toraably used to be given to other princes 
in their greatest perfection, and yet ex- 
ceeded he not sixteen years of age. What 
gravity above age, what wisdom passing all 
understanding or expectation of men, and 
what dexterity in answering, in all things 
proponed, were into that excellent prince, 
the ambassadors of all countries, yea, some 
that Were mortal enemies unto him, and to 
his realm, amongst whom the queen dowa- 
ger of Scotland was not the least, could and 
did testify ; for the said queen dowager, re- 
turning from France, through England, 
communed with him at length, and gave 
record when she came to this realm, " That 
she found more wisdom and solid judgment 
in young king Edward, than she would 
have looked for in any three princes that 
were then in Europe." His liberality to- 
wards the godly and learned, that were in 
other realms persecuted, was such, as 
Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, Scots, 
Spaniards, Poles, Grecians, and Hebrews 
born, can yet give sufficient document ; for 
how honourably were Martin Luther, Peter 
Martyr, John Alasco, Emmanuel Gual- 
terus, and many others, upon his public 



* Of William Harlow, Dr M'Crie says, his 
" zeal and knowledge of the doctrines of the 
gospel compensated lor the defects of his educa- 
tion." " He had followed the trade of a tailor 
in the Canongate of Edinburgh. Episcopal 
writers have sometimes upbraided the Scotish 
church, as reformed by tradesmen and mecha- 
nics. They have however no reason to talk in 
this strain ; for a sensible religious tradesman is 
surely more qualified for communicating reli- 



stipends, entertained, their patents can 
witness; and they themselves during their 
lives would never have denied. 

After the death of this most virtuous 
prince, of whom the godless people of Eng- 
land, for the most part, was not worthy, 
Satan intended nothing less than the light 
of Jesus Christ utterly to have been extin- 
guished within the whole isle of Britain. 
For after him was raised up, in God's hot 
displeasure that idolatrous Jezebel, mischie- 
vous Mary of the Spaniard's blood ; a cruel 
persecutrix of God's people, as the acts of 
her unhappy reign can sufficiently witness. 
And into Scotland, that same time, as we 
have heard, reigned that crafty practiser, 
Mary of Lorraine, then named regent of 
Scotland ; who, bound to the devotion of 
her two brethren, the duke of Guise, and 
cardinal of Lorraine, did only abide the op- 
portunity to cut the throats of all those in 
whom she suspected any knowledge of God 
to be, within the realm of Scotland ; and 
so thought Satan, that his kingdom of 
darkness was in quietness and rest, as well 
in the one realm as in the other : but that 
provident eye of the eternal God, who 
continually watches for preservation of his 
church, did so dispose all things, that Satan 
short after found himself far disappointed of 
his conclusion taken : for in that cruel per- 
secution, used by that monster, Mary of 
England, were godly men dispersed in di- 
vers nations, of whom it pleased the good- 
ness of God to send some unto us, for 
our comfort and instruction. And, first, 
came a simple man, William Harlow,* 
whose erudition, although it excelled not, 
yet for his zeal, and diligent plainness in 
doctrine, is he to this day worthy of praise, 
and remains a fruitful member within the 
church of Scotland. After him came that 
notable man, John Willock,f as one that 
had some commission to the queen regent. 



gious instruction than an ignorant superstitious 
priest. Nay, the church' of England herself, 
after trying those of the latter class, was glad to 
betake herself to the former. Strype's Annals, 
i, 176, 177. William Harlow received deacon's 
orders from tin- English church, and so was no 
layman. Cald. MS. i, 25G." Life of Knox, 
1st ed. p. V21.—Ed. 

f John Willock "was a native of Ayrshire, 
and had worn the monastic habit ; but, at an 



84 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1555 



from the duchess of Embden; but his 
principal purpose was to assay what God 
would work by him in his native country. 
Those two did sometimes, in several com- 
panies, assemble the brethren, who by their 
exhortations began greatly to be encouraged, 
and did show, that they had an earnest 
thirst of godliness. And last, came John 
Knox, in the end of harvest, in the year of 
God 1555, who first being lodged in the 
house of that notable man of God, James 
Sym, began to exhort secretly in that 
same house, whereunto repaired the laird 
of Dun, David Forrest, and some certain 
personages of the town, amongst whom was 
Elizabeth Adamson, then spouse to James 
Barron, burgess of Edinburgh, who, by rea- 
son that she had a troubled conscience, 
delighted much in the company of the said 
John, because that he, according to the grace 
given unto him, opened more fully the foun- 
tains of God's mercies than did [the] com- 
mon sort of teachers that she had heard before 
— for she had heard none except friars — and 
did with such greediness drink thereof, that 
at her death she did express the fruit of her 
hearing, to the great comfort of all those that 
repaired to her ; for albeit that she suffered 
most grievous torment in her body, yet out 
of her mouth was heard nothing but prais- 
ing of God, except that sometimes she 
would lament the troubles of those that 
were troubled by her. Being sometimes de- 
manded by her sisters, " What she thought 
of that pain, which she then suffered in 
body, in respect of that wherewith she was 
sometimes troubled in spirit ?" she answer- 
ed, " A thousand years of this torment, and 
ten times more joined unto it, is not to be 
compared to the quarter of an hour that I 
suffered in my spirit. I thank my God, 
through Jesus Christ, that has delivered me 
from that most fearful pain ; and welcome be 



early period, he embraced the reformed opinions, 
and fled into England. During the severe per- 
secution for the six articles, he was, in 1541, 
thrown into the prison of the Fleet. He was 
afterwards chaplain to the duke of Suffolk, the 
father of lady Jane Grey ; and upon the acces- 
sion of queen Mary, he retired to East Fries- 
land." " Willock became afterwards the chief 
coadjutor of Knox, who entertained the highest 
affection and esteem for him. The union of 



this, even so long as it pleases his godly 
majesty to exercise me therewith." A lit- 
tle before her departure, she desired her 
sisters, and some others that were beside 
her, to sing a psalm, and among others she ap- 
pointed the ciii. psalm, beginning, " My soul, 
praise thou the Lord always," which ended, 
she said, " At the teaching of this psalm, 
began my troubled soul first effectually to 
taste of the mercy of my God, which now 
to me is more sweet and precious than [if] 
all the kingdoms of the earth were given 
unto me, to possess them a thousand years." 
The priests urged her with their ceremo- 
nies and superstitions; to whom she an- 
swered, " Depart from me, ye servants o£ 
Satan ; for I have refused, and in your 
own presence do refuse, all your abomina- 
tions ; that which ye call your sacrament, 
and Christ's body, as ye have deceived us 
to believe in times past, is nothing but an 
idol, and has nothing to do with the right 
institution of Jesus Christ ; and therefore, 
in God's name, I command you not to 
trouble me." They departed, alleging, " That 
she raved, and wist not what she said." And 
she shortly thereafter slept in the Lord 
Jesus, to no small comfort of those that 
saw her blessed departing. This we could 
not omit of this worthy woman, who gave 
so notable a confession, before that the 
great light of God's word did universally 
shine through this realm. 

At the first coming of the said John 
Knox, he perceiving divers who had a zeal 
to godliness make small scruple to go to 
the mass, or to communicate with the abus- 
ed sacraments in the papistical manner, be- 
gan as well in privy conference as in doc- 
trine, to show the impiety of the mass, and 
how dangerous a thing it was to communi- 
cate in any sort with idolatry ; wherewith 
the consciences of some being afraid, the 



their talents and peculiar qualities was of great 
advantage to the reformation. Willock was not 
inferior to Knox in learning ; and although he 
did not equal him in intrepidity and eloquence, 
he surpassed him in affability, prudence, and ad- 
dress ; by which means he was sometimes able 
to maintain his station, and accomplish his pur- 
poses when his colleague could not act with 
safety or success," Life of Knox, p. 127— Ed. 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGTON IN SCOTLAND. 



85 



matter began to be agitated from man to 
man, and so was the said John called to 
supper by the laird of Dun for that same 
purpose, where were convened David For- 
rest, Mr Robert Lockhart, John Willock, 
and William Maitland of Lethington, young- 
er, a man of learning, and of sharp wit and 
reasoning. The question was proponed, 
and it was answered by the said John, 
" That nowise it was lawful to a Christian 
to present himself to that idol." Nothing 
was omitted that might make for the tem- 
poriser, and yet was every head so fully 
answered, and especially one whereunto 
they thought their great defence stood, to 
wit, " That Paul, at the commandment of 
James, and of the elders of Jerusalem, pass- 
ed to the temple, and feigned himself to 
pay his vow with others." This, we say, 
and others were so fully answered, that 
William Maitland concluded, saying, " I see 
perfectly that our shifts will serve nothing 
before God, seeing they stand us in so small 
stead before men." The answer of John 
Knox to the fact of Paul, and to the com- 
mandment of James, was, " That Paul's 
fact had nothing to do with their going to 
the mass ; for to pay vows was sometimes 
God's commandment, and was never idola- 
try; but their mass, from the original, was 
and remained odious idolatry; therefore 
the fact was most unlike." Secondly, said 
he, " I greatly doubt whether either James' 
commandment or Paul's obedience pro- 
ceeded from the Holy Ghost. We know 
their counsel tended to this, that Paul 
should show himself one that observed 
[the] very small points of the law, to the end 
that he might purchase to him the favours 
of the Jews, who were offended at him by 
reason of the bruits that were sparsed [cir- 
culated], that he taught defection from 
Moses. Now, while he obeyed their coun- 
sel, he fell into the most desperate danger 
that ever he sustained before, whereof it 
was evident, that God approved not that 
mean of reconciliation, but rather that he 
plainly declared, that evil should not be 
clone that good might come of it. Evil it 
was to Paul to confirm those obstinate Jews 
in their superstition by his example ; worse 
it was to him to exponc himself, and the 



doctrine which before he had taught to 
slander and mockage ; and therefore," con- 
cluded the said John, " that the fact of 
Paul, and the sequel that thereof followed, 
appeared rather to fight against them that 
would go to the mass, than to give unto 
them any assurance to follow his example, 
unless that they would that the like trouble 
should instantly apprehend them that ap- 
prehended him, for obeying worldly wise 
counsel." After these and like reasonings, 
the mass began to be abhorred of such as 
before used it for the fashion, and avoiding 
of slander, as then they termed it. 

John Knox, at the request of the laird of 
Dun, followed him to his place of Dun, 
where he remained a month, daily exercised 
in doctrine, whereunto resorted the princi- 
pal men of that country. After his return- 
ing, his residence was most in Calder, 
where repaired unto him the lord Erskine, 
that now is, the earl of Argyle, then lord of 
Lorn, and lord James, then prior of St An- 
drews, and now earl of Murray, where they 
heard, and so approved his doctrine, that 
they wished it to have been public. That 
same winter he taught commonly in Edin- 
burgh ; and after the Yule, by the conduct 
of the laird of Bar, and Robert Campbell 
of Kingeancleuch, he came to Kyle, and 
taught in the Bar, in the house of the Car- 
nell in the Kingeancleuch, in the town of 
Ayr, and in the house of Ochiltree and 
Gargirth ; and in some of them ministered 
the Lord's table. Before the Pasch the 
earl of Glencairn sent for him to his place 
of Finlayston, where, after doctrine, he also 
ministered the Lord's table; whereof, besides 
himself, were partakers his lady, two of his 
sons, and certain of his friends : and so re- 
turned he to Calder, where divers from 
Edinburgh, and from the country about, 
convened, as well for the doctrine as for 
the right use of the Lord's table, which be- 
fore they had never practised. From thence 
he departed the second time to the laird of 
Dun ; and teaching then in greater liberty, 
the gentlemen required that he should mi- 
nister the table of the Lord Jesus likewise 
unto them, whereof were partakers the 
most part of the gentlemen of the Mearns, 
who — God be praised — to this day do con- 



86 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1555 



stantly remain in the same doctrine which 
then they professed, to wit, that they re- 
fused all society with idolatry, and bound 
themselves to the uttermost of their power 
to maintain the true preaching of the evan- 
gel of Jesus Christ, as God should offer 
unto them preachers and opportunity. 

The bruit hereof sparsed [spread], — for 
the friars from all quarters flocked to the 
bishops, — the said John Knox was sum- 
moned to compear in the kirk of the Black- 
friars in Edinburgh, the loth day of May, 
which day the said John decreed to keep, 
and for that purpose John Erskine of Dun, 
with divers other gentlemen convened to 
the town of Edinburgh. But that diet held 
not. For whether that the bishops per- 
ceived informality in their own proceed- 
ings, or if they feared danger to ensue upon 
their extremity, it is unknown unto us : 
but the Saturday before the day appointed, 
they cast their own summons ; and the said 
John, the same day of the summons, taught 
in Edinburgh, in a greater audience than 
ever before he had done in that town ; the 
place was the bishop of Dunkeld his great 
lodging, where he continued in doctrine ten 
days, both before and afternoon. The earl 
of Glencairn allured the earl of Marshall, 
who with Henry Drummond his counsel- 
lor for that time, heard an exhortation, but 
it was upon the night, who were so well 
contented with it, that they both willed the 
said John to write unto the queen regent 
somewhat that might move her to hear the 
word of God. He obeyed their desire, and 
wrote that which after was imprinted, and 
is called, " The letter to the queen dowa- 
ger," which was delivered unto her own 
hands by the said Alexander earl of Glen- 
cairn : which letter, when she had read, 
within a day or two, she delivered it to that 
proud prelate Beaton, bishop of Glasgow, 
and said in mockage, " Please you my lord 
to read a pasquil;" which words coming 
to the ears of the said John, were the oc- 
casion that to his letter he made his addi- 
tions, as yet may be seen. As concerning 
the threatenings pronounced against her 



* The latter part of this sentence is wanting 
in Mr B.'s edition, but the Paisley one has it 



own person, and the most principal of her 
friends, let their very flatterers see what 
had failed of all that he has written ; and 
therefore it were expedient that her daugh- 
ter, now mischievously reigning, should 
look to that which hath passed before, lest 
that in following the counsels of the wicked, 
she end more miserably than her crafty 
mother did. * 

While John Knox was thus occupied in 
Scotland, letters came unto him from the 
English kirk that was assembled at Gene- 
va, which was separated from that super- 
stitious and contentious company that were 
at Frankfort, commanding him in God's 
name, as he that was their chosen pastor, 
to repair unto them for their comfort. 
Upon the which the said John took his 
leave from us, almost in every congregation 
where before he had preached, and exhort- 
ed us to prayers, to reading of the scrip- 
tures, and mutual conference, until such 
time as God should give unto us greater li- 
berty. And hereupon he sent before him 
to Dieppe, his mother-in-law, Elizabeth 
Bowes, and his wife Marjory, with no 
small dolor to their hearts, and to many of 
us. He himself, by procurement and la- 
bours of Robert Campbell of Kingean- 
cleuch, remained behind in Scotland, and 
passed to the old earl of Argyle, who then 
was in the castle of Campbell, where he 
taught certain days. The laird of Glenor- 
chy, which yet liveth, being one of his au- 
ditors, willed the said earl of Argyle to re- 
tain him still ; but he, purposed upon his 
journey, would not at that time stay for no 
request, adding, " That if God so blessed 
these small beginnings, that they continued 
in godliness, whensoever they pleased to 
command him, they should find him obe- 
dient ; but," he said, " that once he must 
needs visit that little flock which the wick- 
edness of men had compelled him to leave:" 
and so in the month of July he left this 
realm, and passed to France, and so to Ge- 
neva. Immediately after, the bishops sum- 
moned him, and for non-compearance, burnt 
him in effigy at the cross of Edinburgh, in 



entire. It is also in the suppressed copy, and 
the Edinburgh edition of 171)5. — Ed. 



Book I.J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



87 



the year of God 1555 ; from the which un- 
just sentence the said John made his appel- 
lation, and caused to print the same, and 
directed it to the nobility and commons 
within Scotland, as yet may be read. 

In the winter that the said John abode 
in Scotland, appeared a comet, the course 
whereof was from the south and south west, 
to the north and north east. It was seen 
in the months of November, December, 
and January ; it was called, " the fiery 
besom/' Soon after died Christian, king 
of Denmark, and war arose betwixt Scot- 
land and England ; for the commissioners 
of both realms, who almost the space of 
six months entreated upon the conditions 
of peace, and were upon a near point of 
conclusion, were disappointed. The queen 
regent, with her council of the French fac- 
tion, decreed war at Newbattle, without 
giving any advertisement to the commis- 
sioners for the part of Scotland. Such is 
the fidelity of princes, guided by priests, 
whensoever they seek their own affections 
to be served. 

In the end of that next harvest Avas seen 
upon the borders of England and Scotland 
a strange fire, which descended from the 
heaven, and burned divers corns in both 
the realms, but most in England. There 
was presented to the queen regent, by Ro- 
bert Ormiston, a calf having two heads, 
whereat she scorped [derided], and said, " It 
was but a common thing." The war began 
in the end of harvest, as said is, and 
conclusion was taken that Wark should 
be assieged : the army and ordnance 
passed forward to Maxwell Heugh. The 
queen regent remained in the castle of 
Home, and thinking that all things were 
in assurance, Monsieur d'Oysel, then lieu- 
tenant for France, gave charge that the can- 
nons should be transported over the water 
of Tweed, which was done with expedition, 
for the Frenchmen in such facts are expert; 
but the nobility of Scotland nothing con- 
tent with such proceedings, after consulta- 
tion amongst themselves, passed to the pa- 
vilion of Monsieur d'Oysel, and in his own 
face declared, " That in no ways would 
they invade England : and therefore com- 



manded the ordnance to .be retired : And 
that it was but [without] farther delay. 

This put an affray in Monsieur d Oysel's 
breeches, and kindled such a fire in the 
queen regent's stomach, as was not well 
slockened [quenched] till her breath failed : 
and thus was that enterprise frustrate. But 
yet war continued, during the which the 
evangel of Jesus Christ began wondrously 
to flourish; for in Edinburgh began pub- 
licly to exhort William Harlow : John 
Douglas, who had been with the earl of 
Argyle, preached in Leith, and sometimes 
exhorted in Edinburgh : Paul Meffan began 
to preach publicly in Dundee ; and so did 
divers others in Angus and the Mearns. 
And last, at God's good pleasure, arrived 
John Willock, the second time, from Em- 
den ; whose return was so joyful to the 
brethren, that their zeal and godly courage 
daily increased. And albeit he contracted 
a dangerous sickness, yet he ceased not 
from labours, but taught and exhorted from 
his bed : some of the nobility, — of whom 
some are fallen back, amongst whom the 
lord Seyton is chief, — with many barons 
and gentlemen, were his auditors, and by 
him were [the] godly instructed, and won- 
drously comforted. They kept their conven- 
tions, and held councils with such gravity 
and closeness, that the enemies trembled. 
The images were stolen away in all parts 
of the country ; and in Edinburgh was that 
great idol, called St Gile, first drowned in the 
North Loch, and after burnt, which raised 
no small trouble in the town; for the friars 
rouping [croaking] like ravens upon the 
bishops, the bishops ran upon the queen, who 
to them was favourable enough, but that 
she thought it could not stand with her ad- 
vantage to offend such a multitude as then 
took upon them the defence of the evangel, 
and the name of protestants. And yet con- 
sented she to summon the preachers : where- 
at the protestants neither offended, neither 
yet thereof afraid, determined to keep the 
day of summons, as that they did. Which 
perceived by the prelates and priests, they 
procured a proclamation to be publicly 
made, " That all men that were come to 
the town without the commandment of the 



88 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. r>. 155S 



authority, should with all diligence repair 
to the borders, and there remain fifteen 
days :" for the bishop of Galloway, in this 
manner of rhyme, said to the queen, 

Madam, because they are come without order, 
I red you send them to the border. 

Now so had God provided, that the quar- 
ter of the west land, in the which were 
many faithful men, was that same day re- 
turned from the borders ; who understand- 
ing 1 the matter to proceed from the malice 
of the priests, assembled themselves toge- 
ther, and made passage to themselves, till 
that they came to the very privy chamber, 
where the queen regent and the bishops 
were. The gentlemen began to complain 
upon their strange entertainment, consider- 
ing that her grace had found in them so 
faithful obedience in all things lawful. 
While that the queen began to craft, a zea- 
lous and a bold man, James Chalmers of 
Gathgirth, said, " Madam, we know that 
this is the malice and device of these jef- 
wellis,* and of that bastard," meaning the 
bishop of St Andrews, " that stands by you. 
We avow to God we shall make a day of it. 
They oppress us and our tenants for feeding 
of their idle bellies : they trouble our 
preachers, and would murder them and us : 
Shall we suffer this any longer ? Nay, Ma- 
dam, it shall not be :" and therewith every 
man put on his steel bonnet. There was 
heard nothing of the queen's part, but, " My 
joys, my hearts, what aileth you ? Me 
means no evil to you, nor to your preachers : 
the bishops shall do you no wrong, ye are 
all my loving subjects ; me knows nothing 
of this proclamation ; the day of your 
preachers shall be discharged, and me will 
hear the controversy that is betwixt the 
bishops and you; they shall do you no 
wrong. My lords," said she to the bish- 
ops, " I forbid you either to trouble them 
or their preachers." And unto the gentle- 
men, who were wondrously commoved, she 
turned again and said, " O my hearts, 
should ye not love the Lord your God with 
all your heart, with all your mind ? and 



should ye not love your neighbours as your- 
selves ?" With these and the like fair words 
she kept the bishops from buffets at that 
time. 

And so the day of summons being dis- 
charged, began the brethren universally to 
be farther encouraged ; but yet could the 
bishops in no sort be quiet ; for St Gile's 
day approaching, they gave charge to the 
provost, bailies, and council of Edinburgh, 
either to get again the old St Gile, or else 
upon their expense to make a new image. 
The council answered, " That to them the 
charge appeared very unjust, for they under- 
stood that God in some places had com- 
manded idols and images to be destroyed ,• 
but where he had commanded images to be 
set up they had not read and desired the 
bishop to find a warrant for his command- 
ment. Whereat the bishop offended, ad- 
monished under pain of cursing, which they 
prevented by a formal appellation, appeal- 
ing from him, as from a partial and corrupt 
judge, unto the pope's holiness : and so 
greater things shortly following, that passed 
in oblivion. Yet would not the priests and 
friars cease to have that great solemnity and 
manifest abomination, which they accusto- 
mably had upon St Gile's day, to wit, they 
would have that idol borne; and, therefore, 
was all preparation duly made. A mar- 
morset idol was borrowed from the gray 
friars, — a silver piece of James Carmichael 
was laid in pledge— it was fast fixed with 
iron nails upon a barrow called their fertor 
[bier]. There assembled priests, friars, 
canons, and rotten papists, with tabours 
and trumpets, banners and bagpipes: and 
who was there to lead the ring, but the 
queen regent herself, with all her shavelings, 
for honour of that feast. West about goes 
it, and comes down the High Street, and 
down to the common cross. The queen 
regent dined that day in Alexander Car- 
penter's house betwixt the Bows, and so 
when the idol returned back again, she left 
it, and passed in to her dinner. The hearts 
of the brethren were wondrously inflamed, 



* A contemptuous expression, of which, says jevels." Johnson renders it "a wandering or 
Dr J., the proper meaning seems to be lost, dirty fellow." Sibbald, with much appearance 
It is one of the hard names used by Dunbar in of probability, derives it from the French Javio- 
his complaint: — " Fowl jow-jourdane-headed j leur. " a prating or chattering fellow." — Ed. 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



89 



and seeing: such abomination so manifestly 
maintained, were decreed [determined] to 
be reveng-ed. They were divided in several 
companies, whereof not one knew of an- 
other. There were some temporisers that 
day, amongst whom David Forrest, called 
the general, was one, who, fearing- the 
chance to be done as it fell, laboured to stay 
the brethren ; but that could not be ; for 
immediately after that the queen was en- 
tered in the lodging, some of those that 
were of the enterprise drew near to the 
idol, as willing to help to bear him, and 
getting the fertor [bier] upon their shoul- 
ders, began to shoulder [shove and drive 
one another], thinking that thereby the 
idol should have fallen; but that was 
provided and prevented by the iron nails, 
as we have said ; and so began one to cry, 
" Down with the idol, down with it ;" and 
so, without delay it was pulled down. 
Some brags [threatening reproofs] made the 
priests' patrons at the first ; but when they 
saw the feebleness of their god, for one 
took him by the heels, and dadding [strik- 
ing] his head to the causeway, left Dagon 
without head or hands, and said, " Fie upon 
thee, thou young St Gile, thy father would 
have tarried [endured] four such." This 
considered, we say, the priests and friars fled 
faster than they did at Pinkie Cleuch. 
There might have been seen so sudden a 
fray as seldom has been seen amongst that 
sort of men within this realm ; for down 
go the crosses, off go the surplices, round 
caps, coronets, with the crowns. The gray 
friars gaped, the black friars blew, and the 
priests panted and fled, and happy was he 
that first got the house ; for such a sudden 
fray came never amongst the generation of 
antichrist within this realm before. By 
chance there lay upon a stair a merry Eng- 
lishman ; and seeing the discomfiture to be 
without blood, thought he would add some 



* These broken sentences may have had a 
meaning in their day, though it does not seem to 
have been worth preserving. The wit and learn- 
ing of our clergy, in those days, seem to have 
been on a par with the maimers of our gentry, 
see note p. 62. Durie is one of the very few 
bishops for whom Keith has no epithet of com- 
mendation. His whole history is comprised in 
the following : " Andrew Durie, a son of the 
house of Durie in Fife, was made abbot of Mel- 



merriness to the matter: and so cried he 
over the stair, and said 1 , " Fie upon you, 
whores' sons, why have ye broken order ; 
down the street ye passed in array, and 
with great mirth : why fly ye, villains, now 
without order ? Turn and strike every one 
a stroke for the honour of his god ; fie, 
cowards, fie, ye shall never be judged 
worthy of your wages again." But exhorta- 
tions were then unprofitable ; for after that 
Bel had broken his neck, there was no 
comfort to his confused army. The queen 
regent laid up this amongst her other me- 
mentos, till that she might have seen the 
time proper to have revenged it. Search 
was made for the doers, but none could be 
deprehended; for the brethren assembled 
themselves in such sort, in companies, 
singing psalms, and praising God, that the 
proudest of the enemies were astonished. 

This tragedy of St Gile was so terrible 
to some papists, that Durie, sometimes 
called for his filthiness, abbot Stottikin, 
and then entitled, bishop of Galloway, left 
his rhyming, wherewith he was accustom- 
ed, and departed this life even as that lie 
lived. For the articles of his belief M ere, 
" I refer, decarte you. Ha, ha, the four 
kings and all made. The devil go with it- 
it is but a varlet. From France we thought 
to have gotten a ruby ; and yet it was no- 
thing but a cohubie."* And with such 
faith, and such prayers, departed out of 
this life that enemy of God, who had vow- 
ed and plainly said, " That in despite of God, 
so long as they that then were prelates 
lived, should that word, called the evan- 
gel, never be preached within this realm." 
After him followed that belly-god, Mr 
David Painter, called bishop of Ross, even 
with the like documents, except that he 
departed eating and drinking, which, to- 
gether with the rest that thereupon depend- 
ed, was the pastime of his life.f The 



rose, at least as early as September 24, \o'27. He 
came to be bishop of Galloway in 1541. He was 
bishop here, anno 1546. He is bishop and abbot 
of Melrose 1556. He died in the month ol Sep- 
tember, I55S." Knox's account of him is no 
doubt true, tor had there been the shadow of a 
good quality about him, Keith would have 
praised him. — Ed. 

f This prelate, according to Keith, was " a 
person of most polite education, and excellent 



90 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1558 



most part of the lords that were in France 
at the queen's marriage, although that they 
got their conge [leave] from the court yet 
they forgot to return to Scotland ; for whe- 
ther it was by an Italian posset, or by 
French figs, or by the pottage of their pot- 
tinger — he was a Frenchman — there depart- 
ed from this life, the earl of Cassillis, the 
earl of Rothes, lord Fleming, and the bishop 
of Orkney, whose end was even according 
to his life ; for after that he was driven 
back by a contrarious wind, and forced to 
land again at Dieppe, perceiving his sick- 
ness to increase, he caused make his bed 
betwixt his two coffers ; — some said upon 
them — such was his god, the gold that 
therein was enclosed, that he could not de- 
part therefrom, so long as memory would 
serve him. The- lord James, than prior of 
St Andrews, had, by all appearance, licked 
of the same buist [broth, or bruist, i. e. brew- 
ing] that despatched the rest, for thereof to 
this day his stomach does testify ; but God 
preserved him for a better purpose. This 
same lord James, now earl of Murray, and 
the said bishop were commonly at debate 
for matters of religion ; and, therefore, the 
said lord, hearing of the bishop's disease, 
came to visit him ; and finding him not so 
well at a point as he thought he should have 
been, and as the honour of the country re- 
quired, said unto him, " Fie, my lord, how 
lie you so ? Will ye not go to your chamber, 
and not lie here in this common house." 
His answer was. " I am well where I am, 
my lord, so long as I can tarry, for I am 
near unto my friends — meaning his coffers, 
and the gold therein ; — but, my lord," said 
he, " long have you and I been in plea for 
purgatory- I think that I shall know ere it 



parts." His life was occupied chiefly by politi- 
cal matters, at home and abroad ; but there is not 
the least hint of his possessing the qualifications 
requisite in a christian bishop. According to 
Knox, he was a good liver in the sensual mean- 
ing of the terms, which is quite consistent with 
the panegyric of his biographer. — Ed. 

* " Bishop Reid," for such was his name, 
says Keith, " was a man of great learning, and 
a most accomplished politician. This, no doubt, 
has been the reason of sending him one of the 
commissioners from Scotland into France, to 
witness the marriage of our young queen Mary 
with the dauphin, anno 1558 ; but. on his return, 
ho died at Dieppe, the 11th day of September that 



be long whether there be such a place or 
not." While the other did exhort him to 
call to mind the promise of God, and the 
virtue of Christ's death: he answered, 
" Nay, my lord, let me alone, for you and I 
never agreed in our life, and I think we 
shall not agree now at my death; and, 
therefore, let me alone." The said lord 
James departed to his lodging, and the 
other short after departed this life ; whither, 
the great day of the Lord will declare.* 
When the word of the departing of so many 
patrons of papistry, and of the manner of 
their departing, came unto the queen regent, 
after astonishment and musing, she said, 
" What shall I say of such men '? they lived 
as beasts, and as beasts they die : God is 
not with them, neither with that which 
they enterprise." 

While these things were in doing in Scot- 
land and France, that perfect hypocrite, 
Mr John Sinclair, then dean of Restalrig, 
and now lord president and bishop of 
Brechin, began to preach in his kirk of Res- 
talrig, and at the beginning held himself so 
indifferent, that many had opinion of him, 
that he was not far from the kingdom of 
God. But his hypocrisy could not long be 
cloaked ; for when he understood, that such 
as feared God began to have a good opinion of 
him, and that the friars and others of that sect, 
began to whisper, " That if he took not heed 
in time to himself, and unto his doctrine, he 
would be the destruction of the whole estate 
of the kirk ;" this by him understood, he ap- 
pointed a sermon, in the which he promised 
"to give his judgment in all such heads as 
then were in controversy in the matters of re- 
ligion." The bruit hereof made his audience 
great at the first ; but that day he so hand- 



year. He hequeathed by his testament the sum 
of 8000 merks Scotish money, towards founding a 
college in Edinburgh for the education of youth," 
" So that this being the first sum mortified for 
that purpose, he may justly be reckoned the first 
founder of that university." " This sum," it is 
added, " the earl of Morton converted to his own 
use and profit, by banishing the executors of bi- 
shop Reid for supposed crimes." Knox's state- 
ment, that gold was his idol, is thus far corrobo- 
rated by the fact, that he had amassed a great 
deal of it. The possession of wealth, indeed, 
does not necessarily imply the inordinate love of 
it ; but they are commonly united in the minds 
of ambitious worldly men.— Ed. 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



91 



led himself, that, after that, no godly man 
did credit him ; for not only gainsaid he the 
doctrine of justification and of prayer which 
before he had taught, but also he set up 
and maintained papistry to the uttermost 
prick [the smallest iota] ; yea, holy water, 
pilgrimage, purgatory, and pardons were of 
such virtue in his conceit, that without 
them he looked not to be saved.* In this 
meantime the clergy made a brag, that 
they would dispute ; but Mr David Painter, 
which then lived and lay at Restalrig, dis- 
suaded them therefrom, affirming, " That if 
ever they disputed, but where themselves 
were both judge and party, and where that 
fire and sword should obey their decree, 
that then their cause was wrecked forever; 
for their victory stood neither in God nor 
his words, but in their own wills, and in the 
things concluded by their own councils, to- 
gether with fire and sword, whereto," said 
he, " these new start-up fellows will give 
no place ; but will call you to your count- 
book, and that is to the Bible ; and by it ye 
will no more be found the men that ye are 
called, than the devil will be approven to be 
God : and, therefore, if ye love yourselves, 
enter never in disputation ; neither yet call 
ye matters in question ; but defend your 
possession, or all is lost." Caiaphas could 
not give a better counsel to his companions ; 
but yet God disappointed both them and him, 
as after we shall hear. At this same time 
some of the nobility directed their letters to 
call John Knox from Geneva, for their 
comfort, and for the comfort of their breth- 
ren the preachers, and others that then 
courageously fought against the enemies of 
God's truth. The tenor of their letter is 
this • 

" Grace, mercy, and peace for salvation. 
" Dearly beloved in the Lord, the faithful 
that are of your acquaintance in these parts 
— thanks be unto God — are steadfast in the 
belief « hereunto ye left them, and have a 



* Keith's commendation of this turncoat is 
rather scanty ; but, as usual, there is no fault 
found — not a single blot in his escutcheon. The 
following is his entire history : " John Sinclair, 
a son of the house of Roslin, four miles S. S. E. 
from Edinburgh, a man well learned in both 
laws, was dean of Restalrig (vulg-o Lesltvrick), 
beside Edinburgh, and put into this see by queen 



godly thirst and desire, day by day, of your 
presence again, which, if the spirit of God 
so move and permit time unto you, we will 
heartily desire you, in the name of the 
Lord, that ye will return again into these 
parts, where ye shall find all faithful that 
ye left behind you, not only glad to hear 
your doctrine, but will be ready to jeopard 
lives and goods for the forward setting of 
the glory of God, as he will permit times. 
And albeit the magistrates in this country 
be as yet but in the state ye left them, 
yet at the making hereof, we have no expe- 
rience of any more cruelty to be used nor 
was before ; but rather we have belief, 
that God will augment his flock, because 
we see the friars, enemies to Christ's evan- 
gel, daily in less estimation, both with the 
queen's grace and the rest of the nobility 
of our realm. This in few words is the 
mind of the faithful, being present, and 
others absent. The rest of our minds this 
faithful bearer will show you at length. 
Thus fare ye well in the Lord." 

Off Stirling, the tenth of > 
March, anno 1556. ; 

This is the true copy of the bill, being 
subscribed by the names underwritten : 
Sic subscribitur, 

" Glencairn. 
Lorn, now Argyle. 
Efskine. 

James Stewart." 
These letters were delivered to the said 
John in Geneva, by the hands of James 
Sym, who now resteth with Christ, and 
of James Barron that yet liveth, in the 
month of May immediately thereafter ; 
which received, and advised upon, he took 
consultation, as well with his own church, 
as with that notable servant of God, John 
Calvin, and with other godly ministers, 
who all with one consent, said, " That he 
could not refuse that vocation, unless he 
would declare himself rebellious unto his 



Mary, after the death of abbot Campbell. He 
was likewise, for his singular knowledge of the 
law, first an ordinary lord of session, and then 
lord president. He had the honour to join the 
queen in holy matrimony to the lord Darnley. 
He died next year, in the month of April, lotjd." 
—Ed. 



92 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1553 



God, and unmerciful unto his country ; and 
so he returned answer, with promise to visit 
them with reasonable expedition, and so 
soon as he might put order to that dear flock 
that was committed to his charge ; and so, 
in the end of the next September after, he 
departed from Genera, and came to Dieppe, 
where there met him contrary letters, as 
by his answer thereto we may understand.* 
"The spirit of wisdom, constancy, and 
strength be multiplied with you, by the 
favour of God our Father, and by the 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
" According to my promise, right honour- 
able, I came to Dieppe the 24th of October, 
of full mind, by the good will of God, with 
the first ships to have visited you ; but be- 
cause two letters, not very pleasing unto 
the flesh, were there presented unto me, I 
was compelled to stay for a time ; the one 
was directed to myself, from a faithful 
brother, which made mention, that new 
consultation was appointed for final conclu- 
sion of the matter before purposed, and i 
willed me, therefore, to abide in these parts, 
tall the determination of the same. The other 
letter was directed from a gentleman to a 
friend, with charge to advertise me, that he 
had communed with all those that seemed 
most frank and fervent in the matter, and 
that in none did he find such boldness and 
constancy, as was requisite for such an en- j 
terprise ; but that some did — as he writeth 
— repent, that ever any such thing was | 
moved : some were partly ashamed, and 
others were able to deny, that ever they 
did consent to any such purpose, if any 
trial or question should be taken thereof. 
Which letters, when I had considered, I 



* Knox has not preserved the letters which 
he received countermanding his journey home- 
ward. Perhaps he destroyed them, that they , 
might not he a standing memorial of the mis- 
giving, or momentary cowardice of his friends, 
who afterwards acted so bravely and faithfully. 
He shows in his answer great delicacy to them 
by concealing the names of those who had so 
grieved him by looking back after they had put 
their hands to the plough. We cannot be sur- 
prised that they stood appalled for a moment, 
when they thought of the magnitude, and the 
hazard of their undertaking. This may be call- 
ed the turning point of the reformation. Had 
Knox been infected by their misgivings, so as to 
have returned to his flock in Geneva., the cause . 



partly was confounded, and partly was 
pierced with anguish and sorrow. Con- 
founded I was, that I had so far travailed 
in the matter, moving the same to the most 
godly and most learned that this day we 
j know to live in Europe, to the effect that 
I might have their judgments and grave 
counsels, for assurance as well of your con- 
sciences as of mine, in all enterprises. And 
then that nothing should succeed of so long 
consultations, cannot but redound either to 
j your shame or mine : for either it shall ap- 
! pear that I was marvellous vain, being so 
solicit [eager], where no necessity required ; 
or else, that such as were my movers 
thereto lacked the ripeness of judgment in 
j their first vocation. To some it may ap- 
; pear a small and light matter, that I have 
cast off, and as it were abandoned, as well 
my particular care, as my public office and 
charge, leaving my house and poor family 
destitute of all head, — save God only, — and 
committing that small — but Christ his dear- 
ly beloved — flock, over the which I was 
| appointed one of the ministers, to the 
charge of another. This, I say, to worldly 
men may appear a small matter, but to me 
it was, and yet is such, that more worldly 
substance than I will express, could not 
have caused me willingly behold the eyes 
of so many grave men weep at once for my 
cause, as that I did, in taking of my last 
good night from them, to whom, if it please 
God, that I return, and question be demand- 
ed, What was the impediment of my pur- 
posed journey ? judge you what I shall an- 
swer. The cause of my dolor and sorrow 
— God is witness — is for nothing pertaining 
either to my corporal contentment or world- 



bad perished for that time ; and the reign of 
idolatry and darkness might have been protract- 
ed for ages. But along with ardent zeal for the 
glory of God, and the good of his country, he 
was inspired with more than human courage 
and fortitude, and enabled to write to his friends 
in such a strain as to inspire their breasts with 
the same feelings, so that they engaged heartily 
in the work, and in two years effected the deli- 
verance of their country from the spiritual bon- 
dage of Rome, and the military tyranny of 
France. It is therefore to Knox individually, 
as the instrument in the hand of providence, 
that we are indebted for both the dvil and re- 
ligious privileges we enjoy.— Ed, 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



ly displeasure ; but it is for the grievous 
plagues and punishments of God, which as- 
suredly shall apprehend not only you, but 
every inhabitant of that miserable realm 
and isle, except that the power of God, by 
the liberty of his evangel, deliver you from 
bondage. I mean not only that perpetual 
fire and torment, prepared for the devil, 
and for such as, denying Christ Jesus and 
his known verity, do follow the sons of 
wickedness to perdition, which most is to 
be feared ; but also that thraldom and mi- 
sery that shall apprehend your own bodies, 
your children, subjects, and posterity, whom 
ye have betrayed. In conscience, I can ex- 
cept none that bear the name of nobility, 
and presently do fight to betray them and 
your realm to the slavery of strangers. 
The war begun — although I acknowledge 
it to be the work of God — shall be your de- 
struction, unless that, by time, remedy be 
provided. God open your eyes that ye 
may espy, and consider your own miserable 
estate. My words shall appear to some 
sharp and indiscreetly spoken ; but as cha- 
rity ought to interpret all things to the 
best, so ought wise men to understand, that 
a true friend cannot be a flatterer, especially 
when the questions of salvation, both of 
body and soul, are moved ; and that not of 
one or two, but as it were of a whole realm 
and nation. What are the sobs, and what 
is the affliction of my troubled heart, God 
shall one day declare ! But this will I add 
to my former rigour and severity, to wit, if 
any persuade you, for fear or dangers that 
may follow, to faint in your former pur- 
pose, be he never esteemed so wise and 
friendly, let him be judged of you both 
foolish and your mortal enemy : foolish, 
for because he understandeth nothing of 
God's approved wisdom ; and enemy unto 
you, because he laboureth to separate you 
from God's favour ; provoking his ven- 
geance and grievous plagues against you, 
because he would that ye should prefer 
your worldly rest to God's praise and glory; 
and the friendship of the wicked to the sal- 
vation of your brethren. I am not ig- 
norant, that fearful troubles shall ensue 
your enterprise, as in my former letters I 
did signify unto you ; but O joyful and 



comfortable are those troubles and ad\ ersi- 
ties, which man sustaineth for accomplish- 
ment of God's will, revealed by his word ! 
For how terrible that ever they appear to 
the judgments of the natural men, yet are 
they never able to devour nor utterly to 
consume the sufferers ; for the invisible and 
invincible power of God sustaineth and 
preserveth, according to the promise, all 
such as with simplicity do obey him. The 
subtle craft of Pharaoh, many years joined 
with his bloody cruelty, was not able to 
destroy the male children of Israel, neither 
were the waters of the Red Sea, much less 
the rage of Pharaoh, able to confound 
Moses and the company which he conduct- 
ed; and that because the one had God's 
promise that they should multiply, and the 
other his commandment to enter into such 
dangers. I would your wisdoms should 
consider, that our God remaineth one, and 
is immutable ; and that the church of Christ 
Jesus hath the same promise of protection 
and defence, that Israel had of multiplica- 
tion. And farther, that no less cause have 
ye to enter in your former enterprise, than 
Moses had to go to the presence of Pha- 
raoh ; for your subjects, yea, your brethren, 
are oppressed, their bodies and souls holden 
in bondage : and God speaketh to your con- 
sciences — unless ye be dead with the blind 
world — that you ought to hazard your own 
lives, be it against kings or emperors, for 
their deliverance ; for only for that cause 
are ye called princes of the people, and ye 
receive of your brethren honour, tribute, 
and homage, at God's commandment, not 
by reason of your birth and progeny, as the 
most part of men falsely do suppose, but by 
reason of your office and duty, which is to 
vindicate and deliver your subjects and bre- 
thren from all violence and oppression, to 
the uttermost of your power. Advise dili- 
gently, 1 beseech you, with the points of 
that letter, which I directed to the whole 
nobility, and let every man apply the mat- 
ter and case to himself; for your consciences 
shall one day be compelled to acknowledge, 
that the reformation of religion, and of 
public enormities, doth appertain to more 
than to the clergy, or chief rulers, called 
kings. The mighty spirit of the Lord Jesus 



94 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1558 



rule and guide your counsels to his glory, 
your eternal comfort, and to the consola- 
tion of your brethren. Amen." 

From Dieppe, 21th day ) 
of October, 1557. 5 

These letters received and read, together 
with others directed to the whole nobility, 
and some to particular gentlemen, as to the 
lairds of D un and Pitterro w,ne w consultation 
was had, what was best to be done : and in 
the end it was concluded, that they would 
follow forward their purpose once intended, 
and would commit themselves, and who- 
soever God had given unto them, into his 
hands, rather than they would sufFer idola- 
try so manifestly to reign, and the subjects 
of that realm so to be defrauded, as long as 
they had been, of the only food of their 
souls, the true preaching of Christ's evan- 
gel, and that every one should be the more 
assured of other, a common bond was made, 
and by some subscribed, the tenor whereof 
follows : 

" We, perceiving how Satan in his mem- 
bers, the antichrists of our time, cruelly 
doth rage, seeking to downthring [overturn] 
and to destroy the evangel of Christ, and 
his congregation, ought, according to our 
bounden duty, to strive in our Master's 
cause, even unto the death, being certain of 
the victory in him. The which our duty 
being well considered, we do promise be- 
fore the majesty of God, and his congrega- 
tion, that we, by his grace, shall, with all 
diligence, continually apply our whole 
power, substance, and our very lives, to 
maintain, set forward, and establish the 
most blessed word of God, and his congre- 
gation : and shall labour at our possibility 
to have faithful ministers, purely and truly 
to minister Christ's evangel and sacraments 
to his people. We shall maintain them, 
nourish them, and defend them, the whole 
congregation of Christ, and every member 
thereof, at our whole powers and wairing 
[spending] of our lives, against Satan, and 
all wicked power that does intend tyranny 



* This is the first covenant of the Scotish re- 
formers for mutual defence, and maintenance of 
the truth ; which embraces more than mere self- 
defence, which may be pleaded for as a civil 
right. They engage to maintain, set forward, 



or trouble against the foresaid congrega- 
tion. Unto the which holy word, and con- 
gregation, we do join us ; and also do re- 
nounce and forsake the congregation of Sa- 
tan, with all the superstitions, abomina- 
tions, and idolatry thereof. And moreover, 
shall declare ourselves manifestly enemies 
thereto, by this our faithful promise before 
God, testified to his congregation, by our 
subscription at these presents. At Edin- 
burgh, the 3d day of December 1557 years. 
God called to witness."* 
Sic subscribitur, 

" A., earl of Argyle. 

" Glen cairn. 

" Morton. 

" Archibald, lord of Lorn. 

" John Erskine of Dun," &c. 
Before a little that this bond was sub- 
scribed by the forewritten, and many others, 
letters were directed again to John Knox 
from the said lords, together with their let- 
ters to Mr Calvin, craving of him, that by 
his authority he would command the said 
John once again to visit them. These let- 
ters were delivered by the hands of Mr 
John Gray, in the month of November, the 
year of God 1558, who, at that same time, 
passed to Rome, for expedition of the bows 
[business] of Ross to Mr Henry Sinclair. 
Immediately after the subscription of this 
foresaid bond, the lords and barons profess- 
ing Christ Jesus, convened frequently in 
council ; in the which these heads were 
concluded : First, " It is thought expedient, 
devised, and ordained, that in all parishes 
of this realm, the common prayers be read 
weekly on Sunday and other festival days, 
publicly in the parish kirks, with the les- 
sons of the New and Old Testament, con- 
form to the order of the book of Common 
Prayers. And if the curates of the parishes 
be qualified, to cause them to read the same, 
and if they be not, or if they refuse, that 
the most qualified in the parish use and 
read the same." Secondly, " It is thought 
necessary, that doctrine, preaching, and in- 



and establish the word of God, by force of arms, 
as seems to be implied. This was one of their 
mistakes, which providence eventually overruled 
for good. — Ed. 



Book I.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



95 



terpretation of scriptures be had and used 
privily in quiet houses, without great con- 
ventions of the people thereto, till after- 
ward that God move the prince to grant 
public preaching by faithful and true mi- 
nisters." 

These two heads concerning the religion, 
and some others concerning the policy, 
being concluded, the old earl of Argyle 
took the maintenance of John Douglas, 
caused him preach publicly in his house, 
and reformed many things according to his 
counsel. The same boldness took divers 
others, as well within towns, as to land- 
ward ; which did not a little trouble the 
bishops and queen regent, as by this letter 
and credit committed to Sir David Hamilton 
from the bishop of St Andrews to the said 
earl of Argyle, may be clearly understood. 
The bishop's letter to the old earl of Ar- 
gyle : 

" My lord, after most hearty commenda- 
tions, this is to advertise your lordship, we 
have directed this bearer, our cousin, to- 
wards your lordship, in such business and 
affairs as concerns your lordship's honour, 
profit, and great weal ; like as the said 
bearer will declare [to] your lordship at more 
length. Praying your lordship effectuous- 
ly to advert thereto, and give attendance 
to us, your lordship's friends, that aye have 
willed the honour, profit, and other wealth 
of your lordship's house, as of our own : 
and credit to the bearer. And Jesus have 
your lordship in everlasting keeping. Off 
Edinburgh, the 25th of March, anno 1 558." 
Sic subscribiiur, 
Your lordship's, at all power, 
" St Andrews." 
Follows the Credit : 
Memorandum— To Sir David Hamilton, to 

my lord earl of Argyle, in my behalf, and 

let him see and hear every article. 

Imprimis, " To repeat the ancient blood 
of his house, how long it has stood, how 
notable it has been, and so many noble men 
have been earls, lords, knights thereof: how 
long they have reigned in these parts, 
ever true and obedient both to God and the 
prince, without any smote [blot or stain] in 
their days in any manner of sort : and to 



remember how many notable men are come 
of his house. 

Secondly, " To show him the great affec- 
tion I bear towards him, his blood, house, 
and friends, and of the ardent desire 1 have 
of the perpetual standing of it in honour 
and fame, with all them that are come of 
it: which is my part, for many and divers 
causes, as ye shall show. 

Thirdly, " To show my lord, how heavy 
and displeasing a thing it is unto me now 
to hear, that he, who is and has been so 
noble a man, should be seduced and abused 
by the flattery of such an infamed person 
of the law, and mansworn apostate [as the 
foresaid John Douglas], who under the pre- 
tence that he gives himself forth as a 
preacher of the evangel and verity, under 
that colour sets forth schisms and divisions 
in the holy kirk of God, with heretical pro- 
positions, thinking that under his mainten- 
ance and defence, to infect this country 
with heresy, persuading my said lord, and 
others his bairns and friends, that all that 
he speaks is scripture, and conform thereto, 
albeit that many of his propositions are 
many years past condemned by the general 
councils, and the whole estate of christian 
people. 

Fourthly, " To show to my lord how pe- 
rilous this is to his lordship and his house, 
and decay thereof, in case the authority 
would be sharp, and would use both, con- 
form to civil and canon, and also your own 
municipal law of this realm. 

Fifthly, " To show his lordship how wae 
[sorry] I would be, either to hear, see, or 
know any displeasure that might come to 
him, his son, or any of his house or friends; 
and especially in his own time and days. 
And also how great displeasure I have else 
[also] to hear great and evil bruit of him, 
that [he] should, now in his age, in a man- 
ner waver from his faith ; and, to be altered 
therein, when the time is that he should be 
most sure and firm therein. 

Si.rthly, " To show his lordship that there 
is delation of that man, called Douglas or 
Grant, of sundry articles of heresy, which 
lies to my charge and conscience to put re- 
medy to, or else all the pestilentious doc- 



96 



HISTORY OF TH 



£ REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1558 



trine he sows, and such like all that are cor- 
rupted by his doctrine, and all that he 
draws from our faith and christian religion, 
will lie to my charge before God ; and I to 
be accused before God for overseeing- of 
him, if I put not remedy thereto, and cor- 
rect him for such things [as] he is delated 
of. And therefore that my lord consider, 
and weigh it well, how highly it lies both 
to my honour and conscience : for if I thole 
[suffer] him, I will be accused for all them 
that he corrupts and infects in heresy. 

" Herefore, I pray my lord, in my most 
hearty manner, to take this matter in the 
best part, for his own conscience, honour, 
and weal of himself, house, friends, and 
servants ; and such like for my part, and for 
my conscience and honour, that considering 
that there are divers articles of heresy to 
be laid to him [Douglas], that he is delated 
of, and that he is presently in my lord's 
company : that my lord would by some 
honest way depart with this man, and put 
him from him, and from his son's company ; 
for I would be right sorry that any being in 
any of their companies should be called for 
such causes, or that any of them should be 
bruited to hold any such men. And this I 
would advertise my lord, and have his lord- 
ship's answer and resolution, or any sum- 
mons passed on him, together with my 
lord's answer. 5 ' 

Item. — "If my lord would have a man to 
instruct him truly in the faith, and preach 
to him, I would provide a cunning man to 
him, wherefore I shall answer for his true 
doctrine, and shall put [pledge] my soul there 
fore that he shall teach nothing but truly 
according to our catholic faith. Off Edin- 
burgh, this last of March, 1558." 

Sic subscribitur, 

" St Andrews." 

Item, — " Attour [besides], your lordship 
shall draw to good remembrance, and weigh 
the great and heavy murmur against me, 
both by the queen's grace, the kirkmen, 
spiritual and temporal estates, and well 
given [disposed] people, moaning, crying 
and murmuring me greitomlie [greatly], 
that I do not my office, to thole [endure] 
such infamous persons, with such perversed 
doctrine, within my diocese, and this realm, 



by reason of my legateship and primacy ; 
which I have rather sustained and long suf- 
fered, for the great love I had to your lord- 
ship and posterity, and your friends, and your 
house : also believing surely your lordship's 
wisdom should not have maintained and 
melled [meddled] with such things that 
might do me dishonour or displeasure, con- 
sidering I being ready to put good order 
thereto always ; but has allenarly [only] 
abstained, for the love of your lordship and 
house foresaid, that I bear truly, knowing 
and seeing the great skaith [hurt] and 
dishonour and lack apparently that might 
come therethrough, in case your lord- 
ship remede not the same hastily, whereby 
we might both be quit of all danger, which 
doubtless will come upon us both, if I use 
not my office, or that he be called, in the 
time that he is now with your lordship, 
and under your lordship's protection." 

Subscribed again, 

" St Andrews " 
By these former instructions, thou mayst 
perceive, gentle reader, what was the care 
that this pastor, with his complices, took to 
feed the flock committed to their charge, as 
they allege, and to gainstand false teachers. 
Here is oft mention of conscience, of he- 
resy, and such other terms, that may fray 
the ignorant, and [the] simple deceive. But 
we hear no crime in particular laid to the 
charge of the accused ; and yet is he damn- 
ed [condemned] as a mansworn apostate. 
This was my lord's conscience, which he 
learned of his fathers, the Pharisees, old 
enemies to Christ Jesus, who damned him 
before they heard him. But who ruled my 
lord's conscience, when he took his kins- 
man's wife, lady Gilton ? Consider you 
the rest of his persuasion, and you shall 
clearly see, that honour, estimation, love to 
house and friends, is the best ground that 
my lord bishop has, why he should perse- 
cute Jesus Christ in his members. We 
thought good to insert the answers of the 
said earl, which follow : 
Memorandum. — " This present writ is to 
make answer particularly to every arti- 
cle, directed by my lord of St Andrews, 
to me, with Sir David Hamilton, which 
articles are in number nine, and here re- 



BOOK I.J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



07 



peated and answered, as I trust, to his 

lordship's contentment." 

" The first article puts me in remem- 
brance of the antiquity of the blood of my 
house ; how many earls, lords, and knights 
have been thereof; how many noblemen de- 
scended from the same house ; how long it 
continued true to God and the prince, 
without smote [blot] in their days, in any 
manner of sort." 

Answer. — " True it is, my lord, that there 
is well [good] long- continuance of my 
house, by God's providence and benevolence 
of our princes, whom we have served, and 
shall serve truly next to God. And the 
like obedience towards God and our princes 
remains with us yet, or rather better — 
praised be the Lord's name — neither know 
we any spot towards our princess and her 
due obedience ; and if there be offence to- 
wards God, he is merciful to remit our of- 
fences ; for * he willeth not the death of a 
sinner:' in like manner it stands in his 
omnipotent power to make up houses, or 
continue the same, to alter them, to make 
them small or great, or to extinguish them, 
according to his own inscrutable wisdom ; 
for in exalting, depressing and changing of 
houses, the laud and praise must be given 
to that one eternal God, in whose hands the 
same stand." 

" The second article bears the great af- 
fection and love your lordship bears to- 
wards me and my house, and of the ardent 
desire ye have of the perpetual standing 
thereof in honour and fame, with all them 
that are come of it." 

Answer. — " Forsooth, it is your duty to 
wish good unto my house, and unto them 
that are come of the same, not allenarly 
for the faithfulness, amity, and society that 
has been betwixt our forebears, but also for 
the late conjunction of blood that is betwixt 
our said houses, if it be God's pleasure that 
it have success; which should give suffi- 
cient occasion to your lordship to wish 
good unto my house, and perpetuity with 
God's glory, without which nothing is per- 
petual, unto whom be praise and worship 
for ever and ever." Amen. 

Thirdly, " Your lordship declares, how 
displeasing it is to you, that I should be 



seduced by an infamed person of the law, 
and by the flattery of 'a mans worn ;q>os- 
tate, that, under pretence of his forthgiving, 
makes us understand that he is a preacher 
of the evangel, and therewith raises schisms 
and divisions in the whole kirk of God ; 
and by our maintenance and defence, would 
infect this country with heresy ; alleging 
that to be scripture, which these many 
years bygone has been condemned as he- 
resy, by the general councils and whole 
estate of christian people." 

Answer. — " The God that created heaven 
and earth, and all that therein is, preserve 
me from seduction; and I dread many 
others under the colour of godliness are 
seduced, and think that they do God a plea- 
sure, when they persecute any of them that 
profess his name. What that man is of the 
law we know not, we hear none of his flat- 
tery, his mansworn oath of apostasy is igno- 
rant [unknown] to us ; but if he had made 
an unlawful oath contrary God's command, 
it were better to violate it, than to ob- 
serve it; he preaches nothing to us but 
the evangel; if he would otherwise do, we 
would not believe him ; nor yet an angel 
of heaven. We hear him sow no schisms 
nor divisions, but such as may stand with 
God's word, which we shall cause him 
confess in presence of your lordship and 
| the clergy, when ye require us thereto. 
! And as to it that has been condemned by 
general councils, we trust ye know well 
that all the general councils have been 
at diversity among themselves, and never 
two of them universally agreeing in all 
points, in so much as they are of men ; 
but the spirit of verity that bears testi- 
mony of our Lord Jesus has not, neither 
can err ; * For heaven and earth shall 
perish, ere one jot of it perish.' By this, 
my lord, neither teaches he, neither will 
we accept of him, but that which agrees 
with God's sincere word, set forth by pa- 
triarchs, prophets, apostles, and evangelists, 
left to our salvation in his express word ; 
and so, my lord, to condemn the doctrine 
not examined is not required ; for when 
your lordship pleases to hear the confession 
of that man's faith, the manner of his doc- 
trine, which agrees with the evangel of 



98 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. r>. 1558 



Jesus Christ, I will cause him to assist to 
judgment, and shall be present thereat with 
God's pleasure, that he may render reckon- 
ing- of his belief and our doctrine, to the su- 
perior powers, according to the prescription 
of that blood of the eternal Testament sealed 
by the immaculate Lamb, to whom, with 
the Father, and Holy Spirit, be all honour 
and glory, for ever and ever." Amen. 

" The fourth article puts me in remem- 
brance how dangerous it is, if the authority 
w r ould putt at [attack] me and my house* 
according to the civil and canon laws, and 
our own municipal laws of this realm, and 
how it appeareth to the decay of our 
house." 

Answer. — " All laws are — or at least 
should be — subject to God's laws, which 
laws should be first placed and planted in 
every man's heart ; it should have no im- 
pediment : men should not abrogate it, for 
the defence and upsetting of their own ad- 
vantage. If it would please authorities to 
putt at [attack] our house, for confessing of 
God's w r ord, or for maintenance of his law, 
God is mighty enough in his own cause ; he 
should be rather obeyed nor [than] man. 
I will serve my princess with body, heart, 
goods, strength, and all that is in my power, 
except that which is God's duty [due], 
which I will reserve to God alone, that is 
to worship him in truth and verity, and, as 
near as I can, conform to his prescribed 
word, to his own honour, and obedience of 
my princess." 

" The fifth article puts me in remem- 
brance, how wae [sorry] your lordship 
would be to hear, see, or know any dis- 
pleasure that might come to me, my son, or 
any of my house, and specially in my time 
and days ; and also to hear the great and 
evil bruit of me, that I should now in my 
age, in a manner begin to weaver from my 
faith, and to be altered therein, when the 
time is that I should be most sure and firm 
therein," 

Answer. — " Your lordship's good will, is 
ever made manifest to me in all your arti- 
cles, that would not see, hear, or know of 
my displeasure ; for the which I am bound 
to render your lordship thanks, and shall do 
the same assuredly. But as for wavering 



in my faith, God forbid that I should so do • 
for * I believe in God the Father almighty, 
maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus 
Christ his only Son our Saviour.' My lord, 
I vary not in my faith but I praise God, 
that of his goodness, now in my latter days, 
has of his infinite mercy opened his bosom 
of grace unto me, to acknowledge him, the 
eternal wisdom, his Son Jesus Christ a suf- 
ficient satisfaction, to refuse all manner of 
idolatry, superstition, and ignorance, where- 
with I have been blinded in times bygone, 
and now believe, that God will be merciful 
to me ; for now he has declared his blessed 
will clearly to me, before my departing this 
transitory life." 

" The sixth article declares, that there are 
delations of sundry points of heresy upon 
that man called Douglas or Grant, which 
lie to your charge and conscience to put 
remedy to, or else that all the pestilentious 
doctrine he sows, and all whom he corrupts 
with his seed, will be required at your 
hands, and all whom he draws from your 
christian faith ; and if ye should thole 
[suffer] him, that ye will be accused for all 
them whom he infects with heresy; and, 
therefore, to regard your lordship's honour 
and conscience hereunto." 

Answer. — " What is his surname I know 
not, but he calls himself Douglas ; for I 
know neither his father nor his mother. I 
have heard him teach no articles of heresy ; 
but that which agrees with God's word ; 
for I would maintain no man in heresy nor 
error. Your lordship regards your con- 
science in the punishment thereof. I pray 
God, that ye so do ; and examine your 
conscience well. He preaches against ido- 
latry ; I remit to your lordship's conscience, 
if it be heresy or not. He preaches against 
adultery and fornication ; I refer that to 
your lordship's conscience. He preaches 
against hypocrisy ; I refer that to your lord- 
ship's conscience. He preaches against all 
manner of abuses and corruption of Christ's 
sincere religion ; I refer that to your lord- 
ship's conscience. My lord, I exhort you, 
in Christ's name, to weigh all these affairs 
in your conscience, and consider, if it be 
your duty also, not only to thole this, but 
in like manner to do the same. This is all, 



Book 1.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



99 



my lord, that I vary in my age, and no other 
thing 1 , but that I knew not before these of- 
fences to be abominable to God, and now 
knowing" his will, by manifestation of his 
word, abhor them." 

" The seventh article desires me to 
weigh these matters in most hearty man- 
ner, and to take them in best part, for 
the weal of both our consciences, my 
house, friends, and servants, and to put 
such a man out of my company, for fear 
of the cumber and bruit that should fol- 
low thereon, by reason he is delated 
of sundry heresies: and that your lord- 
ship would be sorry to hear any of our 
servants delated or bruited for such causes, 
or for holding of any such man j and 
that your lordship would understand my 
answer hereunto, or any summons passed 
thereupon." 

Answer. — " I thank your lordship great- 
ly, that ye are so solicitous for the weal of 
me and of my house, and are so humane, as 
to make me the advertisement before ye 
have summoned, of your own good will and 
benevolence ; and I have weighed these 
matters, as highly as my judgment can 
serve me, both for your lordship's honour 
and mine. And when I have reasoned all 
that I can do with myself in it, I think it 
aye best to serve God, and obey his manifest 
word, and not be obstinate in the contrary : 
syne [next] to give their due obedience to 
the princes, rulers, and magistrates, and to 
hear the voice of God's prophets, declaring 
his good promises to them that repent, and 
threatening to obstinate wicked doers, ever- 
lasting destruction. Your lordship knows 
well the man; he has spoken with your 
lordship : 1 thought you content with him : 
I heard no occasion of offence in him; I 
cannot well want him, or some preacher. 
I cannot put away such a man, without I 
know him an offender, as I know not; 
for I hear nothing of him, but such as 
your lordship's self heard of him, and such 
as he yet will profess in your presence, 
whenever your lordship requires. Such a 
man that is ready to sist himself to judg- 
ment, should not be expelled without cog- 
nition of the cause ; for, like as I answer- 
ed before in another article, when your 



lordship pleases that all the spiritual and 
temporal men of estate of Scotland be con- 
vened, I shall cause him render an account 
of his belief and doctrine in your presences ; 
then, if he deserves punishment and cor- 
rection, let him so suffer ; if he be found 
faithful, let him live in his faith." 

" The eighth article propones unto me, 
that your lordship would take the labour to 
get me a man to instruct me in your catho- 
lic faith, and to be my preacher, for whose 
doctrine ye would lay your soul, that he 
would teach nothing but truly conform to 
your faith." 

Answer. — " God Almighty send us many 
of that sort, that will preach truly, and no- 
thing but a catholic universal christian 
faith ; and we Highland rude people have 
mister [need] of them. And if your 
lordship would get and provide me such a 
man, I should provide him a corporal liv- 
ing, as to myself, with great thanks to your 
lordship ; for truly, I and many more 
have great mister [need] of such men. And 
because I am able to sustain more nor [than] 
one of them, I will request your lordship 
earnestly to provide me such a man as ye 
wrote, ' for the harvest is great, and there 
are few labourers.' " 

" The last and ninth article puts me in 
remembrance to consider what murmur 
your lordship tholes, and great bruit, at 
many men's hands, both spiritual and tem- 
poral, and at the queen's grace's hand, and 
other well given people, for not putting of 
order to their affairs ; and that your lord- 
ship has abstained from execution hereof, 
for love of my house and posterity, to the 
effect that myself should remedy it, for 
fear of the dishonour might come upon us 
both for the same ; which being remedied, 
might bring us out of all danger." 

Answer. — " My lord, I know well what 
murmur and indignation your lordship 
tholes at enemies' hands of all estates, 
for non-pursuing of poor simple christians ; 
and I know, that if your lordship would use 
their counsel, that would be blood-shed- 
ding and burning of poor simple men, to 
make your lordship serve their wicked ap- 
petites ; yet your lordship knows your own 
duty, and should not fear the danger of 



100 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d, 1558 



men, as of him whom ye profess. And 
verily, my lord, there is nothing- that may 
be to your lordship's relief in this behalf, 
but I will use your lordship's counsel here- 
until, and further the same, God's honour 
being first provided, and the truth of his 
eternal word having liberty ; and to ab- 
stain for my love from pursuit, as your 
lordship has signified, I am addebted to 
your lordship, as I have written divers 
times before ; but there is one above, for 
whose fear ye must abstain from blood- 
shedding, or else, my lord, knock on 
[wound] your conscience. Last of all, please 
your lordship to consider how desirous 
some are to sow sedition amongst friends ; 
how mighty the devil is to sow discord ; 
how that many would desire no better 
game but to hunt us at [each] other. I pray 
your lordship beguile them ; we will agree 
upon all purposes with God's pleasure, 
standing to his honour. There are divers 
houses in Scotland by [beside] us, that pro- 
fess the same God secretly ; they desire but 
that ye begin the bargain [fight] at us ; and 
when it begins at us, God knows the end 
thereof, and who shall abide the next putt 
[attack]. My lord, consider this, make no 
preparative of us : let not the vain exhorta- 
tion of them that regard little the strength 
and weal of both of our houses, stir up 
your lordship, as they would, to do against 
God, your own conscience, and the weal of 
your posterity for ever ; and, therefore, now 
in the end, I pray your lordship, weigh 
these things wisely ; and if ye do otherwise, 
God is God, was, and shall be God, when 
all is wrought that man can work." 

This answer received, the bishop and his 
complices found themselves somewhat dis- 
appointed ; for the bishops looked for no- 
thing less than for such answer from the 
earl of Argyle ; and, therefore, they made 
them for their extreme defence, that is, to 
corrupt, and by buds [bribes] to stir up the 
queen regent in our contrary ; as in the se- 
cond book we shall more clearly hear. 
Short after this, the Lord called to his 
mercy the said earl of Argyle from the 
miseries of this life ; whereof the bishops 
were glad ; for they thought that their great 
enemy was taken out of their way, but God 



disappointed them : for as the said earl de- 
parted most constant in the true faith of 
Jesus Christ, with a plain renunciation of 
all impiety, superstition, and idolatry j so 
left he it in his testament to his son, that 
he should study to set forward the public 
and true preaching of the evangel of Jesus 
Christ, and to suppress all superstition and 
idolatry to the uttermost of his power. In 
which point small fault can be found with 
him to this day, the 10th of May, anno 
1568* God be merciful to his other of- 
fences. Amen. 

The blind, crooked, bedrals, widows, or- 
phans, and all other poor, so visited by the 
hand of God as may not [cannot] work, 

To the flocks of all friars within this realm 
we wish restitution of wrongs bypast, 
and reformation in times coming for sal- 
vation. 

" Ye yourselves are not ignorant, and 
though ye would be, it is now — thanks to 
God — well known to the whole world, by 
his most infallible word, that the benignity 
or alms of all christian people pertains to 
us allenarly [only] ; which ye, being whole 
of body, stark, sturdy, and able to work, 
what under pretence of poverty, and never- 
theless possessing most easily all abundance, 
what through cloaked and hooded simpli- 
city, though your proudness is known, and 
what feigned holiness, which now is declared 
superstition and idolatry, have these many 
years, express against God's word and the 
practice of his holy apostles, to our great 
torment, alas ! most falsely stolen from us. 
And as ye have by your false doctrine and 
wresting of God's word — learned of your 
father Satan — induced the whole people, 
high and low, in sure hope of belief, that 
to clothe, feed, and nourish you, is the only 
most acceptable alms allowed before God ; 
and to give a penny or a piece of bread 
once in the week, is enough for us. Even 
so ye have persuaded them to big to you 
great hospitals, and maintain you therein 
by their purse, which only pertains now to 
us by all law, as bigged and doted [devoted] 



* From this it would appear that Knox was 
employed two years in writing this his first 
hook, see pnge 24, which is dated 1566. 



Book I.J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



101 



to the poor, of whoso number ye are not, 
nor can be repute, neither by the law of 
God, nor yet by no other law proceeding 
of nature, reason, or civil policy. Where- 
fore seeing- our number is so great, so indi- 
gent, and so heavily oppressed by your false 
means, that none takes care of our misery : 
and that it is better for us to provide these 
our impotent members, which God has 
given us, to oppone to you in plain contro- 
versy, than to see you hereafter, as ye have 
done before, steal from us our livings, and 
ourselves, in the meantime, to perish and 
die for want of the same. We have 
thought good, therefore, ere we enter with 
you in conflict, to warn you, in the name 
of the great God, by this public writing-, 
affixed on your gates where ye now dwell, 
that ye remove forth of our said hospitals, 
betwixt this and the feast of Whitsunday 
next ; so that we, the only lawful proprie- 
tors thereof, may enter thereto, and after- 
wards enjoy the commodities of the kirk, 
Avhich ye have hereunto wrongously holden 
from us. Certifying you, and [if] ye fail, 
we will at the said term, in whole number, 
with the help of God, and the assistance of 
his saints on earth, — of whose ready sup- 
port we doubt not, — enter and take posses- 
sion of our said patrimony, and eject you 
utterly forth of the same." 
Let him therefore that before has stolen, 
steal no more, but rather let him work 
with his hands, that he may be helpful 
to the poor. 

From the whole cities, towns, } 
and villages of Scotland, the > 
first day of January 1558. ) 

The bishops continued in their provin- 
cial counsel even unto that day that John 
Knox arrived in Scotland ; and that they 
might give some show to the people that 
they minded [intended] reformation, they 
sparsed abroad a rumour thereof, and set 
forth somewhat in print, which, of the peo- 
ple, was called, " The Twopenny Faith.' 1 
Among their acts, there was much ado for 
caps, shaven crowns, tippets, long gowns, 
and such other trifles. 

I. Item, That none should enjoy office 
or benefice ecclesiastical, except a priest. 



II. Item, That no kirk man should nou- 
rish his own bairn in his own company, but 
that every one should hold the children <A' 
others. 

III. That none should put his own son 
in his own benefice. 

IV. That if any were found in open 
adultery, for the first fault he should lose 
the third of his benefice ; for the second 
crime, the half; and for the third, the whole 
benefice. 

But herefrom appealed the bishop of 
Murray, and other prelates, saying, " That 
they would abide at the canon law." And 
so they might well enough do, so long 
as they remained interpreters, dispensators, 
makers and disannullers of that law. But 
let the same law have the true interpreta- 
tion and just execution, and the devil shall 
as soon be proven a true and obedient ser- 
vant to God, as any of that sort shall be 
proven a bishop, or yet to have any just 
authority within the church of Christ Jesus. 
But we return to our history. 

The persecution was decreed, as well by 
the queen regent as by the prelates ; but 
there rested [remained] a point, which the 
queen regent and France had not at that 
time obtained, to wit, That the crown ma- 
trimonial should be granted to Francis, hus- 
band to our sovereign, and so should France 
and Scotland be but one kingdom, the sub- 
jects of both realms to have equal liberties, 
Scotsmen in France, and Frenchmen in 
Scotland. The glister of the profit that 
was judged hereof to have ensued to Scots- 
men, at the first sight, blinded many men's 
eyes ; but a small wind caused that mist 
suddenly to evanish away ; for the greatest 
offices and benefices within the realm were 
appointed for Frenchmen. Monsieur Ruby 
kept the great seal, Vielmort was controll- 
er ; Melross and Kelso should have been a 
commend [commendators] to the poor car- 
dinal of Lorraine ; the freedoms of Scotish 
merchants were restrained in Rouen, and 
they compelled to pay toll and taxations, 
other than their ancient liberties did bear. 
To bring this head to pass, to wit, to get 
the matrimonial crown, the queen regent 
left no point of the compass linassailed. 



102 



REFORMATION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



[a. d. 1558 



With the bishops and priests she practised 
on this manner. 

" Ye may clearly see, that I cannot do 
what I would within this realm ; for these 
heretics and confederates of England are so 
bonded together, that they stop all good 
order ; but will ye be favourable unto me 
in this suit, of the matrimonial crown to 
be granted to my daughter's husband, then 
shall ye see how I shall handle these here- 
tics and traitors ere it be long." And in 
very deed, in these her promises, she meant 
no deceit in that behalf. 

Unto the protestants, she said, " I am 
not unmindful how oft ye have sued me 
for reformation in religion, and gladly would 
I consent thereunto ; but ye see the power 
and craft of the bishop of St Andrews, to- 
gether with the power of the duke, and of 
the kirkmen, ever to be bent against me in 
all my proceedings ; so that I may do no- 
thing unless the full authority of this realm 
be devolved to the king of France, which 
cannot be but by donation of the crown 
matrimonial, which thing if ye will bring 



! to pass, then devise ye what you please in 
matters of religion, and they shall be grant, 
ed." With this commission and credit was 
lord James, then prior of St Andrews, di- 
rect to the earl of Argyle, with many 
other promises than we list to rehearse. 
By such dissimulation to those that were 
simple and true of heart, inflamed she them 
to be more fervent in her petition, than 
herself appeared to be : and so at the par- 
liament, holden at Edinburgh in the month 
of October, the year of God 1558, it was 
clearly voted, no man reclaiming, except 
the duke for his interest ,• and yet for it 
there was no better law produced, except 
that there was a solemn mass appointed for 
that purpose in the pontifical. This head 
obtained, whereat France and she princi- 
pally shot, what faith she kept unto the 
protestants, in this our second book shall 
be declared ; in the beginning whereof, we 
must more amply rehearse some things, 
that in this our first are summarily touch- 
ed. 



THE HISTORY 

OF 

THE REFORMATION OF RELIGION 

WITHIN 

THE REALM OF SCOTLAND. 



BOOK SECOND. 



THINGS DONE IN SCOTLAND, IN THE REFORMATION OF RELIGION, BEGINNING IN THE 

YEAR OF GOD 1558. 



Our purpose was to have made the be- 
ginning of our history from the things that 
were done from the year of God 1558, till 
the reformation of religion, which of God's 
mercy we once possessed ; and yet, in doc- 
trine and in the right use of administration 
of sacraments, do possess. 

But because divers of the godly, as before 
is said, earnestly required, that such persons 
as God raised up in the midst of darkness, 
to oppone themselves to the same, should 
not be omitted, we obeyed their request, 



and have made a short rehearsal of all such 
matters as concern religion, from the death 
of that notable servant of God, Mr Patrick 
Hamilton, unto the foresaid year, when 
that it pleased God to look upon us more 
mercifully than we deserved, and to give 
unto us greater boldness — albeit not without 
hazard and trouble — and better success in 
all our enterprises than we looked for, as 
the true narration of this second book shall 
witness. The preface whereof follows : 



PREFACE. 



Lest that Satan by our long silence 
shall take occasion to blaspheme, and to 
slander us the protestants of the realm of 
Scotland, as that our fact tended rather to 
sedition and rebellion, than to reformation 
of manners and abuses in religion ; we have 
thought expedient, so truly and briefly as 
we can, to commit to writing the causes 
moving us — us, we say, a great part of the 
nobility and barons of the realm — to take 
the sword of just defence, against those 



that most unjustly seek our destruction. 
And in this our confession we shall faith- 
fully declare what moved us to put our 
hands to the reformation of religion ; how 
we have proceeded in the same ; what we 
have asked, and what presently we require 
of the sacred authority ; to the end that 
our cause being known, as well our enemies 
as our brethren in all realms, may under- 
stand how falsely we are accused of tumult 
and rebellion, and how unjustly we are per- 



104 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1558 



secuted by France, and by their faction : as 
also that our brethren, natural Scotsmen, 
of whatsoever religion they be, may have oc- 
casion to examinate themselves, if they may 
with safe conscience oppone themselves to 
us, who seek nothing but " Christ Jesus his 
glorious evangel to be preached, his holy 
sacraments to be truly ministered, supersti- 
tion, tyranny, and idolatry to be suppressed 
in this realm and, finally, " The liberty 
of this our native country to remain free 
from the bondage and tyranny of strangers." 

While that the queen regent practised 
with the prelates, how that Christ Jesus 
his blessed evangel might utterly be sup- 
pressed within Scotland, God so blessed the 
labours of his weak servants, that no small 
part of the barons of this realm began to 
abhor the tyranny of the bishops : God did 
so open their eyes by the light of his word, 
that they could clearly discern betwixt ido- 
latry and the true honouring of God : yea, 
men almost universally began to doubt 
whether they might — God not offended — 
give their bodily presence to the mass, or 
yet offer their children to the papistical 
baptism. To the which doubts, when the 
most godly and most learned in Europe had 
answered, both by word and writ, affirming, 
" That neither of both we might do, with- 
out the extreme perils of our souls," we be- 
gan to be more troubled ; for then also be- 
gan men of estimation, and that bore rule 
amongst us, to examinate themselves con- 
cerning their duties, as well towards refor- 
mation of religion, as toward the just de- 
fence of their brethren most cruelly perse- 
cuted. And so began divers questions to 
be moved, to wit y " If that with safe con- 
science such as were judges, lords, and 
rulers of the people, might serve the upper 
powers in maintaining of idolatry, in perse- 
cuting their brethren, and in suppressing 
Christ's truth ?" Or, " Whether they to 
whom God in some case had committed the 
sword of justice, might suffer the blood of 
their brethren to be shed in their presence, 
without any declaration that such tyranny 
displeased them ?" By the plain scriptures 
it was found, " That a lively faith required 
a plain confession when Christ's truth is 



oppugned, that not only are they guilty that 
do evil, but also they that assent to evil." 
And plain it is, that they assent to evil, who 
seeing iniquity openly committed, by their 
silence seem to justify and allow whatsoever 
is done. 

These things being resolved, and suffi- 
ciently proven by evident scriptures of 
God, we began every man to look more di- 
ligently to his salvation : for the idolatry 
and tyranny of the clergy, called the church- 
men, were and are so manifest, that whoso- 
ever doth deny it, declareth himself igno- 
rant of God, and enemy to Christ Jesus. 
We therefore, with humble confession of 
our former offences, with fasting and sup- 
plication to God, began to seek some re- 
medy in so present a danger. And first, it 
was concluded, " That the brethren in 
every town at certain times should assem- 
ble together, to common prayers, to exer- 
cise, and reading of the scriptures, till it 
should please God to give the sermon [word] 
of exhortation to some for comfort and in- 
struction of the rest." 

And this our weak beginning did God 
so bless, that within a few months the 
hearts of many were so strengthened, that 
we sought to have the face of a church 
amongst us, and open crimes to be punish- 
ed without respect of person : and for that 
purpose, by common election, were elders 
appointed, to whom the whole brethren 
promised obedience : for at that time we 
had no public ministers of the word ; only 
did certain zealous men, amongst whom 
were the laird of Dun, David Forrest, Mr 
Robert Lockhart, Mr Robert Hamilton, 
William Harlow, and others, exhort their 
brethren, according to the gifts and graces 
granted unto them. But short after did God 
stir up his servant, Paul Meffan, — his lat- 
ter fall ought not to deface the work of 
God in him, * — who in boldness of spirit be- 
gan openly to preach Christ Jesus in Dun- 
dee, in divers parts of Angus, and in Fife ; 
and so did God work with him, that many 
began openly to renounce their old idolatry, 



The meaning of this will appear in the his- 
tory.— Ed. 



Book II.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



105 



and to submit themselves to Christ Jesus, 
and unto his blessed ordinances ; insomuch 
that the town of Dundee began to erect the 
face of a public church reformed, in the 
which the word was openly preached, and 
Christ's sacraments truly ministered. 

In this meantime did God send to us our 
dear brother, John Willock, a man godly, 
learned, and grave, who, after his short 
abode at Dundee, repaired to Edinburgh, 
and there, notwithstanding- his long and 
dangerous sickness, did so encourage the 
brethren by godly exhortations, that we 
began to deliberate upon some public refor- 
mation ; for the corruption in religion was 
such, that with safe conscience we could 
no longer sustain it. Yet because we would 
attempt nothing without the knowledge of 
the sacred authority, with one consent, 



after the deliberation of many days, it was 
concluded, that by our public and common 
supplication, we should attempt the favour, 
support, and assistance of the queen, then 
regent, to a godly reformation : and for that 
purpose, after that we had drawn our oration 
and petition as follovveth, we appointed 
from amongst us a man whose age and 
years deserved reverence, whose honesty 
and worship might have craved audience of 
any magistrate in earth, and whose faithful 
service to the authority in all times had 
been such, that in him could fall no suspi- 
cion of unlawful disobedience. This orator 
was that ancient and honourable father, Sir 
James Sandilands of Calder, knight, to 
whom we gave commission and power in 
all our names then present, before the 
queen regent thus to speak. 



THE FIRST 

ORATION AND PETITION 

OF THE 

PROTESTANTS OF SCOTLAND TO THE QUEEN REGENT. 



Albeit we have of long time contained 
ourselves in that modesty — most noble 
princess — that neither the exile of body, 
tinsell [loss] of goods, nor perishing of this 
mortal life was able to convene us to ask at 
your grace reformation and redress of those 
wrongs, and of that sore grief, patiently 
borne of us in bodies and minds of so long 
time ; yet are we now, of very conscience, 
and by the fear of our God, compelled to 
crave at your grace's feet, remedy against 
the most unjust tyranny used against your 
grace's most obedient subjects, by those that 
be called the estate ecclesiastical. Your 
grace cannot be ignorant what controversy 
hath been, and yet is, concerning the true 
religion, and right worshipping of God ; and 
how the clergy — as they will be termed — 
usurp to themselves such empire above the 
conscience of men, that whatsoever they 



command must be obeyed, and whatsoever 
they forbid must be avoided, without farther 
respect had to God's pleasure, command- 
ment, or will revealed to us in his most holy 
word, or else there abideth nothing for us 
but faggot, fire and sword ; by the which 
many of our brethren, most cruelly and 
most unjustly, have been stricken of late 
years within this realm, which now Ave find 
to trouble and wound our consciences. For 
we acknowledge it to have been our bounden 
duties before God, either to have defended 
our brethren from those cruel murderers, 
seeing we are a part of that power which 
God had established in this realm,* or else 



* The reformers here distinctly state the 
ground, and the only ground, on which they 
could lawfully resist the civil power. They tell 
it their duty to take up arms, not iu opposition 
O 



106 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. u. 1558 



to have given open testification of our faith 
with them, which now we offer ourselves 
to do, lest that by our continual silence we 
shall seem to justify their cruel tyranny; 
which doth not only displease us, but your 
grace's wisdom most prudently doth foresee, 
that for the quieting of this intestine dissen- 
tion, a public reformation, as well in the re- 
ligion, as in the temporal government, were 
most necessary; and to the performance 
thereof, most gravely and most godly, as we 
are informed, ye have exhorted as well the 
clergy as the nobility, to employ their study, 
diligence, and care. We, therefore, of con- 
science, dare no longer dissemble in so 
weighty a matter, which concerneth the 
glory of God and our salvation : neither 
now dare we withdraw our presence, nor 
conceal our petitions ; lest that the adver- 
saries hereafter shall object to us, that place 
was granted to reformation, and yet no 
man solicited for the same, and so shall 
our silence be prejudicial to us in time to 
come. And, therefore, we knowing no 
other order placed in this realm but your 
grace, and your grave counsel, set to amend 
as well the disorder ecclesiastical, as the 
defaults in the temporal regimen, most 
humbly prostrate ourselves before your feet, 
asking your justice, and your gracious help, 
against them that falsely traduce and accuse 
us, as that we were heretics and schismatics, 
under that colour seeking our destruction, 
for that we seek the amendment of their 
corrupt lives, and Christ's religion to be re- 
stored to the original purity. Farther, we 
crave of your grace, with open and patient 
ears, to hear those our subsequent requests ; 
and, to the joy and satisfaction of our 
troubled consciences, mercifully to grant 
the same, unless by God's plain word any 
be able to prove that justly they ought to 
be denied. 



to the law, but to lawless violence and murder. 
Neither was it, at least at this period, in defence 
of the gospel, but of their rights and privileges 
as subjects and citizens. They saw many of their 
fellow subjects put to death at the mere will of 
the clergy, without being legally convicted of 
any crime, but because they exercised the right 
of judging for themselves of the meaning of 
God's word, and of worshipping according as 
they understood him to command. This was a 
civil right which they possessed by the law of 



THE FIRST PETITION. 

" First, Humbly we ask, that as we have, 
of the laws of this realm, after long debate, 
obtained to read the holy books of the Old 
and New Testaments, in our common 
tongue, as spiritual food to our souls, so 
from henceforth it may be lawful that we 
may convene, publicly or privately, to our 
common prayers, in our vulgar tongue; to 
the end that we may increase and grow in 
knowledge, and be induced, in fervent and 
oft prayers, to commend to God the holy 
church universal, the queen our sovereign, 
her honourable and gracious husband, the 
stability of their succession, your grace re- 
gent, the nobility, and whole estate of this 
realm. 

" Secondly, If it shall happen in our 
said conventions any hard place of scrip- 
ture to be read, of the which no profit 
ariseth to the conveners, that it shall be 
lawful to any qualified person in know- 
ledge, being present, to interpret and open 
up the said hard places, to God's glory and 
to the profit of the auditory. And if any 
think that this liberty should be occasion o* 
confusion, debate, or heresy; we are con- 
tent that it be provided, that the said inter- 
pretation shall underlie the judgment of 
the most godly and most learned within 
the realm at this time. 

" Thirdly, That the holy sacrament of 
baptism may be used in the vulgar tongue ; 
that the godfathers and witnesses may not 
only understand the points of the league 
and contract made betwixt God and the in- 
fant, but also that the church then assem- 
bled, more gravely may be informed and in- 
structed of their duties, which at all times 
they owe to God, according to that pro- 
mise made unto him, when they were re- 
ceived into his household by the laver of 
spiritual regeneration. * 



the land as it stood even then. It was only the 
usurped authority of the church that made it 
unlawful to believe and worship according to 
the word of God ; and our reformers did right 
to resist such usurped authority by force, when 
they saw that milder measures had no effect ; 
and when they found themselves strong enough 
to protect their brethren who were no more 
guilty of any crime than themselves. — Ed. 

* The language of this article shows that they 
were not fully aware of the nature of christian 



Book IL] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



J 07 



" Fourthly y We desire, that the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's supper, or of his most 
blessed body and blood, may likewise be 
ministered to us in the vulgar tongue, and 
in both kinds, according to the plain insti- 
tution of our Saviour Christ Jesus. 

" And last, We most humbly require, 
that the wicked, slanderous, and detestable 
life of prelates, and of the state ecclesiasti- 
cal, may be so reformed, that the people by 



baptism, which is not to be wondered at, seeing 
they had so much to unlearn as well as to learn. 
It was not long till they understood the subject 
better, as appears by the following extract from 
Knox's Liturgy (so titled on the back), under 
" The order of Baptism." "Furthermore it is evi- 
dent, that baptism was ordained to be ministered 
in the element of water, to teach us, that like as 
water doth wash away the filth of the body, so 
inwardly doth the virtue of Christ's blood purge 
our souls from that corruption and deadly poison 
wherewith by nature we were infected, whose 
venomous dregs, although they continue in this 
our flesh, yet by the merits of his death are not 
imputed unto us, because the justice (righteous- 
ness) of Jesus Christ is made ours by baptism ; 
not that we think any such virtue or power to 
be included in the visible water or outward 
action, for many have been baptized, and yet 
never inwardly purged, but that our Saviour 
Christ, who commanded baptism to be minister- 
ed, will, by the power of his Holy Spirit, effect- 
ually work in the hearts of his elect in time 
convenient, all that is meant and signified by 
the same. And this the scripture calleth our 
regeneration, which standeth chiefly in these two 
points, in mortification, that is to say, a resist- 
ing of the rebellious lusts of the flesh, and in 
the newness of life, whereby we continually 
strive to walk in that pureness and perfection 
wherewith we are clad in baptism." This, 
though much better than the article in the above 
petition, is somewhat confused, especially at the 
conclusion, which seems to admit some sort of 
baptismal regenei'ation. It is uncertain what 
hand Knox had in this composition. The copy 
in my possession has his name only on the back 
of it, and it must be a reprint, as it bears date, 
Edinburgh, 1635, and contains a prayer for the 
then reigning king Charles I. and his queen, 
which must be an interpolation. The volume is 
as large as the English prayer book ; but the 
bulk of it consists of a metre version of the 
psalms in large print, many of them set to music, 
with the prose version in a small type in the 
margin. The prayers arc few and short, and 
seem to have been intended rather as directories 
for prayer, than prescribed forms. Thus, under 
the " administration of the Lord's supper," we 
have as follows : " Then he taketh bread, and 
giveth thanks in these words following, or like 
in effect." On presenting a child for baptism, 
it is required, that " the father, or in his absence, 
the god-father, shall rehearse the articles of his 
faith, which done, the minister expoundeth 
the same, as after folio weth." There are then 
five pages of an exposition of the apostles' creed, 
under four heads, 1st, concerning God the 



them have not occasion, as of many d lyl 
they have had, to contemn their ministry, 
and the preaching [gospel] whereof they 
should be messengers. And if they suspect, 
that we, rather envying their honours, or 
coveting their riches and possessions, than 
zealously desiring their amendment and sal- 
vation, do travail and labour for this refor- 
mation ; we are content that not only the 
rules and precepts of the New Testament, 



Father; 2d, Jesus Christ our Lord; 3d, our 
faith in the Holy Ghost; 4th, what is our faith 
concerning the church. A short prayer pre- 
cedes the baptism ; no ceremony whatever is 
enjoined ; but simply after the words, I baptize, 
&c, "and as he speaketh these words, he taketh 
water in his hand, and layeth it upon the child's 
forehead, which done, he giveth thanks as fol- 
io weth ; T ' concluding with a very short prayer. 

I have often wondered that our reformers did 
not see in the ordinance of baptism thus simply 
administered, something quite different from 
what the church of Rome calls " the sacrament 
that regenerates us." They knew that the Lord's 
supper was vitiated by having the most signifi- 
cant of the two symbols taken away. But a 
divine ordinance may be as much vitiated by cor- 
rupt and idolatrous additions as by mutilation. 
This is the case with popish baptism. To the sim- 
ple application of water, and that only as a sign, 
which is all that Christ requires, they add salt, 
oil or grease, saliva, and such nastiness, with 
the idolatrous sign of the cross, &c, to all which 
combined, they ascribe the power of the Holy 
Ghost in effecting the regeneration of every per- 
son who is subject to such a process. This is 
not the ordinance that Christ instituted ; and 
those who had received no better, ought to have 
been baptized with their households, when they 
professed the faith of the gospel, just as the 
apostles did to those who were converted from 
judaism or heathenism. Had the reformers 
been enlightened to have acted in this manner, 
it would have saved the protestant churches 
from the intrusion of thousands of worldly and 
wicked men, who had no title to Christianity 
but what arose from their christening, which 
they regarded with such superstitious reverence, 
that few would have renounced it but those 
who had really embraced the truth. The church 
of Rome treats protestants as unbaptized ; and 
such of them as are silly enough to become 
papists, must submit to popish baptism. Per- 
haps we would do well, in this at least, to 
take an example from an enemy. From cer- 
tain irregularities in the observance of a divine 
ordinance in the Corinthian church, the apostle 
Paul told them, " This is not to eat the Lord's 
Supper ;" and had such fooleries been practised 
with regard to the other christian institution, I 
think he would have said, this is not baptism. 1 
recollect of only one of the reformers who view- 
ed the subject in this light. Henry Forrest, 
who was burnt in St Andrews, as already rela- 
ted, p. 19, when they were degrading him from 
his " holy orders," said, " Take from me not 
only your own orders, but also vour own bap- 
tism." — Ed. 



108 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. IMS 



but also the writings of the ancient fathers, 
and the godly approved laws of Justinian, 
decide the controversy that is betwixt us 
and them : and if it shall be found, that 
either malevolently or ignorantly, we ask 
more than these three forenamed have re- 
quired, and continually do require of able 
and true ministers of Christ's church, we 
refuse not correction, as your grace, with 
right judgment, shall think meet. But and 
if all the forenamed shall damn that which 
we damn, and approve that which we re- 
quire, then we most earnestly beseech your 
grace, that notwithstanding the long con- 
suetude which they have had to live 
as they list, they be compelled to desist 
from ecclesiastical administration, or to dis- 
charge their duties as becometh true minis- 
ters; so that the grave and godly face of 
the primitive church reduced [being thus 
restored], ignorance may be expelled, true 
doctrine and good manners may once again 
appear in the church of this realm. These 
things we, as most obedient subjects, re- 
quire of your grace, in the name of the 
eternal God, and of his son Jesus Christ ; 
in presence of whose throne judicial, ye 
and all other that here on earth bear au- 
thority, shall give accounts of your tem- 
poral regimen. The spirit of the Lord 



* The reader must be struck with the great 
moderation of this petition, and the very small 
demand that was at first made by the reforming 
nobles. It would appear that they had not yet 
entertained the thought of overturning the esta- 
blished religion, but merely of reforming abuses 
in it. Had the clergy consented to reform their 
own lives, and to permit the preaching of the 
gospel, with the administration of ordinances, 
their order might, so far as appears, have been 
suffered to continue in all its gradations, and 
with all their endowments. But by refusing 
to concede what was reasonable, and compara- 
tively small, they provoked the reformers to 
take higher ground, and ultimately to overthrow 
the Romish religion, and get that of the refor- 
mation established in its stead. But though 
their demand was moderate, it embraced too 
many particulars. They should have content- 
ed themselves with claiming their civil right to 
worship God as they pleased, without being sub- 
ject to the interference of either church or state, 
prince or prelate. When they condescended on 
particulars, such as preaching the word, and the 
administration of sacraments, they concede to 
the civil power a right to judge of these things ; 
a right to grant liberty of conscience in certain 
matters purely religious, which implies a right 



Jesus move your grace s heart to justice 
and equity. Amen." * 

These our petitions being proponed, the 
estate ecclesiastical began to storm, and to 
devise all manner of lies to deface the 
equity of our cause. They bragged as 
though they would have public disputa- 
tion, which also we most earnestly requir- 
ed, two things being provided ; the former, 
that the plain and written scriptures of 
God should decide all controversy : Se- 
condly, That our brethren, of whom some 
were then exiled, and by them unjustly 
damned, should have free access to the said 
disputation, and safe conduct to return to 
their dwelling places, notwithstanding any 
process which before had been laid against 
them in matters concerning religion. But 
these being by them utterly denied, — for 
no judge would they admit but themselves 
their counsels, and canon law, — they and 
their faction began to draw certain articles 
of reconciliation, promising to us, if we 
would admit the mass, to stand in her for- 
mer reverence and estimation, grant purga- 
tory after this life, confess prayer to saints 
and for the dead, and suffer them to enjoy 
their accustomed rents, possession, and ho- 
nour, that then they would grant to us to 
pray and baptize in the vulgar tongue, so 



to withhold such liberty, with regard to the 
same things ; or at least with regard to other 
things, equally of a religious nature, not em- 
braced by their petition. Had they obtained for 
instance, all that they claimed on this occasion, 
it would only have been the preaching of the 
word, and the administration of sacraments, 
according to the then half enlightened state of 
their own minds ; and they would have had a 
new battle to fight with the civil power, when- 
ever they saw the necessity of farther reforma- 
tion. But had they taken the ground of right 
to worship God as they pleased, and had they 
carried this point, they would have had no more 
to do with the civil power, nor it with them, 
except in the mutual relation of governors and 
subjects, in regard to the affairs of this life, for 
which only civil government is instituted. By 
worshipping God as they pleased, I mean, of 
course, as they learned from his own word, 
their proper understanding of which was a mat- 
ter to be settled among themselves, but of which 
the civil power had nothing to do. This is, 
however, a subject which our reformers did not 
understand, which is not surprising. It requir- 
ed the increasing light of more than two centu- 
ries to make it generally understood, and there 
are many who do not understand it yet.— Ed. 



Book II.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



100 



that it were done secretly, and not in the 
open assembly. But the grossness of those 
articles were such that with one voice we 
refused them; and constantly craved justice 
of the queen regent, and a reasonable an- 
swer of our former petitions. The queen, 
then regent, a woman crafty, dissimulate, 
and false, thinking to make her profit of 
both parties, gave to us permission to use 
ourselves godly according to our desires, 
oUvAiued we should not make public as- 
semblies in Edinburgh or Leith ; and did 
promise her assistance to our preachers, 
until some uniform order might be estab- 
lished by a parliament. To them — we 
mean the clergy — she quietly gave signifi- 
cation of her mind; promising that how 
soon any opportunity should serve, she 
should so put order in their matters, that 
after they should not be troubled : for some 
say they gave her a long purse, 40,000 
pounds, says the chronicle, gathered by the 
laird of Earlshall. We, nothing suspect- 
ing her doubleness nor falsehood, departed, 
fully contented with her answer ; and did 
use ourselves so quietly, that for her plea- 
sure we put silence to John Douglas, who 
publicly would have preached in the town 
of Leith : for in all things we sought the 
contentment of her mind, so far forth as 



* This bishop, whom Knox generally desig- 
nates the governor' s bastard brother, showed 
himself, by the murder of this old man, a wor- 
thy successor of Cardinal Beaton. His name 
was John Hamilton. He was " natural son of 
James, the first earl of Arran, by Mrs Boyd, a 
gentlewoman of a very good family in the shire 
of Ayr ; he was abbot of Paisley in the year 
1525. As he had a fine genius for letters, he 
went over to France in pursuit of his studies, 
where he remained till his brother, the earl of 
Arran, was preferred to the regency upon the 
death of king James V." " We find him a 
member of queen Mary's privy council in the 
year 1566 ; and he performed the ceremony of 
baptizing her son, the prince." " He acted very 
cordially for the queen ; and he is greatly to be 
applauded, and she to be condemned, for her not 
following the sound advice which he gave her 
after the unfortunate battle of Langside, not to 
trust her person in England. After this he was 
declared a traitor by the earl of Morton, then 
become regent; whereupon, after lurking some- 
time among his friends and relations, he fled for 
security to the strong castle of Dumbarton ; at 
the surprise of which fortress, he fell into the 
ciiemi.es' hands, and was hanged publicly on a 
gibbet in the town of Stirling, the first day of 
April 1570." Keith's Scots Bishops, p. 38. This 
author would not treat the memory of a bishop 



God should not be offended with u-, for 
obeying her in things unlawful. 

Shortly after these things, that cruel 
tyrant and unmerciful hypocrite, falsely 
called bishop of St Andrews * apprehended 
that blessed martyr of Christ Jesus, Walter 
Mylne ; f a man of decrepit age, whom 
most cruelly and most unjustly he put to 
death by fire in St Andrews, the twenty- 
eighth day of April, the year of God 1558 
years : which thing did so highly offend 
the hearts of all godly, that immediately 
after his death began a new fervency 
amongst the whole people; yea, even in 
the town of St Andrews began the people 
plainly to damn such unjust cruelty : and 
in testification that they would that his 
death should abide in recent memory, there 
was casten together a great heap of stones 
in the place where he was burnt. The 
bishop and priests thereat offended, caused 
once or twice to remove the same, with 
denunciation of cursing, if any man there 
should lay any stone : but in vain was that 
wind blown ; for still was the heap made, 
till that the priests and papists did steal 
away the stones by night to build their 
walls, and to other their private uses. We, 
suspecting nothing that the queen regent 
was consenting to the forenamed murder, 



so disrespectfully as to suppose he had given any 
cause for his execution. It is true, notwith- 
standing, that besides his opposition to the au- 
thority of the young king, he was accessory to 
the assassination of the regent Murray, one of 
the most calamitous events that ever befell Scot- 
land, which he confessed in the following terms: 
" That he not only knew thairof, and wald not 
stopp it, but rather furtherit the deed thairof, 
quhilk he repentit, and askit God mercie for the 
same." 3J l Crie , s Knox, 1st ed. p. 325. — Ed. 

f There is an interesting account of this aged 
martyr in the Scots Worthies. He had been a 
parish priest in the days of popery ; but having 
embraced the reformed doctrine, he was con- 
demned by cardinal Beaton in 153S. He es- 
caped to the continent, where he married, and 
acquired more perfect knowledge of christian 
doctrine. He returned to Scotland, and lived 
many years in retirement, teaching and preach- 
ing as he had opportunity, till lie was discovered 
and committed to the flames in his eighty-second 
year. When led to the stake, he expressed a 
liope that he would be the last in Scotland that 
would sufl'er for the truth in that manner ; and 
so it happened. He no doubt saw, from the 
current of public opinion, that such tyranny 
would not be much longer endured ; and the in- 
dignation excited by his death, tended very nint h 
to forward the reformation. — Ed. 



110 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1558 



most humbly did complain of such unjust 
cruelty; requiring that justice, in such 
cases, should be ministered with greater in- 
difference. She, as a woman born to dis- 
semble and deceive, began, with us, to la- 
ment the cruelty of the bishop ; excusing 
herself as innocent in that cause ; for that 
the sentence was given without her know- 
ledge, because the man sometime had been 
a priest ; therefore, the bishop's officials did 
proceed upon him without any commission 
of the civil authority, ex officio, as they 
term it. 

We yet nothing suspecting her falsehood, 
required some order to be taken against 
such enormities, which she promised as be- 
fore ; but because short after there was a 
parliament to be holden, for certain affairs 
pertaining rather to the queen's profit parti- 
cular, nor [than] to the commodity of the com- 
monwealth, we thought good to expone our 
matter unto the whole parliament, and by 
them to seek some redress. We, therefore, 
with one consent, did offer unto the queen 
and parliament a letter in this tenor. 

THE FORM OF THE LETTER GIVEN TO THE 
PARLIAMENT. 

" Unto your grace, and unto you, right 
honourable lords of this present parliament, 
humbly mean and show your graces' 
faithful and obedient subjects ; that where 
we are daily molested, slandered, and in- 
jured by wicked and ignorant persons, 
placeholders of the ministers of the church, 
who most untruly cease not to infame [re- 
vile] us as heretics, and under that name 
they have most cruelly persecuted divers 
of our brethren, and farther intend to exe- 
cute their malice against us, unless by some 
godly order their fury and rage be bridled 
and stayed ; and yet in us they are able to 
prove no crime worthy of punishment, un- 
less that to read the holy scriptures in our 
assemblies, to invocate the name of God in 
public prayers, with all sobriety to inter- 



* The calling of a general council, to decide 
all controversies in religion, was a hopeless ex- 
pedient, though the reformers on the continent 
called long and eagerly for it. The pope claim- 
ed to have the sole right to call such a body to- 
gether, and indeed there was no other power 
recognized in the Romish or Western Church. 
Kings might call councils in their own domin- 
ions; but none of them could call a general 



pret and open the places of scripture that 
be read, to the farther edification of the 
brethren assembled, and truly according to 
Christ Jesus his holy institution to minister 
the sacraments, be crimes worthy of punish- 
ment. Other crimes we say in us they are 
not able to convict. And to the premises 
are we compelled ; for that the said place- 
holders discharge no part of their duties 
rightly to us, neither yet to the people sub- 
ject to us ; and, therefore, unless we M 
declare ourselves altogether unmindful of 
our own salvation, we are compelled, of 
very conscience, to seek how that we and 
our brethren may be delivered from the 
thraldom of Satan, For now it hath pleased 
God to open our eyes, that manifestly we 
see, that without extreme danger of our 
souls, we may in no ways communicate 
with the damnable idolatry, and intolerable 
abuses of the papistical church ; and, there- 
fore, most humbly require we of your grace, 
and of your right honourable lords, barons, 
and burgesses assembled in this present par- 
liament, prudently to weigh, and as it be- 
comes just judges, to grant these our most 
| just and reasonable petitions." 

" First, Seeing that the controversy in 
religion, which long had continued betwixt 
the protestants of Almanie [Germany], Hel- 
vetia [Switzerland], and other provinces, 
and the papistical church, is not yet de- 
cided by a lawful and general council ; and 
seeing that our consciences are likewise 
touched with the fear of God, as were theirs 
in the beginning of their controversy, we 
most humbly desire, that all such acts of 
parliament, as in the time of darkness gave 
power to the churchmen to execute their 
tyranny against us, by reason that we to 
them were delated as heretics, may be sus- 
pended and abrogated, till a general council, 
lawfully assembled, have decided all con- 
troversies in religion.* And lest that this 
mutation should seem to set all men at 



one. The pope did call one, not long after this 
period, which, after sitting eighteen years, left 
matters worse than it found them ; for it con- 
firmed and established many errors and abuses 
which were previously matters of indifference, 
at least not essential parts of Roman Catholic 
faith and worship. This was the council of 
Trent, the last of its kind ; and it is not proba- 
ble that there shall ever be another.—.??,/. 



Book I I.J 



OF RELIGION 1 



N SCOTLAND. 



Ill 



liberty to live as they list, we, secondly, re- 
quire, that it be enacted by this present par- 
liament, that the prelates and their officers 
be removed from place of judgment, only 
granting- unto them, not the less, the place 
of accusators in the presence of a temporal 
judge, before whom the churchmen accusa- 
tors shall be bounden to call any by them 
accused of heresy, to whom also they shall 
be bounden to deliver an authentic copy of 
all depositions, accusations, and process led 
against the person accused, the judge like- 
wise delivering the same to the party ac- 
cused, assigning unto him a competent term 
to answer the same, after he had taken suf- 
ficient caution judicio sisti. 

" Thirdly, we require, that all lawful de- 
fences be granted to the persons accused ; 
as if he be able to prove, that the witnesses 
be persons unable by law to testify against 
them, that then their accusations and depo- 
sitions be null according to justice. 

" Item, That place be granted to the party 
accused to explain and interpret his own 
mind and meaning; which confession we 
require to be inserted in public acts, and 
be preferred to the depositions of any wit- 
nesses, seeing that none ought to suffer for 
religion, that is not found obstinate in his 
damnable opinion. 

" Last, We require, that our brethren be 
not damned for heretics, unless by the mani- 
fest word of God they be convicted to have 
erred from that faith which the Holy Spirit 
witnesseth to be necessary to salvation, and 
if so they be, we refuse not but that they be 



* One cannot but regret to find these excellent, 
and otherwise enlightened men, admitting, and 
even pleading for the very principle on which 
the church of Home condemned them. They 
admit that heresy is a crime to be tried by the 
secular judge, and of course to be punished on 
conviction. If persons have erred from the 
faith, they " refuse not but that they be punish, 
ed according to justice, unless by wholesome ad- 
monition they can be reduced to a better mind." 
The church of Rome demands no more ; only 
they claim to be themselves the judges, while the 
reformers would appeal to the word of God , 
which, with persons of common sense, would no 
doubt give sentence in their favour against the 
church of Rome, upon the main points at issue 
between them. But we cannot put persons of 
common sense generally on the judicial bench, or 
put into their hands the sword of justice. Be- 
sides, there are many things in religion that re- 
quire a higher faculty than common sense to 



punished according to justice, unleSQ by 
wholesome admonition they can be reduced 
to a better mind.* 

" These things require we to be consider- 
ed of you, who occupy the place of the 
eternal God, who is God of order and truth, 
even in such sort as ye will answer in the 
presence of his throne judicial; requiring 
farther, that favourably ye will have respect 
to the tenderness of our consciences, and to 
the trouble which appeareth to follow in 
this commonwealth, if the tyranny of the 
prelates, and of their adherents, be not 
bridled by God and just laws. God move 
your hearts deeply to consider your own 
duties, and our present troubles." 

These our petitions did we first present 
to the queen regent, because that we were 
determined to enterprise nothing without 
her knowledge, most humbly requiring her 
favourably to assist us in our just action. 
She spared not amiable looks, and good 
words in abundance ; but always [neverthe- 
less] she kept our bill close in her pocket. 
When we required secretly of her grace, 
that our petitions should be proponed to 
the whole assembly, she answered, " That 
she thought not that expedient ; for then 
would the whole ecclesiastical estate be 
contrary to her proceedings, which at that 
time were great;" for the matrimonial 
crown was asked, and in that parliament 
granted : " but," said she, " how soon order 
can be taken with these things, which now 
may be hindered by the kirkmen, ye shall 
know my good mind ; and, in the mean- 



understand ; not another intellectual faculty, but 
a divine influence upon those which we have. 
This is a qualification which secular judges do 
not necessarily possess. They are generally men 
of the world, set up to attend" to the judicial part 
of the world's business, and know no more of 
religion than other worldly men. Heresy must 
be in the opinion of every man, that in religion 
which is contrary to his own convictions. 
Therefore, upon the principle which our reform- 
ers pleaded for, a conscientious papist could not 
help regarding them as heretics, and, of course, 
he had a right to punish them as such. Pro- 
testants could not but regard papists as idolaters, 
and on that account worthy of death, which, I 
believe, was generally held by them as an opin- 
ion ; but happily when they came into power, 
their humanity, and other better feelings, pre- 
vailed over their speculative principle, which 
would have made them persecutors to the death, 
as well as the papists were.— Ed. 



112 



HISTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1556 



time, whatsoever 1 may grant unto you, 
shall be gladly granted." We yet nothing 
suspecting- her falsehood, were content to 
give place for a time to her pleasure, and 
pretended reason ; and yet thought we ex- 
pedient somewhat to protest before the dis- 
solution of the parliament ; for our peti- 
tions were manifestly known to the whole 
assembly, and also how for the queen's plea- 
sure we ceased to pursue to the uttermost. 
Our protestation was formed in the manner 
following" : 

FORM OF THE PROTESTATION MADE IN PAR- 
LIAMENT. 

" It is not unknown to this honourable 
parliament, what controversy is now lately 
risen betwixt these that will be called the 
prelates and rulers of the church ; and a 
great number of us the nobility and com- 
monalty of this realm, for the true worship- 
ping of God, for the duty of ministers, for 
the right administration of Christ Jesus' 
holy sacrament : how that we have com- 
plained by our public supplications to the 
queen regent, that our consciences are bur- 
dened with unprofitable ceremonies, and 
are compelled to adhere to idolatry ; that 
such as take upon them the office ecclesias- 
tical, discharge no part thereof as becometh 
true ministers to do,- and, finally, that we 
and our brethren are most unjustly oppress- 
ed by their usurped authority. And also, 
we suppose it is a thing sufficiently known, 
that we were of mind at this present par- 
liament to seek redress of such enormities ; 
but, considering that the troubles of the 
time do not suffer such reformation as we, 
by God's plain word, do require, we are en- 
forced to delay that which most earnestly 
we desire : and yet, lest that our silence 
should give occasion to our adversaries to 
think, that we repent our former enter- 
prise, we cannot cease to protest for remedy 
against that most unjust tyranny, which we 
heretofore most patiently have sustained. 

" And, first, we protest, that seeing we 
cannot obtain a just reformation, according 
to God's word, that it be lawful to us to 
use ourselves in matters of religion aud 
conscience, as we must answer unto God, 
unto such time as our adversaries be able to 
prove themselves the true ministers of 



Christ's church, and to purge themselves of 
such crimes as we have already laid to their 
charge, offering ourselves to prove the same 
whensoever the sacred authority pleases to 
give us audience. 

" Secondly, we protest, that neither we, 
nor yet any other that godly list to join 
with us in the true faith, which is grounded 
upon the invincible word of God, shall in- 
cur any danger in life or lands, or other 
political pains, for not observing such acts 
as heretofore have passed in favour of our 
adversaries, neither yet for violating of 
such rites as man without God's command- 
ment or word has commanded. 

" We, thirdly, protest, that if any tumult 
or uproar shall arise among the members of 
this realm for the diversity of religion, and 
if it shall chance that abuses be violently 
reformed, that the crime thereof be not im- 
puted to us, who most humbly do now seek 
all things to be reformed by an order : but 
rather whatsoever inconvenience shall 
happen to follow for lack of order taking, 
that may be imputed to those that do refuse 
the same." 

" And, lastly, we protest, that these our re- 
quests, proceeding from conscience, do tend 
to no other end, but to the reformation of 
abuses in religion only ; most humbly be- 
seeching the sacred authority to take us, 
faithful and obedient subjects, in protection 
against our adversaries ; and to show unto 
us such indifference [impartiality] in our 
most just petitions, as it becometh God's 
lieutenants to do to those that in his name 
do call for defence against cruel oppressors 
and blood-thirsty tyrants." 

These our protestations publicly read, we 
desired them to have been inserted in the 
common register ; but that, by labours of 
our enemies, was denied unto us. Not the 
less the queen regent said, " Me will re- 
member what is protested, and me shall put 
good order after this to all things that now 
be in controversy :" And thus, after that 
she by craft had obtained her purpose, we 
departed in good esperance [hope] of her fa- 
vours, praising God in our hearts, that she 
was so well inclined towards godliness. The 
good opinion that we had of her sincerity, 
caused us not only to spend our goods, and 



Book II. J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



113 



hazard our bodies at her pleasure, but also, 
by our public letters written to that ex- 
cellent servant of God John Calvin, we 
did praise and commend her for excellent 
knowledge of God's word, and good will 
towards the advancement of his glory; re- 
quiring of him, that by his grave counsel, 
and godly exhortation, he would animate 
her grace constantly to follow that which 
godly she had begun. We did further 
sharply rebuke, both by word and writing, 
all such as appeared to suspect in her any 
venom of hypocrisy, or that were contrary 
to that opinion which we had conceived of 
her godly mind. But how far we were de- 
ceived in our opinion, and abused by her 
craft, did suddenly appear : for how soon 
that all things pertaining to the commodity 
of France were granted by us, and that 
peace was contracted betwixt king Philip 
and France, and England and us, she began 
to spew forth, and disclose the latent venom 
of her double heart. Then began she to 
frown, and to look frowardly to all such 
as she knew did favour the evangel of Jesus 
Christ. She commanded her household to 
use all abomination at Pasch ; and she her- 
self, to give example to others, did commu- 
nicate with that idol, in open audience : 
she controlled her household, and w^ould 
know where every one received their sa- 
crament. And it is supposed, that after 
that day the devil took more violent and 
strong possession in her heart than he had 
before ; for, from that day forward, she ap- 
peared altogether altered, insomuch that 
her countenance and facts [actions] did de- 
clare the venom of her heart. For incon- 
tinent she caused our preachers to be 
summoned ; for whom, when we made 
intercession, beseeching her grace not to 
molest them in their ministry, unless any 
man were able to convict them of false doc- 
trine, she could not bridle her tongue from 
open blasphemy, but proudly she said, " In 
despite of you and your ministers both, 
they shall be banished out of Scotland, al- 
beit they preached as truly as ever did St 
Paul.'' Which proud and blasphemous an- 
swer did greatly astonish us ; and yet ceas- 
ed we not most humbly to seek her favour, 
and by great diligence at last obtained, that 



the summons at that time were delayed. 
For to her were sent Alexander earl of 
Glencairn, and Sir Hugh Campbell of Lou- 
don, knight and sheriff of Ayr, to reason 
with her, and to crave some performance 
of her manifold promises; to whom she 
answered, " It became not subjects to bur- 
den their princes with promises, further than 
it pleased them to keep the same." Both 
these noblemen faithfully and boldly dis- 
charged their duty, and plainly forewarned 
her of the inconveniences that were to fol- 
low; wherewith she, somewhat astonished, 
said, " she would advise." 

In this meantime did the town of Perth, 
called St Johnstone, embrace the truth, 
which did provoke her to a new fury ; in 
which she willed the lord Ruthven, pro- 
vost of that town, to suppress all such 
religion there. To the which, when he 
answered, " That he could make their 
bodies to come to her grace, and to pros- 
trate themselves before her, till that she 
were fully satiate of their blood, but to 
cause them do against their conscience, he 
could not promise." She in fury did an- 
swer, " That he was too malapert to give 
her such answers ;" affirming, " that both 
he and they should repent it." She soli- 
cited Mr James Haliburton, provost of Dun- 
dee, to apprehend Paul Meffan, who, fear- 
ing God, gave secret advertisement to the 
man to avoid the town for a time. She 
sent forth such as she thought most able to 
persuade at Pasch, to cause Montrose, Dun- 
dee, St Johnstone, and other such places as 
had received the evangel, to communicate 
with the idol of the mass ; but they could 
profit nothing, the hearts of many were bent 
to follow the truth revealed, and did ab- 
hor superstition and idolatry. Whereat she 
more highly commoved, did summon again 
all the preachers to compear at Stirling, the 
tenth day of May, the year of God 1 jjf>. 
Which understood by us, we, with ail hum- 
ble obedience, sought the means how she 
might be appeased, and our preachers not 
molested : but when we could nothing pre- 
vail, it was concluded by the whole bre- 
thren, that the gentlemen of every country 
should accompany their preachers to the 
day and place appointed ; whereto all men 
p 



114 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



were most willing. And for that purpose 
the town of Dundee, the gentlemen of An- 
gus and Mearns, passed forward with their 
preachers to St Johnstone, without armour, 
as peaceable men, minding only to give 
confession with their preachers. And lest 
that such a multitude should have given 
fear to the queen regent, the laird of Dun, 
a zealous, prudent, and godly man, passed 
before to the queen, then being in Stirling, 
to declare to her, that the cause of their 
convocation was only to give confession 
with their preachers, and to assist them in 
their just defence. She understanding the 
fervency of the people, began to craft with 
him, soliciting him to stay the multitude, 
and the preachers also, with promise that 
she would take some better order. He, a 
man most gentle of nature, and most ad- 
dict to please her in all things not repugnant 
to God, wrote to those that then were assem- 
bled at St Johnstone, to stay, and not to come 
forward ; showing what promise and espe- 
rance [hope] he had of the queen's grace's fa- 
vours. At the reading of his letters, some did 
smell the craft and deceit, and persuaded to 
pass forward, unto the time a discharge of 
the former summons should be had, alleging, 
that otherwise their process of horning, or 
rebellion, should be execute against the 
preachers ; and so should not only they, 
but also all such as did accompany them, be 
involved in a like crime. Others did rea- 
son, that the queen's promise was not to be 
suspected, neither yet the laird of Dun's 
request to be contemned, and so did the 
whole multitude with their preachers stay. 

In this meantime that the preachers were 
summoned, to wit, the second of May 1559, 
arrived John Knox from France, who lodg- 
ing two nights only in Edinburgh, hearing 
the day appointed to his brethren, repaired 
to Dundee, where he earnestly required 
them, " That he might be permitted to as- 
sist his brethren, and to give confeseion of 
his faith with them :" which granted unto 
him, he departed unto St Johnstone with 
them ; where he began to exhort, accord- 
ing to the grace of God granted unto him. 
The queen, perceiving that the preachers 
did not compear, began to utter her malice; 
and, notwithstanding any request made in 



the contrary, gave commandment to put 
them to the horn, inhibiting all men, under 
pain of rebellion, to assist, comfort, receive, 
or maintain them in any sort ; which ex- 
tremity perceived by the said laird of Dun, 
he prudently withdrew himself, for other- 
wise, by all appearance, he had not escaped 
imprisonment ; for the master of Maxwell, 
a man zealous and stout in God's cause, as 
then appeared, under the cloak of another 
small crime, was that same day committed 
to ward, because he did boldly affirm, " That 
to the uttermost of his power, he would as- 
sist the preachers, and the congregation ; 
notwithstanding any sentence which was, 
unjustly, or should be, pronounced against 
them." The laird of Dun, coming to St 
Johnstone, exponed the case even as it was, 
and did conceal nothing of the queen's craft 
and falsehood. * Which understood, the 
multitude was so inflamed, that neither 
could the exhortation of the preachers, nor 
the commandment of the magistrate, stay 
them from destroying the places of idola- 
try ; the manner whereof was this : the 
preachers had declared before, how odious 
was idolatry in God's presence ; what com- 
mandment he had given for the destruction 
of the monuments thereof ; what idolatry 
and what abomination was in the mass. 
It chanced, that the next day, which was 
the 11th of May, after that the preachers 
were exiled, that after the sermon, which 
was vehement against idolatry, that a priest 
in contempt would go to the mass ; and to 
declare his malapert presumption, he would 
open up a glorious tabernacle, which stood 
upon the high altar. There stood beside 
certain godly men, and amongst others a 
young boy, who cried with a loud voice, 
" This is intolerable, that when God by his 
word hath plainly damned idolatry, we shall 
stand and see it used in despite." The 
priest hereat offended, gave the child a 
great blow; who in anger took up a stone, 
and casting at the priest, did hit the taber- 
nacle, and brake down an image ; and im- 
mediately the whole multitude that were 



* There is in this place, in the other copy, in- 
serted the summons against the friars, which is 
in the end of the first hook. 



I3ook II. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



115 



about cast stones, and put hands to the 
said tabernacle, and to all other monuments 
of idolatry, which they despatched, before 
the tenth man in the town were advertised, 
for the most part were gone to dinner. 
Which noised abroad, the whole multitude 
convened, not of the gentlemen, neither of 
them that were earnest professors, but of 
the rascal multitude, who finding nothing 
to do in that church, did run Avithout deli- 
beration to the grey and black friars ; and 
notwithstanding that they had within them 
very stark [strong] guards kept for their 
defence, yet were their gates incontinent 
burst up. The first invasion was upon 
the idolatry ; and thereafter the common 
people began to seek some spoil. And in 
very deed the Greyfriars was a place 
[so] well provided, that unless honest men 
had seen the same, we would have feared 
to report what provision they had ; their 
sheets, blankets, beds, and coverlets were 
such, that no earl in Scotland had the bet- 
ter ; their napery was fine ; they were but 
eight persons in convent, and yet had eight 
puncheons of salt beef, — consider the time 
of the year, the 1 1th of May, — wine, beer, 
and ale, besides store of victuals effeiring 
[corresponding] thereto. The like abun- 
dance was not in the blackfriars ; and yet 
there was more than became men profess- 
ing- poverty. The spoil was permitted to 
the poor ; for so had the preachers before 
threatened all men, that for covetousness' 
sake none should put their hand to such a 
reformation, that no honest man was en- 
riched thereby the value of a groat. Their 
conscience so moved them, that they suf- 
fered these hypocrites to take away what 
they could, of that which was in their 
places. The prior of Charterhouse was per- 
mitted to take with him even so much gold 
and silver as he was well able to carry. So 
were men's consciences before beaten with 
the word, that they had no respect to their 
own particular profit, but only to abolish 
idolatry, the places and monuments there- 
of; in which they were so busy and so la- 
borious, that within two days these three 
great places, monuments of idolatry, to 
ivit, the black and grey friars, and the 
Charterhouse monks, a building- of a 



wondrous cost and greatness, was so de- 
stroyed, that the walls only did remain 
of all these great edifications. Which, 
reported to the queen, she was so enrag- 
ed that she did vow " utterly to destroy 
St Johnstone, man, woman, and child, and 
to consume the same by fire, and there- 
after to salt it, in sign of a perpetual de- 
solation." We suspecting- nothing- such 
cruelty, but thinking that such words 
might escape her in choler, without purpose 
determined, because she was a woman set 
on fire by the complaints of those hypocrites 
who flocked unto her, as ravens to a car- 
rion ; we, we say, suspecting nothing such 
beastly cruelty, returned to our own houses; 
leaving in St Johnstone John Knox to in- 
struct, because they were young and rude 
[raw, untaught] in Christ. But she, set on 
fire, partly by her own malice, partly by her 
friends in France, and not a little by bribes, 
which she and Monsieur d'Oysel received 
from the bishops and priests here at home, 
did continue in her rage. And, first, she 
sent for all the nobility, to whom she 
complained, " That we meant nothing but 
rebellion." She did grievously aggreage* 
the destruction of the Charterhouse, be- 
cause it was a king's foundation ; and there 
was the tomb of king James the first ; and 
by such other persuasions, she made the 
most part grant to pursue us. And then 
incontinent sent she for her Frenchmen ; 
for that was, and ever has been her joy 
to see Scotsmen dip one with another's 
blood. No man was at that time more 
frank against us than was the duke, led by 
the cruel beast, the bishop of St Andrews, 
and by those that yet abuse him, the 
abbot of Kilwinning, and Matthew Hamilton 
of Milburn, two chief enemies to Christ 
Jesus ; yea, and enemies to the duke, and 
to his whole house, but in so far as thereby 
they procure their particular profit. These 
and such other pestilent papists ceased not 
to cast faggots in the fire, continually cry- 
ing, "Forward upon these heretics; we 
shall once rid this realm of them." The 
certainty hereof coming to our knowledge, 



t Aggreage, aggravate.—" lament" is the 
word used in the suppressed edition. — Ed. 



116 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



some of us repaired to the town again, 
about the 22d day of May, and there did 
abide, for the comfort of our brethren : 
where, after invocation of the name of 
God, we began to put the town and our- 
selves in such strength, as we thought might 
best stand for our defence. And, because 
we were not utterly despaired of the 
queen's favour, we caused form a letter to 
her grace as follows : 

" To the queen's grace, regent, all humble 
obedience and duty premised. 

" As heretofore, with jeopard of our lives, 
and yet willing hearts, Ave have served the 
authority of Scotland, and your grace, now 
regent in this realm, in service to our bodies 
dangerous and painful; so now, with most 
dolorous minds, we are constrained, by un- 
just tyranny purposed against us, to de- 
clare unto your grace, that except this 
cruelty be stayed by your wisdom, we will 
be compelled to take the sword of just de- 
fence, against all that shall pursue us for 
the matter of religion, and for our con- 
science' sake, which ought not, nor may 
not be subject to mortal creatures, farther 
than by God's word man is able to prove 
that he hath power to command us. We 
signify more unto your grace, that if by 
rigour we be compelled to seek the ex- 
treme defence, that we will not only no- 
tify our innocence and petitions to the king 
of France, to our mistress, and to her hus- 
band, but also to the princes and council of 
every christian realm, declaring unto them, 
that this cruel, unjust, and most tyrannical 
murder, intended against us, against towns 
and multitudes, was, and is the only cause 
of our revolt from our accustomed obedi- 
ence, which, in God's presence, we faith- 
fully promise to our sovereign mistress, to 
her husband, and unto your grace regent ; 
providing, that our consciences may live in 
that peace and liberty which Christ Jesus 
has purchased unto us by his blood ; and 
that we may have his word truly preached, 
and holy sacraments rightly ministrate 
unto us ; without the which we firmly pur- 
pose never to be subject to mortal man ; 
for better, we think, to expose our bodies 
to a thousand deaths, than to hazard our 
souls to perpetual condemnation, by deny- 



ing Christ Jesus, and his manifest verity, 
which thing not only do they that commit 
open idolatry, but also all such as seeing their 
brethren unjustly pursued for the cause of 
religion, and having sufficient means to 
comfort and assist them, do, nevertheless, 
withdraw from them their dutiful support. 
We would not your grace should be de- 
ceived by the false persuasions of these 
cruel beasts, the kirkmen, who affirm, that 
your grace needeth not greatly to regard 
the loss of us that profess Christ Jesus in 
this realm. If — as God forbid — ye give 
ear to their pestilent counsel, and so use 
against us this extremity pretended ; it is 
to be feared, that neither ye, nor your pos- 
terity, shall at any time after this, find 
that obedience and faithful service within 
this realm, which at all times ye have found 
in us. We declare our judgment freely, 
as true and faithful subjects. God move 
your grace's heart favourably to interpret 
our faithful meaning. Farther, advertising 
your grace, that the self same thing, to- 
gether with all things we have done, or 
yet intend to do, we will notify by our 
letters to the king of France; asking of 
you, in the name of the eternal God, and as 
your grace tenders the peace and quietness 
of this realm, that ye invade us not with 
violence, till we receive answer from our 
mistress, her husband, and from their ad- 
vised council there. And thus we commit 
your grace to the protection of the Omni- 
potent. From St Johnstone, the 22d of 
May, 1559." 

Sic subscribitur, 
" Your grace's obedient subjects in all 
things, not repugning to God, 
" The faithful congregation of Jesus 
Christ in Scotland." 
In the same tenor we wrote to Monsieur 
d'Oysel in French, requiring of him, that 
by his wisdom he would mitigate the 
queen's rage, and the rage of the priests ; 
otherwise that flame, which then began to 
burn, would so kindle, that when some men 
would, it could not be slockened[ quenched]. 
Adding farther, that he declared himself no 
faithful servant to his master, the king of 
France, if for the pleasure of the priests, he 
would persecute us and so compel us to 



Book II. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



117 



take the sword of just defence. In like 
manner we wrote to captain Serra la 
Bourse, and to all the other captains, and 
French soldiers in general, admonishing 
them, that their vocation was not to fight 
against us natural Scotsmen ; neither yet 
that they had any such commandment of 
their master. We beseeched them, therefore, 
not to provoke us to enmity against them, 
considering, that they had found us favour- 
able in their most extreme necessities. We 
declared farther unto them, that if they 
entered in hostility and bloody war 
against us, that the same should remain 
longer than their and our lives, to wit, even 
in all posterities to come, so long as na- 
tural Scotsmen should have power to re- 
venge such cruelty, and most horrible in- 
gratitude. 

These letters were caused be spread 
abroad in great abundance; to the end that 
some might come to the knowledge of men. 
The queen regent's letter was laid upon 
her cushion in the chapel royal of Stirling, 
where she accustomed to sit at mass. She 
looked upon it, and put it in the pocket of 
her gown. Monsieur d'Oysel and the 
captains received theirs delivered even by 
their own soldiers — for some amongst them 
were favourers of the truth — who after the 
reading of them, began to rive their own 
beards ; for that was the modest behaviour 
of Monsieur d'Oysel, when the truth was 
told unto him, so that it repugned to his 
fantasy. These our letters were suppressed 
to the uttermost of their power, and yet 
they came to the knowledge of many. But 
the rage of the queen and priests could not 
be stayed, but forward they move against 
us, who then were but a very few and 
mean number of gentlemen in St Johnstone. 
We perceiving the extremity to approach, 
did write to all brethren, to repair towards 
us for our relief, to the which we found all 
men so ready bent, that the work of God 
was evidently to be espied ; and because we 
would omit no diligence to declare our in- 
nocency to all men, we formed a letter to 
those of the nobility — who then persecuted 
us — as after follows : 

" To the nobility of Scotland, the con- 
gregation of Christ Jesus within the 



same, desire the spirit of righteous 
judgment. 

" Because we are not ignorant, that the 
nobility of this realm who now persecute 
us, employing their whole study and force 
to maintain the kingdom of Satan, of su- 
perstition and idolatry, are yet not the less 
divided in opinion ; we, the congregation 
of Christ Jesus, by you unjustly persecuted, 
have thought good, in one letter, to write 
unto you severally. We say, ye are divid- 
ed in opinion : for some of you think that 
we who have taken upon us this enter- 
prise, to remove idolatry, and the monu- 
ments of th e same, to erect the true preach- 
ing of Christ Jesus in the bounds commit- 
ted to our charges, are heretics, seditious 
men, and troublers of this commonwealth ; 
and, therefore, that no punishment is suffi- 
cient for us : and so, blinded with this rage, 
and under pretence to serve the authority, 
ye proclaim war, and threaten destruction, 
without all order of law against us. To 
you, we say, that neither your blind zeal, 
neither yet the colour of authority, shall ex- 
cuse you in God's presence, who commands 
' none to suffer death till that he be openly 
convicted in judgment, to have offended 
against God, and against his law written 
which no mortal creature is able to prove 
against us. For whatsoever we have done, 
the same we have done at God's command- 
ment, who plainly commands idolatry, and 
all monuments of the same, to be destroyed 
and abolished. Our earnest and long re- 
quest has been, and yet is, that in open as- 
sembly it may be disputed, in presence of 
indifferent auditors, ' Whether that these 
abominations, named by the pestilent pa- 
pists, religion, which they by fire and 
sword defend, be the true religion of Jesus 
Christ or not ?' Now, this our humble 
request denied unto us, our lives are sought 
in a most cruel manner ; and ye, the nobi- 
lity, whose duty is to defend innocents 
and to bridle the fury and rage of wicked 
men — were it of princes or emperors — do, 
notwithstanding, follow their appetites, and 
arm yourselves against us, your brethren 
and natural countrymen; yea, against us 
that be innocent and just, as concerning all 
such crimes as be laid to our charges. If 



118 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[&. d. 1559 



ye think that we be criminal because we 
dissent from your opinions, consider, we be- 
seech you, that the prophets under the law, 
the apostles of Christ Jesus after his ascen- 
sion, his primitive kirk, and holy martyrs, 
did dissent from the whole world in their 
days ; and will ye deny but that their 
action was just, and that all those that per- 
secuted them were murderers before God ? 
May not the like be true this day ? What 
assurance have ye this day of your religion, 
which the world had not that day of theirs ? 
Ye have a multitude that agree with you, 
and so had they ; ye have antiquity of time, 
and that they lacked not ; ye have coun- 
cils, laws, and men of reputation that have 
established all things, as ye suppose ; but 
none of all these can make any religion ac- 
ceptable before God, which only depends 
upon his own will, revealed to man in his 
most sacred word. Is it not then a wonder 
that ye sleep in so deadly a security, in the 
matter of your own salvation, considering 
that God gives unto you so manifest tokens, 
that ye and your leaders are both declined 
from God ? For if * the tree shall be 
judged by the fruit' — as Christ Jesus af- 
firmed, ' that it must be' — then, of neces- 
sity it is, that your prelates, and the whole 
rabble of your clergy, be evil trees. For, 
if adultery, pride, ambition, drunkenness, 
covetousness, incest, unthankfulness, op- 
pression, murder, idolatry, and blasphemy 
be evil fruits, there can none of that gene- 
ration, which claim to themselves the title 
of kirkmen, be judged good trees; for all 
these pestilent and wicked fruits do they 
bring forth in great abundance. And if 
they be evil trees — as ye yourselves must 
be compelled to confess they are — advise 
prudently with what consciences ye can 
maintain them, to occupy the room and 
place in the Lord's vineyard. Do ye not 
consider, that in so doing, ye labour to main- 
tain the servants of sin in their filthy cor- 
ruptions ; and so consequently ye labour, 
that the devil may reign, and still abuse 
this realm, by all iniquity and tyranny, and 
that Christ Jesus and his blessed evangel 
be suppressed and extinguished. 

" The name and the cloak of the authority 
—which ye pretend — will nothing excuse 



you in God's presence, but rather shall ye 
bear double condemnation ; for that ye 
burden God, as that his good ordinances 
were the cause of your iniquity. ' All 
authority which God has established, is 
good and perfect, and is to be obeyed of all 
men, yea, under the pain of damnation : 
but do ye not consider, that there is a great 
difference betwixt the authority which is 
God's ordinance, and the persons of those 
who are placed in authority. The autho- 
rity and God's ordinance can never do 
wrong; for it commands, 'That vice and 
wicked men be punished, and virtue and 
virtuous and just men be maintained; but 
the corrupt persons placed in this authority 
may offend, and most commonly do, con- 
trary to his authority. Are then corruptions 
of persons to be followed, by reason he is 
clad with the name of authority ? Or, 
shall those that obey the wicked command- 
ment of those that are placed in authority, 
j be excused before God ? Not so ; not so ; 
| but the plagues and vengeance of God taken 
upon kings, their servants, and subjects, do 
witness to us the plain contrary. Pharaoh 
was a king, and had his authority of God, 
who commanded his subjects to murder and 
torment the Israelites, and at last most 
cruelly to persecute their lives : but was 
their obedience — blind rage it should be 
called — excusable before God ? The uni- 
versal plague did plainly declare, that the 
wicked commander, and those that obeyed, 
were alike guilty before God. And if the 
example of Pharaoh shall be rejected, be- 
cause he was an ethnic [heathen], then let 
1 us consider the fact of Saul : he was a 
king anointed of God, appointed to reign 
over his people, he commanded to persecute 
David, because, as he alleged, David was 
a traitor, an usurper of the crown, and like- 
wise commanded Abimelech the high priest 
and his fellows to be slain ; but did God ap- 
prove any part of this obedience ? Evi- 
dent it is that he did not. And think ye, 
that God will approve in you that which he 
did damn in others ? Be not deceived, with 
God there is no such particularity ; if ye 
obey the unjust commandment of wicked 
rulers, ye shall suffer God's vengeance and 
just punishment with them ; and, therefore, 



Book 1.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



110 



as ye tender your own salvation, we most 
earnestly require of you moderation, and 
that ye stay yourselves, and the fury of 
others, from persecuting 1 of us, till our 
cause be tried in open and lawful judgment. 

" And now, to you that are persuaded of 
the justice of our cause, that sometimes 
have professed Christ Jesus with us, and 
that also have exhorted us to this enter- 
prise, and yet have left us in our extreme 
necessity, or at least look through your 
fingers, in this our trouble, as that the mat- 
ter appertained not to you ; we say, that 
unless — all fear and worldly respects set 
aside — ye join with us yourselves, that as 
of God ye are reputed traitors, so shall ye 
be excommunicate from our society, and 
from all participation with us in the admi- 
nistration of the sacraments. The glory of 
this victory, which God shall give to his 
church, yea, even in the eyes of men, shall 
not appertain to you ; but the fearful judg- 
ments, that apprehended Ananias and his 
wife Sapphira, shall apprehend you and your 
posterity. Ye may perchance contemn, and 
despise the excommunication of the kirk — 
now by God's mighty power erected among 
us — as a thing 1 of no force ; but yet doubt 
we nothing, but that our kirk, and the true 
ministers of the same, have the same power 
which our Master, Christ Jesus, granted to 
his apostles in these words, ' Whose sins ye 
shall forgive, shall be forgiven ; and whose 
sins ye retain, shall be retained ;' and that, 
because they preach, and we believe the 
same doctrine which is contained in his 
most blessed word. And, therefore, except 
that ye will contemn Christ Jesus, neither 
can ye despise our threatening, neither yet 
refuse us calling for your just defence. By 
your fainting, and by abstracting of your 
support, the enemies are encouraged, think- 
ing, that they shall find no resistance ; in 
which point — God willing — they shall be 
deceived : for if they were ten thousand, 
and we but one thousand, they shall not 
murder the least of our brethren, but we — 
God assisting us — shall first commit our 
lives in the hands of God for their de- 
fence. But this shall aggravate your dam- 
nation, for ye declare yourselves both trai- 
tors to the truth once professed, and mur- 



derers of us, and of your brethren, from 
whom ye draw your dutiful and promised 
support, whom — to man's judgment — your 
only presence might preserve from this 
danger; for our enemies look not to the 
power of God, but to the force and strength 
of man. When the number is mean to re- 
sist them, then rage they as bloody wolves ; 
but a party equal or able to resist them in 
appearance, doth bridle their fury. Exa- 
mine your own consciences, and weigh that 
sentence of our Master, Jesus Christ, say- 
ing, ' Whosoever denies me, or is ashamed 
of me before men, 1 shall deny him before 
my Father.' Now is the day of his battles 
in this realm ; if ye deny us your brethren, 
suffering- for his name's sake, ye do also 
deny him, as himself doth witness in these 
words, ' Whatsoever ye did unto any of 
those little ones, that ye did unto me; and 
what ye did not to one of these little ones, 
that ye did not unto me.' If these sentences 
be true, as concerning meat, drink, cloth- 
ing, and such things as appertain to the 
body, shall they not be likewise true in 
those things that appertain to the preserva- 
tion of the lives of thousands, whose blood 
is now sought, for professing of Christ 
Jesus ? And thus shortly leave we you, 
who sometimes have professed Christ Jesus 
with us, to the examination of your own 
consciences. And yet once again, of you, 
who blinded by superstition persecute us, 
we require moderation, till our cause may 
be tried, which if ye will not grant unto us 
for God's cause, yet we desire you to have 
respect to the preservation of our common 
country, which we cannot sooner betray in 
the hands of strangers, than that one of us 
destroy and murder another. Consider 
our petitions, and call for the spirit of right- 
eous judgment." 

These our letters being divulged, some 
men began to reason whether of conscience 
they might invade us or not, considering 
that we offered due obedience to the autho- 
rity; requiring nothing but the liberty of 
conscience, and our religion and fact 
[actions] to be tried by the word of God. 
Our letters came with convenient expedi- 
tion to the hands of the brethren in Cun- 
ningham and Kyle, Mho convened at the 



120 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. t>. 1559 



kirk of Craigie, where, after some contra- 
rious reasons, Alexander, earl of Glencairn, 
in zeal, burst forth in those words, " Let 
every man serve his conscience. I will, by 
God's grace, see my brethren in St John- 
stone : yea, albeit never a man shall accom- 
pany me, I will go, and if it were but with 
a pick upon my shoulder ; for I had rather 
die with that company than live after 
them." These words so encouraged the 
rest, that all decreed to go forward, as that 
they did so stoutly, that when the lion 
herald in coat armour, commanded all men 
under the pain of treason to return to their 
houses by public sound of trumpet in Glas- 
gow, never man obeyed that charge, but all 
went forward, as we will after hear. When 
it was clearly understood that the prelates 
and their adherents, suppressing our peti- 
tions as far as in them lay, did kindle the 
fury of all men against us, it was thought 
expedient to write unto them some declara- 
tion of our minds, which we did in this 
form following- : 

" To the generation of antichrist, the 
pestilent prelates, and their shave- 
lings within Scotland, the congregation 
of Christ Jesus within the same sayeth, 
" To the end that ye shall not be abused, 
thinking- to escape just punishment, after 
that ye in your blind fury have caused the 
blood of many [to] be shed, this we notify and 
declare unto you, that if ye proceed in this 
your malicious cruelty, ye shall be entreat- 
ed — wheresoever ye shall be apprehended— 
as murderers and open enemies to God and 
mankind : and, therefore, betimes cease 
from this your bloody rag-e. Remove first 
from yourselves your bands of bloody men 
of war, and reform yourselves to a more 
quiet life, and thereafter mitigate ye the 
authority, which, without crime committed 
upon our part, ye have inflamed ag-ainst us ; 
or else be ye assured, that with the same 
measure that ye have measured against us ; 
and yet intend to measure to others, it 
shall be measured unto you ; that is, as ye 
by tyranny intend not only to destroy our 
bodies, but also by the same to hold our 
souls in bondage of the devil, subject to 
idolatry, so shall we with all our force and 
power, which God shall grant unto us, ex- 



ecute just vengeance and punishment upon 
you; yea, we shall begin that same war 
that God commanded the Israelites to exe- 
cute against the Canaanites, that is, contract 
of peace shall never be made, till ye desist 
from your open idolatry and cruel persecu- 
tion of God's children.* And this we sig* 
nify unto you in the name of the eternal 
God, and of his Son, Jesus Christ, whose 
verity we profess, and evangel we will have 
preached, and holy sacraments rightly mini- 
strate, so long as God will assist us to 
gainstand your idolatry. Take this for ad- 
vertisement, and be not deceived." 

These our requests and advertisements 
notwithstanding, Monsieur d'Oysel and his 
Frenchmen, with the priests and their 
bands, marched forward against us to St 
Johnstone, and approached within ten miles 
to the town. Then repaired the brethren 
from all quarters for our relief : the gentle- 
men of Fife, Angus, and Mearns, with the 
town of Dundee, were they that first 
hazarded to resist the enemy ; and for that 
purpose was chosen a piece of ground, a 
mile or more distant from the town. In 
this meantime the lord Ruthven, provost 
of the town of St Johnstone, and a man 
whom many judged stout and godly in that 
action — as in very deed he was even to his 
last breath — left the town, and first depart- 
ed to his own place, and after to the queen; 
whose defection and revolt was a great dis- 
couragement to the hearts of many : and 
yet did God so comfort his [own], that 
within the space of twelve hours after, the 
hearts of all men were erected again. For 
these that were then assembled did not so 
much hope victory by their own strength, 
as by the power of him whose verity they 
professed, and began one to comfort an- 
other till the whole multitude were erected 
in a reasonable esperance [hope of success]. 
The day after that the lord Ruthven de- 
parted, which was the 24th of May, came 
the earl of Argyle, lord James, prior of St 
Andrews, and the lord Semple, directed 
from the queen regent to inquire the cause 
of that convocation of lieges there. To 

* This was athreat which they did not execute 
when they had it in their power, as we shall see 
by and by. Ed. 



JCOOK 11. J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



121 



whom, when it was answered, that it was 
only to resist that cruel tyranny devised 
against that poor town, and the inhabitants 
of the same, they asked, " if we minded 
not to hold that town against the authority, 
and against the queen regent." To the 
which question answered the lairds of Dun 
and Pitarrow, with the congregation of 
Angus and Mearns, the master of Lindsay, 
the lairds of Lundie, Balwaird, and other 
barons of Fife, " That if the queen's grace 
would suffer the religion there begun to 
proceed, and not trouble their brethren and 
sisters that had professed Christ Jesus with 
them, that the town, they themselves, and 
whatsoever to them pertained, should be at 
the queen's commandment." Which an- 
swer understood, the earl of Argyle and the 
prior — who both were then protestants — 
began to muse, and said plainly, that they 
were far otherwise informed by the queen, 
to wit, " That we meant no religion, but a 
plain rebellion." To the which when we 
had answered simply, and as the truth was, 
to wit, " That we convened for no other 
purpose, but only to assist our brethren, 
who then were most unjustly persecuted ; 
and, therefore, we desired [them] faithfully 
to report our answer, and to be intercessors 
to the queen regent, that such cruelty 
should not be used against us, considering 
that we had offered in our former letters, 
as well to the queen's grace, as to the no- 
bility, our matter to be tried in lawful judg- 
ment. They promised fidelity in that be- 
half, which also they kept. The day after, 
which was the 25th day of May, before that 
the said lords departed, in the morning John 
Knox desired to speak with the same lords, 
which granted unto him, he was convoyed 
to their lodging by the laird of Balwaird ; 
and thus he began : 

THE ORATION OF JOHN KNOX TO THE LORDS. 

" The present troubles, honourable lords, 
ought to move the hearts, not only of the 
true servants of God, but also of all such 
as bear any favour to their country, and 
natural countrymen, to descend within 
themselves and deeply to consider what 
shall be the end of this pretended tyranny. 
The rage of Satan seeketh the destruction 
of all those that within this realm profess 



Christ Jesus; and they that inflame the 
queen's grace, and you the nobles against 
us, regard not who prevail, provided that 
they may abuse the world, and live at their 
pleasure, as heretofore they have done. 
Yea, I fear that some seek nothing more 
than the effusion of Scotish blood, to the 
end that your possessions may be the more 
patent to others. But, because that this 
is not the principal [matter to] which I 
have to speak, omitting the same to be 
considered by the wisdom of those to whom 
the care of the commonwealth appertained]. 
1st, I most humbly require of you, my 
lords, in my name, to say to the queen's 
grace regent, that we, whom she in her 
blind rage doth persecute, are God's ser- 
vants, faithful and obedient subjects to 
the authority of this realm ; that that reli- 
gion, which she pretendeth to maintain by 
fire and sword, is not the true religion of 
Christ Jesus, but is express contrary to 
the same ; a superstition devised by the 
brain of man ; which I offer myself to 
prove against all that within Scotland will 
maintain the contrary, liberty of tongue 
being granted unto me, and God's written 
word being admitted for judge. 2d, I 
farther require your honours, in my name, 
to say to her grace, that as of before I have 
written, so now 1 say, that this her enter- 
prise shall not prosperously succeed in the 
end, albeit for a time she trouble the saints 
of God. For she fights not against man 
only, but against the eternal God and his 
invincible verity ; and, therefore, the end 
shall be her confusion, unless betimes she 
repent and desist. These things require I 
of you, in the name of the eternal God, as 
from my mouth, to say unto her grace : 
adding, that I have been, and I am a more 
assured friend to her grace, than they that 
either flattering her grace, are servants of 
her corrupt affections or appetites, or else 
' inflame her against us, who seek nothing 
but God's glory to be advanced, vice to be 
suppressed, and verity to be maintained in 
this poor realm." 

They all three did promise to report his 
words, so far as they could, which after- 
wards we understood they did ; yea, the 
lord Semple himself, a man sold under sin, 
Q 



122 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



enemy to God, and to all godliness, did 
make such report, that the queen was some- 
what offended, that any man should use 
such liberty in her presence. She still 
proceeded in her malice ; for immediately 
thereafter, she sent her lion herald, with 
letters, straitly charging all men to avoid 
the town, under the pain of treason : which 
letters, after he had declared to the chief 
men of the congregation, he publicly pro- 
claimed the same, upon Sunday, the 27th 
of May. In this meantime, came sure 
knowledge to the queen, to the duke, and 
to Monsieur d'Oysel, that the earl of Glen- 
cairn, the lords Ochiltree and Boyd, the 
young sheriff of Ayr, the lairds of Craigie- 
wallace, Cesnock, Carnell, Bar, Garthgirth, 
and the whole congregation of Kyle and 
Cunningham, approached for our relief ; and 
in Tery deed they came in such diligence, and 
such a number, that as the enemy had just 
cause to fear, so have all they that professed 
Christ Jesus matter to praise God, for their 
fidelity and stout courage in that need ; for 
by their presence, was the tyranny of the 
enemy bridled. Their diligence was such, 
that albeit the passages by Stirling, and 
six miles above, were stopped, — for there 
lay the queen with her bands, and caused 
cut the bridges upon the waters of Forth, 
Gudie,*and Teith, above Stirling,— yet made 
they such expedition through desert and 
mountain, that they prevented the enemy, 
and approached within six miles of our 
camp, which then lay without the town, 
awaiting upon the enemy, before that any 
assured knowledge came to us of their com- 
ing. Their number was of good count, 
five and twenty hundred men, whereof 
there were twelve hundred horsemen. The 
queen understanding how the said earl and 
lords, with their company approached, caus- 
ed to beset all ways, that no advertisement 
should come to us, to the end, that we, 
despairing of support, might condescend to 
such appointment as she required ; and sent 
first to require, that some discreet men of 
our number would come and speak the 



* Gudie water flows from the lake of ATen- 
teith, and enters the Forth a little below Leckie. 
—Ed. 



duke and Monsieur d'Oysel, — who then 
with their army lay at Auchterarder, ten 
miles from St Johnstone, — to the end that 
some reasonable appointment might be had. 
She had persuaded the earl of Argyle, and 
all others, that we meant nothing but re- 
bellion ; and therefore had he promised 
unto her, that, in case we should not stand 
content with a reasonable appointment, he 
should declare himself plain enemy to us, 
notwithstanding that he professed the same 
religion with us. From us were sent the 
laird of Dud, the laird Innerwharity, Tho- 
mas Scott of Abbotshall, to hear what ap- 
pointment the queen would offer. The 
duke and Monsieur d'Oysel required that 
the town should be made patent, and that 
all things should be referred to the queen's 
pleasure. To the which they answered, 
" That neither had they commission so to 
promise, neither durst they of conscience 
so persuade their brethren. But if that 
the queen's grace would promise, that no 
inhabitant of the town should be troubled 
for any such crimes as might be alleged 
against them for the late mutation of reli- 
gion, and abolishment of idolatry, and for 
downcasting of the places of the same ; 
and if she would suffer the religion begun 
to go forward, and leave the town at her 
departing free from the garrisons of French 
soldiers, that they would labour at the 
hands of their brethren that the queen 
should be obeyed in all things." Monsieur 
d'Oysel perceiving the danger to be great 
if that a sudden appointment should not 
be made ; and that they were not able to 
execute their tyranny against us, after that 
the congregation of Kyle — of whose coming 
we had no advertisement — should be join- 
ed with us ; with good words dismissed 
the said lairds to persuade the brethren to 
quiet concord ; to the which all men were 
so well minded, that with one voice they 
cried, " Cursed be they that seek effusion 
of blood, war, or dissension. Let us pos- 
sess Christ Jesus, and the benefit of his 
evangel, and none within Scotland shall be 
more obedient subjects than we shall be." 
"With all expedition were sent from Stir- 
ling again, — after that the coming of the 
earl of Glencairn was known, for the ene- 



Book II.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



I 23 



my for fear quaked, — tho earl of Argyle 
and lord James foresaid ; and in their com- 
pany a crafty man, Mr Gavin Hamilton ab- 
bot of Kilwinning-, who were sent by the 
queen to finish the appointment foresaid ; 
but before that they came, was the earl of 
Glencairn and his honourable company ar- 
rived in the town j and then began all men 
to praise God, for that he had so mercifully 
heard them in their most extreme necessity, 
and had sent unto them such relief, as was 
able, without effusion of blood, to stay the 
rage of the enemy. The earl of Argyle 
and lord James did earnestly persuade the 
agreement, to the which all men were will- 
ing ; but some did smell the craft of the 
adversaries, to wit, that they were minded 
to keep no point of the promise longer 
than they had obtained their intent. With 
the earl of Glencairn came our loving bro- 
ther John Willock ; John Knox was in the 
town before ; these two went to the earl 
of Argyle and prior, accusing them of infi- 
delity, in so far as they had defrauded their 
brethren of their dutiful support and com- 
fort in their greatest necessities. They an- 
swered both, " That their heart was con- 
stant with their brethren, and that they 
would defend that cause to the uttermost 
of their power. But because they had 
promised to labour for concord, and assist 
the queen in case we refused reasonable 
offers ; of conscience and honour they could 
do no less than to be faithful in their pro- 
mise : and therefore they required that the 
brethren might be persuaded to consent to 
that reasonable appointment ; promising, in 
God's presence, that if the queen did break 
in any jot thereof, that they, with their 
whole powers, would assist and concur 
with their brethren in all times to come." 
This promise made, the preachers appeas- 
ed the multitude, and obtained the end 
that all men did consent to the appoint- 
ment foresaid, Avhich they obtained not 
without great labours. And no wonder, 
for many foresaw the danger to follow ; yea 
the preachers themselves, in open sermons, 
did affirm plainly, " That they were as- 
suredly persuaded that the queen meant no 
truth : but to stop the mouth of the adver- 
sary, who did unjustly burden us with re- 



bellion, they most earnestly required all 
men to approve the appointment, and so to 
suffer hypocrisy to disclose itself." This 
appointment was concluded the 28th of 
May, and the day following, at two after- 
noon, departed the congregation from St 
Johnstone, after that John Knox had in 
his sermon, exhorted all men to constancy, 
and unfeignedly to thank God, for that it 
had pleased his mercy to stay the rage of 
the enemy, without effusion of blood, and 
that no brother should weary nor faint to 
support such as should afterwards be like- 
wise persecuted : " For," said he, " I am 
assured, that no part of this promise made 
shall be longer kept than the queen and 
her Frenchmen have the upper hand." 
Many of the enemies were at the same ser- 
mon ; for after that the appointment was 
made they had free entries into the town 
to provide lodgings. Before the lords de- 
parted was this bond made, whose tenor 
follows, as it was written and subscribed, 

" At Perth, the last day of May, the year 
of God 1559, the congregation of the west 
country, with the congregation of Fife, 
Perth, Dundee, Angus, Mearns, and Mon- 
trose, being convened in the town of Perth, 
in the name of Jesus Christ, for forthsetting 
of his glory — understanding nothing more 
necessary for the same than to keep a 
constant amity, unity, and fellowship to- 
gether, according as they are commanded 
by God, are confederate, and become bound 
and obliged, in the presence of God, to 
concur and assist together in doing all 
things required of God in his Scripture, 
that may be to his glory; and at their 
whole powers to destroy, and away-put, 
all things that do dishonour to his name ; 
so that God may be purely and truly wor- 
shipped. And in case that any trouble be 
intended against the said congregations, or 
any part or member thereof, the whole 
congregation shall concur, assist, and con- 
vene together, to the defence of the same 
congregation, or person troubled ; and shall 
not spare labours, goods, substances, bodies, 
and lives in maintaining the liberties of the 
whole congregation, ami every member 
thereof, against whatsoever power that 
shall intend the said trouble, for cause of 



124 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



religion, or any other cause depending 
thereupon, or laid to their charge under 
pretence thereof, although it h ippen to be 
coloured with any other outward cause. 
In witnessing and testimony of which, the 
whole congregations foresaid have ordained 
and appointed the noblemen and persons 
underwritten to subscribe these presents. 5 ' 
Sic subscribitur , 

" Arch. Argyle. Glen cairn. 

Robert lord Boyd. Ochiltree. 

James Stewart. 

Matthew Campbell of Teringland." 
The 29th day of May, entered the queen, 
the duke, Monsieur d'Oysel, and the French- 
men, who, in discharging their volley of 
hackbuts, did well mark the house of Patrick 
Murray, a man fervent in religion, and that 
boldly had sustained all dangers in that 
trouble ; against whose stair they directed 
six or seven shot, even against the faces of 
those that were there lying. All men 
escaped except the son of the said Patrick, 
a boy of ten or twelve years of age, who 
being slain, was had to the queen's pre- 
sence : but she understanding whose son 
he was, said in mockage, " It is a pity it 
chanced on the son, and not on the father ; 
but seeing that so it chanced, me cannot be 
against fortune." This was her happy 
entry into St Johnstone, and the great zeal 
she bore to justice. The swarm of papists 
that entered with her began straight to 
make provision for their mass ; and because 
the altars were not so easily to be repaired 
again, they provided tables, whereof some 
before used to serve for drunkards, dicers, 
and carders, but they were holy enough 
for the priest and his pageant. The queen 
began to rage against all godly and honest 
men, their houses were oppressed by the 
Frenchmen, the lawful magistrates, as well 
provost as bailies, were unjustly, and with- 
out all order, deposed from their authority. 
A wicked man, void of God's fear and desti- 
tute of all virtue, [John Charteris], the laird 
of Kinfauns, was intruded by her provost of 
the town, whereat all honest men were of- 
fended ; they left their own houses, and with 
their wives and children sought amongst 
their brethren some resting place for a 
time She took order that four ensigns of 



the soldiers should remain in the town to 
maintain idolatry, and to resist the congre- 
gation. Honest and indifferent men asked 
why she did so manifestly violate her pro- 
mise ? She answered, " That she was 
bound to no heretics to keep promise : and 
moreover, that she promised only to leave 
the town void of French soldiers, which 
she said she did, because that these that 
were left within were Scotsmen. But 
when it was reasoned in her contrary, that 
all those that took wages of France were 
counted French soldiers : she answered, 
" Princes must not straitly be bound to keep 
their promises. Myself," said she, " would 
make little conscience to take from all that 
sort their lives and heritages, if I might do 
it with as honest an excuse :" and then she 
left the town in extreme bondage, after that 
her ungodly Frenchmen had most cruelly 
entreated the most part of these that re- 
mained in the same. The earl of Argyle, 
and lord James foresaid, perceiving in the 
queen nothing but mere tyranny and false- 
hood, mindful of their former promise made 
to their brethren, did secretly convoy them- 
selves and their companies off the town ; 
and with them departed the lord Ruthven 
— of whom before mention is made — the 
earl of Menteith, and the laird of Tullybar- 
dine, who, in God's presence did confede- 
rate, and bind themselves together, faith- 
fully promising one to assist another against 
all persons that would pursue them for re- 
ligion's sake ; and also that they, with 
their whole force and power, would defend 
the brethren persecuted for the same cause. 
The queen, highly offended at the sudden 
departure of the persons foresaid, sent 
charges to them to return under the highest 
pain of her displeasure. But they answer- 
ed, " That with safe conscience they could 
not be partakers of so manifest tyranny as 
by her was committed, and of so great ini- 
quity as they perceived devised, by her and 
her ungodly council the prelates." 

This answer was given to her the first 
day of June, and immediately the earl of 
Argyle and lord James repaired towards St 
Andrews, and in their journey gave adver- 
tisement, by writing, to the laird of Dun, to 
the laird of Pitarrow, to the provost of 



Book II. j 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



125 



Dundee, and others, professors in Angus, to 
visit them in St Andrews the fourth of 
June, for reformation to be made there. 
Which day they kept, and brought in their 
company John Knox, who, the first day, 
after his coming to Fife, did preach in Crail, 
the next day in Anstruther, minding the 
Sunday, which was the third, to preach in 
St Andrews. The bishop, hearing of refor- 
mation to be made in his cathedral church, 
thought time to stir, or else never ; and, 
therefore, assembled his colleagues, and 
confederate fellows, besides his other friends, 
and came to the town upon the Saturday, 
at night, accompanied with a hundred 
spears, of mind to have stopped John Knox 
to have preached. The lords and gentle- 
men foresaid, were only accompanied with 
their quiet households, and, therefore, the 
sudden coming of the bishop was more 
fearful ; for then were the queen and her 
Frenchmen departed from St Johnstone, 
and were lying in Falkland, within twelve 
miles of St Andrews ; and the town at that 
time had not given profession of Christ, 
and, therefore, could not the lords be as- 
sured of their friendship. Consultation 
being had, many were of mind that the 
preaching should be delayed for that day, 
and especially that John Knox should 
not preach, for that did the bishop affirm 
that he would not suffer, considering that 
by his commandment the picture of the said 
John was before burnt. He willed, there- 
fore, an honest gentleman, Robert Colvill 
of Cleish, to say to the lords, " That in case 
the said John Knox presented himself to 
the preaching place, in his town and princi- 
pal kirk, he should gar him be saluted 
with a dozen of culverins, whereof the 
most part should light on his nose." After 
long deliberation had, the said John was 
called, that his own judgment might be had. 
When many persuasions were made that 
he should delay for that time, and great ter- 
rors given in case he should enterprise 
such a thing, as it were in contempt of 
the bishops, he answered, " God is witness 
that I never preached Christ Jesus in con- 
tempt of any man, neither mind I to present 
myself to that place, having either respect 
to my own private commodity, either yet 



to the worldly hurt of any creature ; bat 
to delay to preach to-morrow — unless the 
body be violently withholden-— I cannot of 
conscience : for in this town and kirk began 
God first to call me to the dignity of a 
preacher, from the which I was reft by the 
tyranny of France, by procurement of the 
bishops, as ye all well enough know. How 
long I continued prisoner, what torment I 
sustained in the galleys, and what were the 
sobs of my heart, is now no time to recite. 
This only I cannot conceal, which more 
than one have heard me say, when the 
body was far absent from Scotland, that my 
assured hope was, in open audience, to 
preach in St Andrews, before I departed 
this life. And therefore," said he, " my 
lords, seeing that God, above the expecta- 
tion of many, has brought the body to the 
same place where first I was called to the 
office of a preacher, and from the which 
most unjustly I was removed, I beseech 
your honours not to stop me to present my- 
self unto my brethren. And as for the 
fear of danger that may come to me, let no 
man be solicitous, for my life is in the cus- 
tody of Him whose glory I seek ; and, there- 
fore, I cannot so fear their boast nor ty- 
ranny, that I will cease from doing my 
duty, when God of his mercy offereth the 
occasion. I desire the hand nor weapon 
of no man to defend me ; only I crave 
audience ; which, if it be denied here unto 
me at this time, I must seek farther where 
I may have it." At these words, which he 
spoke, were the lords fully content that he 
should occupy the place, which he did 
upon Sunday the tenth of June, and did en- 
treat [commented on] " the ejection of the 
buyers and the sellers forth of the temple of 
Jerusalem," as it is written in the evange- 
lists Matthew and John ; and so applied the 
corruption that was then to the corruption 
that is in the papistry : and Christ's fact, 
to the duty of those to whom God giveth 
power and zeal thereto, that as well the 
magistrates, the provost and bailies, as the 
commonalty, did agree to remove all monu- 
ments of idolatry, which also they did with 
expedition. The bishop advertised hereof, 
departed that same day to the queen, who 
lay with her Frenchmen, as said is, in Falk- 



126 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. ». 1559 



land. The hot fury of the bishops did so 
kindle her choler — and yet the love was 
very cold betwixt them — that without 
farther delay, conclusion was taken to in- 
vade St Andrews, and the two young lords, 
who then were very slenderly accompanied. 
Posts were sent from the queen with all 
diligence to Coupar, distant only six miles 
from St Andrews, to prepare lodgings and 
victuals for the queen and her Frenchmen. 
Couriers were sent before, and lodgings 
were assigned. Which thing understood, 
counsel was given to the lords to march 
forward, and to prevent them before they 
came to Coupar : which they did, giving 
advertisement to all brethren with possible 
expedition to repair towards them ; which 
they also did, with such diligence, that in 
their assembly the wondrous work of God 
might be espied : for when at night the 
lords came to Coupar, they were not a 
hundred horse, and a certain footmen whom 
lord James brought from the coast side; 
and yet, before the next day at twelve 
hours — which was Tuesday the 13th of 
June — the number passed three thousand 
men, which by God's providence came unto 
the lords ; from Lothian, the lairds of Or- 
miston, Calder, Halton, Restalrig, and 
Colston, who, albeit they understood at 
their departing from their own house no 
such trouble, yet were they by their good 
counsel very comfortable that day. The 
lord Ruthven came from St Johnstone, with 
some horsemen with him : the earl of 
Rothes, sheriff of Fife, came with an honest 
company. The towns of Dundee and St 
Andrews declared themselves both stout 
and faithful. Coupar, because it stood in 
greatest danger, assisted with their whole 
force. Finally, God did so multiply our 
number, that it appeared as men had rained 
from the clouds. The enemy understand- 
ing nothing of our force, assured themselves 
of victory. Who had been in Falkland 
the night before, might have seen em- 
bracing and kissing betwixt the queen, 
the duke, and the bishop. But Mr Gavin 
Hamilton, gaper for the bishopric of St 
Andrews, above all others was lovingly 
embraced of the queen; for he made his 
solemn vow, that he would fight, and that 



he should never return till he had brought 
these traitors to her grace, either quick or 
dead. And thus before midnight did they 
send forward their ordnance, themselves did 
follow by three hours in the morning. The 
lords hereof advertised, assembled their 
company early in the morning upon Coupar 
muir ; where by the advice of James Haly- 
burton provost of Dundee, was chosen a 
place of ground convenient for our defence; 
for it was so chosen, that upon all sides our 
ordnance might have beat the enemy, and 
yet we to have stood in safety, if we had 
been pursued, till we had come to hand 
strokes. The lord Ruthven took the 
charge of the horsemen, and ordered them 
so, that the enemy was never permitted to 
espy our number ; the day was dark, which 
helped thereto. The enemy — as before is 
said — thinking to have found no resistance, 
after that they had twice or thrice practised 
with us, as that they would retire, marched 
forward with great expedition, and ap- 
proached within a mile before that ever 
their horsemen stayed, and yet they kept 
betwixt us and them a great water for their 
strength. It appeared to us that either 
they marched for Coupar or St Andrews ; 
and, therefore, our horsemen in their troop, 
and a part of the footmen marched some- 
what always before them for safety of the 
town. The lords, with the gentlemen of 
Fife, and so many of Angus and Mearns as 
were present, kept themselves close in a 
knot, near to the number of a thousand 
spears. 

The towns of Dundee and St Andrews 
were arrayed in another battle [battalion], 
who came not to the sight of the enemy, 
till that after twelve hours [12 o'clock 
noon], that the mist began to vanish, and 
then passed some of their horsemen to a 
mountain, from the height whereof they 
might discern our number, which perceived 
by them, their horsemen and footmen 
stayed [halted] incontinent. Posts ran to 
the duke and Monsieur d'Oysel, to declare 
our number, and what order we kept ; and 
then were mediators sent to make appoint- 
ment; but they were not suffered to ap- 
proach near the lords, neither yet to the 
view of our camp, which put them to 



Book II.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



1 27 



greater fear. Answer was given unto 
them, " That as we had offended no man, 
so would we seek appointment of no man ; 
but if any would seek our lives — as we 
were informed they did — they should find 
us if they pleased to make diligence." This 
answer received, were sent again the lord 
Lindsay, and laird of Waughton, who ear- 
nestly requested us to concord, and that we 
would not be the occasion that innocent 
blood should be shed.* We answered, 
" That neither had we quarrel against any 
man, neither yet sought we any man's 
blood ; only we were convened for defence 
of our own lives, unjustly sought by others." 
We added farther, " That if they could find 
the means that we and our brethren might 
be free from the tyranny devised against 
us, that they should reasonably desire no- 
thing which should be denied for our part." 
This answer received, the duke and Mon- 
sieur d'Oysel, having commission of the 
queen regent, required, that assurance 
might be taken for eight days, to the end 
that indifferent men in the meantime might 
commune upon some final agreement of 
those things which then were in contro- 
versy. Hereto did we fully consent, albeit 
that in number and force we were far su- 
perior ; f and for testification hereof, we 
sent unto them our hand-writes, and we 
likewise received theirs, with promise that 
within two or three days some discreet men 
should be sent unto us to St Andrews, with 
farther knowledge of the queen's mind. 
The tenor of the assurance was this : 



* Such persons are wonderfully tender and 
scrupulous about shedding blood, when it hap- 
pens to be their own that is in danger ; but it is 
very evident from the rest of the story, that 
there would have been no such delicacy had the 
danger been on the other side. — Ed. 

f It was on this occasion that the congrega- 
tion had it in their power to take ample ven- 
geance on their persecutors. The queen and 
her party, in entire ignorance of their number 
and strength, had placed themselves at their 
mercy, and they might have attacked them with 
the best hope of cutting them off, and overturn- 
ing the government. But they declared them- 
' selves to be only on the defensive, and would 
not draw a sword unless the attack was made 
on them, which their enemies were too wise to 
do. This shows that they were perfectly aware 
of their relation as subjects, and were determin- 



THE ASSURANCE. 

" We, James, duke of Chatelherault, earl of 
Arran, lord Hamilton, &c. and my lord 
d'Oysel, lieutenant for the king in these 
parts, for ourselves, assisters, and partakers, 
being presently with us in company, by the 
tenor hereof promise faithfully of honour to 
my lords Archibald, earl of Argyle, and 
James, commendator of the priory of St 
Andrews, to their assisters, and partakers, 
being presently with them in company, 
that we, and our company foresaid, shall re- 
tire incontinent to Falkland ; and shall, with 
diligence, transport the Frenchmen and our 
other folks now present with us; and that no 
Frenchmen, or other soldiers of ours, shall 
remain within the bounds of Fife, but so 
many as before the raising of the last army 
lay in Dysart, Kirkaldy, and Kinghorn, 
and the same to lie in the same places only, 
if we shall think good. And this to have 
effect for the space of eight days following 
the date hereof exclusive ; that in the mean- 
time certain noblemen, by the advice of the 
queen's grace, and the rest of the council, 
may convene to talk of such things as may 
make good order and quietness amongst the 
queen's lieges. And farther, we nor none 
of our assisters, being present with us, shall 
invade, trouble, or unquiet the said lords, 
nor their assisters, during the said space. 
And this we bind and oblige us, upon our 
loyalty, fidelity, and honour, to observe and 
keep in every point above written, but 
without fraud or guile. In witness whereof 
we have subscribed these presents with our 



ed not to rebel against their sovereign or her 
representative, but merely stand to the defence 
of their own lives, for which, I think, no rea- 
sonable man can blame them. They might, 
however, have made better terms for themselves 
by negotiation ; but perhaps they had found by 
experience, that there were no terms which the 
queen would keep. They were outwitted when 
they consented to the truce of eight days. The 
queen and her councillors no doubt knew, that 
their entire body would not remain so long to- 
gether, having nothing to do, and perhaps little 
to eat. And so it happened, for they dispersed ; 
and they never again occupied such a favourable 
position till they got the aid of England. Their 
enemies made a most ungenerous use of their 
forbearance, for they continued to persecute 
them as much as ever. — Ed. 



123 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



hands, at Gartabanks, the 13th of June, j 
1559. 

"James, Dike. 

" L. L. Exxen, J."* 

And this received, we departed first, be- 
cause we were thereto requested by the 
duke, and so returned to Coupar, lauding 
and praising God for his mercy showed ; 
and thereafter every man departed to his 
dwelling place. The lords, and a great 
part of the gentlemen passed to St Andrews, 
who there abode certain days, still looking 
for those that were promised to come from 
the queen, for appointment to be made. 
But we perceiving her craft and deceit — 
for under that assurance she meant nothing 
else, but to convoy herself, her ordnance, 
her Frenchmen over the water of Forth — 
took consultation for deliverance of St 
Johnstone from these ungodly soldiers, and 
how our brethren, exiled from their own 
houses, might be restored again, It was 
concluded, that the brethren of Fife, Angus, 
Mearns, and Strathearn, should convene at 
St Johnstone the 2-ith day of June for that 
purpose ; and, in the meantime, were these 
letters written by the earl of Argyle and 
lord James, to the queen then regent. 

" Madam, 

" After the hearty commendations of ser- 
vice, this shall be to show your grace, that 
upon the 13th day of June, we were in- 
formed by them that were communers be- 
twixt my lord duke, Monsieur d'Oysel, and 
us, that we should have spoken irreverently 
of your grace, which we beseech your 
grace, for the true service we have made, 
and are ready to make at all times to your 
grace ; that of your goodness you will let 
us know the sayers thereof, and we shall 
do the duty of true subjects, to defend our 
own innocency, as we take God to witness, 
of the good zeal and love we bear towards 
you, to serve you with true hearts, and all 
that we have, as well lands as goods, de- 
siring no other thing for our service but the 
liberty of our conscience, to serve the Lord 
our God, as we will answer to him, which 



* The editor of the old copy says he could not 
read this subscription, but, says he, the simile 
Is Aleneits, which perhaps was d'Oysel's chris- 
tian name. — Ed. 



your grace ought and should give to us 
freely unrequired. Moreover, please your 
grace, that my lord duke, and the no- 
blemen being in Stirling for the time, 
by your grace's advice, solicited us to pass 
to the congregation convened at the town 
of Perth, to commune of concord, where 
we did our exact diligence, and brought it 
to pass, as your grace knows ; and there is 
one point that we plaint [complain] is not 
observed to us, which is, that no soldier 
should remain in the town after your grace's 
departing ; and suppose it may be inferred, 
it was spoken of French soldiers allenarly 
[only] yet we took it otherwise, like as we 
do yet, that Scotsmen, or any other nation 
taking the king of France's wages, are re- 
pute and holden French soldiers : there- 
fore, since we of good will and mind 
brought that matter to your grace's content- 
ment, it will please your grace, of your 
goodness, to remove the soldiers and their 
captains, with others that have gotten 
charge of the town, that the same may be 
guided aud ruled freely, as it was before by 
the bailies and council, conform to their in- 
feftments given to them by the ancient and 
most excellent kings of this realm, to elect 
and choose their officers at Michaelmas, and 
they to endure for the space of one year, con- 
form to the old right and consuetude of this 
realm; which being done by your grace, 
we trust the better success shall follow 
thereupon to your grace's contentment, as 
the bearer will declare at more length to 
your grace ; whom God preserve." 

To St Johnstone, with the gentlemen 
before expressed, did convene the earl of 
Monteith, the laird of Glenorchy, and di- 
vers others who before had not presented 
themselves for defence of their brethren. 
When the whole multitude was convened, 
a trumpet was sent by the lords, command- 
ing the captains and their bands to avoid 
the town, and to leave it to the ancient li- 
berty and just inhabitants of the same; 
also commanding the laird of Kinfauns, 
inset provost by the queen, with the cap- 
tains foresaid, to cast up the ports of the 
town, and make the same patent to all our 
sovereign's lieges, to the effect, that as well 
true religion now once begun therein may 



Took II.] 



Ol RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



129 



be maintained, anil idolatry utterly sup- 
pressed; as also that the said town might 
joyse and bruick [enjoy and possess] their 
ancient laws and liberties unoppressed by 
men of war, according- to their old privi- 
leges granted to them by the ancient princes 
of the realm, and according to the provision 
contained in the contract of marriage made 
by the nobility and parliament of this realm 
with the king of France, bearing, that none 
of our old laws nor liberties should be alter- 
ed : adding thereto, if they foolishly resist- 
ed, and therein happened to commit murder, 
that they should be entreated as murderers. 
To the which they answered proudly, 
" That they would keep and defend that 
town, according to their promise made to 
the queen regent." 

This answer received, preparation was 
made for the siege and assault ; for amongst 
all it was concluded, that the town should 
be set at liberty, to what danger soever 
their bodies should be exponed. While 
preparation was in making, came the earl 
of Huutly, the lord Erskine, and Mr John 
Bannatyne, justice-clerk, requiring that the 
pursuit of the town should be delayed. To 
speak them were appointed the earl of Ar- 
gyle, lord James, and lord Ruthven, who 
perceiving nothing in them but a drift of 
time, without any assurance that the for- 
mer wrongs should be redressed, gave unto 
them short and plain answers, " That they 
would not delay their purpose an hour ; 
and therefore willed them to certify the 
captains in the town, that if by pride and 
foolishness they would keep the town, and 
in so doing slay any of their brethren, that 
they every one should die as murderers." 
The earl of Huntly, displeased at this an- 
swer, departed, as highly offended, that he 
could not dress [effect] such an appointment, 
as should have contented the queen and 
the priests. After their departing, the 
town was again summoned. But the cap- 
tains, supposing that no sudden pursuit 
should be made, and looking for relief to 
have been sent from the queen, abode in 
their former opinion. Aud so upon Satur- 
day, the 25th of June, at ten hours at night, 
commanded the lord Ruthven, who besieg- 
ed the west quarter, to shoot the first vol- 



ley, which being done, the town of Dundee 
did the like, whose ordnance lay upon the 
east side of the bridge. The captains and 
soldiers within the town, perceiving that 
I they were unable long to resist, required 
j assurance till twelve hours [noon] upon the 
; morn, promising, " That if ere that hour 
| there came no relief unto them from the 
queen regent, that they would render the 
j town, providing, that they should be suf- 
fered to depart the town with ensigns dis- 
played." We, thirsting the blood of no 
man, and seeking only the liberty of our 
brethren, condescended to their desires, al- 
beit we might have executed against them 
judgment without mercy, for that they had 
refused our former favours, and had slain 
one of our brethren, and had hurt two in 
their assistance ; and yet we suffered them 
freely to depart without any farther moles- 
tation. 

The town being delivered from their 
thraldom, upon Sunday the 26th of June, 
thanks were given to God for his great be- 
nefits received, and consultation was taken 
what was farther to be done. In this 
meantime, four zealous men, considering 
how obstinate, proud, and despiteful, the 
bishop of Murray had been before ; how 
he had threatened the town by his soldiers 
and friends, who lay in the abbey of Scone, 
thought good that some order should be 
taken with him and with that place, which 
lay near to the town end. The lords wrote 
unto him, — for he lay in the said abbey, 
which was within two miles to St John- 
stone, — " That unless he would come and 
assist them, they neither would spare nor 
save his place." He answered by his writ- 
ing, " That he would come and do as they 
thought expedient ; that he would assist 
them with his force, and would vote with 
them against the rest of the clergy in par- 
liament." But because his answer was 
slow in coming, the town of Dundee, partly 
offended for the slaughter of their man, 
and specially bearing no good favour to the 
said bishop, for that he was and is chief 
enemy to Christ Jesus, and that by his 
counsel alone was Walter Milne our brother 
put to death, they marched forward. To 
stay them was first sent the provost of 

R 



130 



EilSTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



Dundee, and his brother Alexander Hali- 
burton, captain, who little prevailing-, was 
sent unto them John Knox ; but before his 
coming-, they were entered to the pulling 
down of the idols and dortour.* And al- 
beit the said Mr James Haliburton, Alex- 
ander his brother, and the said John, did 
what in them lay to have stayed the fury 
of the multitude ; yet were they not able 
to put order universally ; and therefore 
they sent for the lords, earl of Argyle, and 
lord James, who coming with all diligence, 
laboured to have saved the place and the 
kirk. But because the multitude had found, 
buried in the kirk, a great number of idols 
hid, of purpose to have preserved them to 
a better day, — as the papists spake, — the 
towns of Dundee and St Johnstone could 
not be satisfied, till that the whole repa- 
ration and ornaments of the kirk — as they 
termed it — were destroyed. And yet did 
the lords so travail, that they saved the 
bishop's palace, with the church and place, 
for that night : for the two lords did not 
depart till they brought with them the 
whole number of those that most sought 
the bishop's displeasure. The bishop, great- 
ly offended that any thing should have 
been enterprised in the reformation of his 
place, asked of the lords his bond and 
handwriting, which not two hours before 
he had sent unto them, which delivered to 
his messenger, Adam Brown, advertisement 
was given, that if any farther displeasure 
chanced unto him, that he should not 
blame them. 

The bishop's servants that same night 
began to fortify the place again, and began 
to do violence to some that were carrying 
away such baggage as they could come by. 
The bishop's girnel [granary] was kept the 
first night by the labours of John Knox, 
who by exhortation removed such as would 
violently have made eruption.f That same 
night departed from St Johnstone the earl 
of Argyle, and lord James, as after shall be 
declared. The morrow following, some of 
the poor, in hope of spoil, and some of 



* Dortour — dormitory, bed-chamber, apart- 
ment containing a number of beds — Fr. dortoir, 
dormitorium. — Ed. 



Dundee, to consider what was done, pass- 
ed up to the said abbey of Scone ; whereat 
the bishop's servants offended, began to 
threaten and speak proudly : and, as it was 
constantly affirmed, one of the bishop's sons 
stoggit [stabbed] through with a rapier one 
of Dundee, for because he was looking in 
at the girnel door. The bruit hereof noised 
abroad, the town of Dundee was more en- 
raged than before, avIio, putting themselves 
in armour, sent word to the inhabitants of 
St Johnstone, " That unless they should 
support them to avenge that injury, that 
they should never after that day concur 
with them in any action." The multitude 
easily inflamed, gave the alarm, and so was 
that abbey and place appointed to sackage ; 
in doing whereof they took no long deli- 
beration, but committed the whole to the 
merciment of fire, whereat no small num- 
ber of us were [so] offended, that patiently 
we could not speak to any that were of 
Dundee or St Johnstone. A poor aged 
matron, seeing the flame of fire pass up so 
mightily, and perceiving that many were 
thereat offended, in plain and sober manner 
of speaking, said, " Now I see and under- 
stand that God's judgments are just, and 
that no man is able to save where he will 
punish. Since my remembrance, this place 
has been nothing else but a den of whore- 
mongers. It is incredible to believe how 
many wives have been adulterated, and vir- 
gins deflowered by the filthy beasts which 
have been fostered in this den ; but espe- 
cially by that wicked man, who is called 
the bishop, if all men knew as much as T, 
they would praise God ; and no man would 
be offended." This woman dwelt in the 
town, near unto the abbey, at whose words 
were many pacified; affirming with her, 
that it was God's just judgments. And as- 
suredly, if the labours or travails of any 
man could have saved that place, it had 
not been at that time destroyed ; for men 
of great estimation laboured with all dili- 
gence for the safety of it. 

While these things were done at St 



f Thu3 it appears, that so far from being ac- 
tive in destroying the property of the church 3 
Knox exerted himself to protect it. — Ed. 



Book II. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



LSI 



Johnstone, the queen, fearing' what should 
follow, determined to send certain bands 
of French soldiers to Stirling-, of purpose to 
stop the passage to us that then were upon 
the north side of Forth ; which understood, 
the earl of Argyle and lord James departed 
secretly upon the night, and with great ex- 
pedition, preventing the French soldiers, 
they took the town, — before whose coming 
the rascal multitude put hands in the thieves' 
I should say, friars' places, and utterly de- 
stroyed them, — whereat the queen and her 
faction not a little afraid, with all diligence 
departed from Edinburgh to Dunbar. And 
so we with reasonable diligence marched 
forward to Edinburgh, for reformation to 
be made there, where we arrived the 29th 
of June. The provost for that time, the 
lord Seyton, — a man without God, without 
honesty, and oftentimes without reason, — 
had before greatly troubled and molested 
the brethren ; for he had taken upon him 
the protection and defence of the black and 
grey friars ; for that purpose did [he] not 
only lie himself in the one every night, but 
also constrained the most honest in the 
town to watch these monsters, to their 
great grief and trouble. But he hearing of 
our sudden coming, abandoned his charge, 
and left the spoil to the poor, who had 
made havoc of all such things as were 
moveable in these places before our coming, 
and had left nothing but bare walls, yea 
not so much as door or window, whereto 
Ave were the less troubled in putting order 
in such places. 

After that certain days Ave had deliberat- 
ed what was to be done, and that order was 
taken for suppressing of all monuments of 
idolatry within that town, and the places 
next adjacent, determination was taken, to 
send some messengers to the queen, then 
regent, for she had bruited — as her accus- 
tomed manner was, and yet her daughter's 
is, ever to forge lies — that we sought no- 
thing but her life, and a plain revoltment 
from the lawful obedience due to our so- 
vereign, her authority, as by the tenor of 
these letters may be seen. 

" Francis and Mary, by the grace of God, 
king and queen of Scots, dauphin and dau- 
phiness of Viennois, to our lovites, lyon 



king of arms, &c. our sheriffs in that part, 
conjunctly and severally, specially consti- 
tute, greeting. For as much as our dearest 
mother Mary, queen dowager, regent of 
our realm, and lords of our secret council, 
perceiving the seditious tumult raised by 
a part of our lieges, naming themselves, 
' The Congregation,' who, under pretence 
of religion, have put themselves in armour; 
and that her grace, for satisfying every 
man's conscience, and pacifying the said 
troubles, had offered unto them to affix a 
parliament to be holden in January next to 
come, — this was a manifest lie, for this was 
neither offered, nor by her was once thought 
upon till we required it, — or sooner, if they 
had pleased it, for establishing of an uni- 
versal order in matters of religion, by our 
advice and estates of our realm ; and, in 
the meantime, to suffer every man to live 
at liberty of conscience, without trouble, 
unto the time the said order was taken, by 
advice of our foresaid states. And at last, 
because it appeared much to stand upon 
[much desired by] our burgh of Edinburgh, 
offered in like manner to let the inhabitants 
thereof choose what manner of religion 
they would set up and use for that time; 
so that no man might allege that he was 
forced to do against his conscience : which 
offer the queen's grace, our said dearest 
mother, was at that time, and yet is ready 
to fulfil : not the less, the said congregation 
being to receive no reasonable offers, has 
sinsyne, by open deed, declared, that it is 
not religion nor any thing thereto belong- 
ing that they seek, but only the subversion 
of our authority, and usurpation of our 
crown ; in manifest Avitnessing whereof, 
they daily receive Englishmen with mes- 
sages unto them, and send such like into 
England. And last of all, some violently 
intromited, withtaken, and yet uphold 
the irons of our cunyehous [coining-house 
or mint], which is one of the chief points 
that concerns our crown ; and such like has 
intromited with our palace of Holyrood- 
house. Our will is herefore, that ye pass 
to the said market-cross of our said burgh of 
Edinburgh, or any other public place with- 
in the same, and there, by open proclama- 
tion in our names and authority, command 



132 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



and charge all and sundry persons of the 
said congregation, or yet being present 
within our said burgh, other than the in- 
habitants thereof, that they within six 
hours next after our said charge, depart 
forth of the same under the pain of trea- 
son ; and also, that ye command and charge 
all and sundry persons to leave their com- 
pany, and adhere to our authority; with 
certification to such as do the contrary, 
shall be repute and holden as manifest trai- 
tors to our crown," &c. 

These letters did not a little grieve us, 
who most unjustly were accused; for there 
is never a sentence of the narrative true, 
except that we stayed the irons * [coining 
instruments], and that for most just cause, 
to wit, because that daily there were such 
numbers of lions — alias called Hardheads 
— printed, that the baseness thereof made 
ail things exceeding dear ; and therefore 
we were counselled by the wisest to stay 
the irons, while farther order might be 
taken. She with all possible diligence post- 
ed for her faction. Mr James Balfour was 
not idle in the meantime. The lords, to 
purge them of those odious crimes, wrote 
to her a letter in form as after follows. 

" Please your grace be advertised, it is 
come to our knowledge, that your grace 
has set forth, by your letters openly pro- 
claimed, that we, called by name, the con- 
gregation, under pretence and colour of re- 
ligion, convene together to no other pur- 
pose but to usurp our sovereign's authority, 
and to invade your person representing 
theirs at this present ; which things appear 
to have proceeded of sinister information 
made by our enemies to your grace, con- 
sidering 1 that we never minded [intended] 
such thing, but only our purpose and mind 
was and is to promote and set forth the 
glory of God, maintain and defend the true 
preachers of his word ; and according to 
the same, abolish and put away idolatry 
and false abuses, which may nor stand with 



* This was a strong measure, and it would 
no doubt have convicted them of rebellion, had 
the government been able to bring them to trial ; 
but it was adopted, not on their own account, 
but for the benefit of the country. The queen 
would have paid her French soldiers with the 



the said word of God, beseeching your 
grace to bear patiently therewith, and inter- 
pone your authority to the furtherance of 
the same, as is the duty of every christian 
prince and good magistrate. For as to the 
obedience of our sovereign authority in all 
civil and politic matters, we are and shall 
be as obedient as any other your grace's 
subjects within the realm, and that our 
convention is for no other purpose but to 
save our preachers and their auditors from 
the violence and injury of our enemies, 
! which should be more amply declared by 
some of us in your grace's presence, if ye 
were not accompanied with such as have 
pursued our lives and sought our blood. 
Thus, we pray Almighty God to have your 
j highness in his eternal tuition. At Edin- 
burgh, the 2d of July 1559," 

And for farther purgation hereof, it was 
j thought necessary that we should simply 
! expone, as well to her grace as to the 
' whole people, what were our requests and 
just petitions ; and for that purpose, after 
' that safe conduct was purchased and grant- 
j ed, we directed unto her two grave men of 
our council, to wit, the lairds of Pitarrow 
and Cunninghamhead, to whom we gave 
commission and power, first to expone our 
w r hole purpose and intent, which was none 
other than before at all times we have re- 
quired, to wit, that we might enjoy liberty 
of conscience. Secondly, That Jesus Christ 
might be truly preached, and his holy sa- 
craments rightly ministered unto us. That 
unable ministers might be removed from 
ecclesiastical administration ; and that our 
preachers might be relaxed from the horn, 
j and permitted to execute their charges with- 
• out molestation, until such time as either 
| by a general council, law fully convened, or 
j by a parliament within the realm, the con- 
troversies in religion were decided. And, 
for declaration that her grace was hereto 
willing, that the bands of Frenchmen, who 
then w r ere a burden intolerable to the coun- 



base money she would have struck off, had she 
got the use of the instruments ; and the soldiers 
would have compelled the people to take it at its 
nominal value, by which the nation would have 
been impoverished and ruined. — Ed. 



J300K II.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN .SCOTLAND. 



133 



try, and to us so fearful, that we durst not 
in peaceable and quiet manner haunt the 
places where they did lie, should be sent 
to France their native country. Which 
things granted, her grace should have ex- 
perience of our accustomed obedience. 

To these heads she did answer at the 
first so pleasantly, that she put both our 
commissioners in full esperance that all 
should be granted ; and for that purpose she 
desired to speak with some of greater au- 
thority, promising, that if they would assure 
her of their dutiful obedience, that she 
would deny nothing of that which was 
required. For satisfaction of her mind we 
sent again the earl of Glencairn, the lord 
Ruthven, the lord Ochiltree, and the said 
laird of Pitarrow, with the same commis- 
sion as of before. But then she began to 
handle the matter more craftily, complain- 
ing, that she was not sought in a gentle 
manner ; and that they in whom she had 
put most singular confidence had left her in 
her greatest need ; and such other things, 
pertaining nothing to their commission, pro- 
poned she, to spend and drive the time. 
They answered, " That, by unjust tyranny 
devised against them and their brethren — as 
her grace did well know— they were com- 
pelled to seek the extreme remedy ; and, 
therefore, that her grace ought not to 
wonder, though godly men left the company 
where they neither found fidelity nor truth." 
In the end of this communing, which was 
the 12th of July, 1559, she desired to have 
talked privily with the earl of Argyle, 
and lord James, prior of St Andrews ; for 
else — as she alleged — she could not but 
suspect that they pretended to some other 
higher purpose than religion. She and her 
crafty council had abused the duke, per- 
suading unto him, and unto his friends, 
that the said earl and prior had conspired, 
first to deprive our sovereign her daughter 
of her authority, and thereafter the duke 
and his succession of their title to the 
crown of Scotland. By these invented 
lies she inflamed the hearts of many against 
us, insomuch that some of our own number 
began to murmur ; which perceived, as 
Avell the preachers, in their public sermons, 
as we ourselves, by our public proclama- 



tions, gave purgation and satisfaction to the 
people, plainly and simply declin ing what 
was our purpose, taking God to witness, 
that no such crimes ever entered in our hearts 
as most unjustly was laid to our charge 
The council, after consultation, thought 
not expedient that the said earl and prior 
should talk with the queen in any sort; 
for her former practices put all men in 
suspicion, that some deceit lurked under 
such coloured communing. She had be- 
fore said, that if she could by any means 
sunder those two from the rest, she was as- 
sured shortly to come by her whole purpose ; 
and one of her chief council in these days 
— and we fear but over inward [familiar] 
with her yet said — " That ere Michaelmas 
day they two should leave their heads ;" 
and, therefore, all men feared to commit 
two such young plants to her mercy and 
fidelity. It was, therefore, finally denied 
that they should talk with the queen, or 
any to her appertaining, but in places void 
of all suspicion, where they should be equal 
in number with those that should talk with 
them. 

The queen perceiving that her craft 
could not prevail, was content that the 
duke's grace, and the earl of Huntly, with 
others by her appointed, should convene at 
Preston to commune with the said earl and 
prior, and such others as the lords of the 
congregation would appoint, to the number 
of one hundred on the side, of the which 
number eight persons only should meet for 
conference. The principals for their party 
were the duke, the earl Huntly, the lords 
Erskine and Somervile, Mr Gavin Hamil- 
ton, and the justice-clerk. From us were 
directed the earls of Argyle and Glencairn, 
the lords Ruthven, lord James, Boyd and 
Ochiltree, the lairds Dun and Pitarrow, 
who, convened at Preston, spoke the whole 
day without any certain conclusion ; for 
this was the practice of the queen, and 
of her faction, by drift of time to weary our 
company, who, for the most part, had been 
upon the fields from the tenth day of May, 
that we being dispersed, she might come 
to her purpose, in which she w as not alto- 
gether deceived ; for our commons were 
| compelled to skaill [disperse] for lack of 



134 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



expenses, and our gentlemen, partly con- 
strained by lack of furnishing, and partly 
hoping 1 some final appointment, after so 
many communings, returned for the most 
part to their dwelling-places, for reposing 
of themselves. The queen in all these 
conventions seemed that she would give 
liberty to religion, provided that whereso- 
ever she was, our preachers should cease 
and the mass should be maintained. We 
perceiving her malicious craft, answered, 
" That as we would compel her grace to 
no religion, so could we not of conscience, 
for the pleasure of any earthly creature, 
put silence to God's true messengers ; 
neither could we suffer that the right ad- 
ministration of Christ's true sacraments 
should give place to manifest idolatry ; for 
in so doing, we should declare ourselves 
enemies to God, to Jesus Christ, his 
eternal verity, and to the liberty and esta- 
blishment of his kirk within this realm; 
for your request being granted, there can 
no kirk within the same be so established 
but at your pleasure, and by your resi- 
dence and remaining there ye might over- 
throw the same." This our last answer 
we sent to her with the lord Ruthven and 
laird of Pitarrow ; requiring of her grace, 
in plain words, to signify unto us what 
hope we might have of her favours toward 
the outsetting of religion. We also re- 
quired that she would remove her French- 
men, who were a fear to us, and a burden 
most grievous to the country. And that 
she would promise to us, in the word of 
a princess, that she would procure no more 
to be sent in, and then should we not only 
support, to the uttermost of our powers, to 
furnish ships and victuals for then- trans- 
porting, but also, upon our honours, should 
we take her body in our protection ; and 
should promise, in the presence of God and 
the whole realm, to serve our sovereign, 
her daughter, and her grace's regent, also 
faithfully and as obediently, as ever we 
did kings within Scotland. That, more- 
over, we should cause our preachers give 
reason of their doctrine in her audience 
to any that pleased to impugn any thing 
that they did or taught. Finally, that we 
should submit ourselves to a lawful parlia- 



ment, provided that the bishops, as the 
party accused, and our plain enemies, should 

[ be removed from judgment. 

To no point would she answer directly, 

j but in all things she was so general and so 

, ambiguous, that her craft appeared to all 
men. She had gotten sure knowledge 
that our company was skailled [dispersed] 
— for her Frenchmen were daily amongst 
us without any molestation or hurt done 
unto them — and, therefore, she began to 

I disclose her mind, and said, " The con°re- 
gation had reigned these two months by- 
past, me myself would reign now other 
two." The malice of her heart being 
plainly perceived, deliberation was had 
what was to be done. It was concluded 
that the lords, barons, and gentlemen, with 

their substantious households, should re- 
... 

mam in Edinburgh that whole winter, for 
the establishing of the kirk there. And 
because it was found, that by the corrup- 

j tion [debasing] of our money the queen 
made to herself immoderate gains for 
maintaining of her soldiers, to the destruc- 
tion of the whole commonwealth, it was 
thought expedient and necessary, that the 
printing irons [implements for stamping 
coin], and all things to them pertaining 
should be stayed, for fear she should 
privily cause transport them to Dunbar. 
In this meantime came the assured word, 

, first, that Henry king of France was hurt, 

: and after that he was dead. "Which, al- 

' beit that it ought to have put her in mind 
of her own estate and wicked enterprise : 
for he that same time in the fulness of 

, his glory, as she herself used to speak, had 
determined most cruel persecution against 

! the saints of God in France, even as she 
herself was here persecuting in Scotland : 
and yet he so perished in his pride, that 

, all men might see that God's just ven- 
geance did strike him, even when his ini- 

! quity was coming to full ripeness. Albeit, 
we say, that this wondrous work of God 
in his sudden death, ought to have dan- 
toned [subdued] her fury, and given unto 
her admonition, that the same God could 
not suffer her obstinate malice against his 
truth, long to be unpunished. Yet could 
her indurate heart nothing be moved to 



Book II. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



13.3 



repentance ; for hearing the staying- of the 
printing 1 irons, she raged more outrageously 
nor oft before, and sending- for all such 
as were of her faction, exponed her griev- 
ous complaint, aggreging [aggravating] the 
same with many lies, to wit, that we had 
declared that which before she had sus- 
pected : for what could we mean else, but 
usurpation of the crown, when Ave durst 
put hand to the cunye house, [mint] which 
was a portion of the patrimony of the 
crown. She farther alleged, " That we 
had spoiled the cunye house of great sums 
of money." To the which we answered, 
both by our letters sent to her, and to her 
council, and by public proclamation to the 
people, that we, without usurpation of any 
thing justly appertaining to the crown of 
Scotland, did stay the printing irons, in 
consideration that the commonwealth was 
greatly hurt, by corrupting of our money. 
And because that we were born council- 
lors of this realm, and sworn to procure 
the profit of the same, we could do no 
less of duty and of conscience than to stay 
that for a time, which we saw so abused, 
that unless remedy were found, should 
turn to the detriment of the whole body 
of this realm. And as to her false accu- 
sation of spulie, we did remit us to the 
conscience of Mr Robert Richardson, 
master of the coin house, who from our 
hands received gold, silver, and metal, as 
well coined as uncoined ; so that with us 
there did not remain the value of a 
bawbee.* 

This our purgation and declaration not- 
withstanding, she partly by her craft and 
policy, and partly by the labours of the 
bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow, pro- 



* Bawbee. It is generally understood that 
this word had its origin from the head of the 
baby, or infant, king James VI. on the coin ; 
but here Knox uses it several years before James 
was born ; and Dr Jamieson, whose opinion on 
such a subject few will dispute, thinks this origin 
of the word is a mere fancy. " According to 
Sir James Balfour," says he, " babees were in- 
troduced in the reign of James V." — " At the 
time referred to it was worth three pennies ; in 
the reign of James VI. it was valued at six ; 
and this continued its standard valuation in the 
succeeding reigns, while it was customary to 
count by Scots money." A bawbee bears exactly 
the same relation to a pound Scots, that six- 



cured the whole number that were with 
her, to consent to pursue us with all cruelty 
and expedition, before that we could have 
our company — which then was dispersed 
for new furnishing — assembled agaiu. The 
certainty hereof coming to our knowledge 
the Saturday at night, the 25th July, we 
did what in us lay to give advertisement 
to our brethren ; but impossible it was that 
those of the west, Angus, Mearns, Strath- 
earn or Fife, in any number could come to 
us. For the enemy marched from Dunbar 
upon the Sunday, and approached within 
two miles of us before the sun-rising upon 
the Monday. For they verily supposed to 
have found no resistance, being assured 
that the lords only with certain gentlemen 
remained with their private households. 
Calling upon God for counsel in that strait, 
we sought what was the next defence. 
We might have left the town, and might 
have retired ourselves without any danger, 
but then we should have abandoned our 
brethren of Edinburgh, and suffered the 
ministry thereof to have decayed, which to 
our hearts was so dolorous, that we thought 
better to hazard the extremity than so to 
do. For then the most part of the town 
appeared rather to favour us rather than 
the queen's faction, and did offer unto us 
the uttermost of their support, which for 
the most part they faithfully did keep. The 
same did the town of Leith, but they kept 
not the like fidelity. For when we were 
upon the field, marching forward for their 
support — for the Frenchmen marched near 
to them — they rendered themselves without 
farther resistance. And this they did, as is 
supposed, by the treason of some within 
themselves, and by persuasion of the laird of 



pence does to a pound sterling. The thing is 
scarcely ever heard of now ; but within my own 
recollection, twal (twelve) pennies was the word 
for a penny. Hence Churchhill, in a satyr on 
the Scots, says : 

" How can the rogues pretend to sense, 
Whose pound is only twenty pence ?" 

The Scots continued to count by their own 
money for a good while after the Revolution ; for 
the bank of Scotland, which was established 
I seven years after that event, made their shares a 
I thousand pounds Scots. After the union of the 
J two kingdoms, the Scots money was gradually 
l superseded by the sterling. — Ed. 



136 



HISTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



Restalrig, who of before declared himself to 
have been one of us, and yet, notwithstand- 
ing, that same day rendered himself unde- 
sired to Monsieur d'Oysel. Their unpro- 
vided and sudden defection astonished many, 
and yet we retired quietly to the side of 
Craigingate,* which place we took for re- 
sisting- of the enemy. 

In the meantime, divers mediators past 
betwixt, among whom my lord Ruthven 
for our part was principal. Alexander 
Erskine did much travail to stay us and our 
soldiers, that we should not join with them 
of Leith, till that they, as said is, had ren- 
dered themselves to the Frenchmen. The 
said Alexander did promise that the French- 
men would stay, providing that we would 
not join with those of Leith. But after 
that they were rendered, we heard nothing 
of him but threatening and discomfortable 
words. Before eight hours in the morning, 
God had given unto us both courage, and a 
reasonable number to withstand their fury. 
The town of Edinburgh, so many as had 
subjected themselves to discipline, and 
divers others besides them, did behave 
themselves both faithfully and stoutly. The 
gentlemen of Lothian, especially Calder, 
Ormiston, and Hatton, were very comfort- 
able, as well for their counsels as for their 
whole assistance. Some gentlemen of Fife 
prevented the Frenchmen ; others were 
stopped, by reason that the Frenchmen had 
possessed Leith. Always [however] the 
enemy took such a fear, that they deter- 
mined not to invade us where we stood, but 
took purpose to have passed to Edinburgh, 
by the other side of the water of Leith, and 
that because they had the castle to their 
friend, which was to us unknown ; for which 
we supposed the lord Erskine, captain of the 
same, either to have been our friend, or at 
least to have been indifferent. But when 
we had determined to fight, he sent word 
to the earl of Argyle, to lord James, his 
sister's son, and to the other noblemen that 
were with us, that he would declare him- 
self both enemy to them and to the town, 



* Craigingate — a gate (road) eastward from 
Edinburgh, near the Calton or Salisbury Crags. 

—Macpkerson. 



and would shoot at both, if they made any 
resistance to the Frenchmen to enter in the 
town. This his treasonable defiance sent 
unto us by the laird of Ricarton, did abate 
the courage of many, for we could not fight 
nor stop the enemy, but under the mercy 
of the castle, and whole ordnance thereof. 
Hereupon Mas consultation taken, and in 
conclusion, it was found less damage to take 
an appointment, albeit the conditions were 
not such as we desired, than to hazard 
battle betwixt two such enemies. After 
long talking, certain heads were drawn by 
us, which we desired to be granted. 

I. " That no member of the congregation 
should be troubled, in life, lands, goods or 
possessions by the queen her authority, or 
any other justice within the realm, for any 
thing done in the late innovation, till a par- 
liament — which should begin the tenth of 
January next — had decided things in con- 
troversy. 

II. " That idolatry should not be erected, 
where it was at that day suppressed. 

III. " That the preachers and ministers 
should not be troubled in their ministry, 
where they are already established, neither 
yet stopped to preach, wheresoever they 
should chance to come. 

IV. " That no bands of men of war 
should be laid in garrison within Edin- 
burgh. 

V. " That the Frenchmen should be sent 
away at a reasonable day, and that none 
other should be brought in the country 
without the consent of the whole nobility 
and parliament." 

But these our articles were altered, and 
in another form disposed as after follows : 

« At the Links of Leith, the 24th Jul}', 
1559, it is appointed in manner fol- 
lowing : 

" In the first, the congregation and their 
company, others than the inhabitants of 
the said town, shall remove themselves 
forth of the said town, the morn at ten 
hours before noon, the 25th of July, and 
leave the same void and rid of them and 
the said company, conform to the queen's 
grace's pleasure and desire. 

Item. " The said congregation shall cause 
the irons of the coin-house, taken away by 



Hook I I.J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTI.A Nl). 



137 



them, be rendered and delivered to Mr 
Robert Richardson; and in likewise the 
queen's grace's, her palace of Holyrood- 
house to be left, and rendered again to Mr 
John Balfour, or any other having her 
grace's sufficient power, in the same manner 
as it was received, and tliat betwixt the 
making of these articles and the morn at 
ten hours. For observing and keeping of 
these two articles above written, the lord 
Ruthven, and the laird of Pitarrow have 
entered themselves pledges. 

Item. " The said lords of the congrega- 
tion, and all the members thereof, shall re- 
main obedient subjects to our sovereign 
lord and lady's authority, and to the queen's 
grace regent in their place ; and shall obey 
all laws, and loveable consuetudes of this 
realm, as they were used of before the using 
of this tumult and controversy, excepting 
the cause of religion, which shall be here- 
after specified. 

Item, " The said congregation, nor none 
of them, shall trouble nor molest a kirk- 
man by way of deed, nor yet shall make 
them any impediment in the peaceable 
bruiking, joysing [enjoying] and uptaking 
of their rents, profits, and duties of their 
benefices, but that they may freely use and 
dispone upon the same, according to the 
laws and consuetudes of this realm, to the 
tenth day of January next to come. 

Item, " The said congregation, nor none 
of them, shall in nowise from thenceforth 
use any force or violence, in casting down 
of kirks, religious places, or reparralling * 
thereof, but the same shall stand skaithless 
of them, unto the said tenth of January. 

Item, " The town of Edinburgh shall, 
without compulsion, use and choose what 
religion and manner thereof they please to 
the said day ; so that every man may have 
freedom to use his own conscience to the 
day foresaid. 

Item, " The queen's grace shall not in- 
terpone her authority, to molest or trouble 
the preachers of the congregation, nor their 
ministry — to them that please to use the 
same— nor no other of the said congrega- 



* ReparraHing — Repairs. In the suppressed 
copy, Apparel is the word used. — Ed. 



tion in their bodies, lands, goods, or pos- 
sessions, pensions, or whatsoever oilier kin i 
of goods they possess, nor yet thole [suffer] 
the clergy, or any other having temporal 
or spiritual jurisdiction, to trouble them, in 
any manner of sort, privily or openly, for 
the cause of religion, or any other action 
depending thereupon, to the said tenth day 
of January within written, and that every 
man in particular live in the meantime ac- 
cording to his own conscience. 

Item, " That no man of war, French nor 
Scotish, be laid in daily garrisons within the 
town of Edinburgh, but repair thereto, to 
do their lesum [lawful] business, and there- 
after to retire them to their garrisons." 

This alteration in words and order was 
made without knowledge and consent of 
those whose counsel we had used in all 
such cases before ; for some of them per- 
ceiving we began to faint, and that we 
would appoint with unequal conditions, 
said, " God has wonderfully assisted us in 
our greatest dangers : he has stricken fear 
in the hearts of our enemies, when they 
supposed themselves most assured of vic- 
tory : our case is not yet so desperate that 
we need to grant to things unreasonable 
and ungodly ; which, if we do, it is to be 
feared that things shall not so prosperously 
succeed as they have done heretofore." 

When all things were communed and 
agreed upon by mid persons, the duke and 
the earl of Huntly, who that day were 
against us, desired to speak the earls Ar- 
gyle and Glencairn, the lord James, and 
others of our party, who obeying their re- 
quest, met them at the Quarry Holes be- 
twixt Leith and Edinburgh, who in con- 
clusion promised to our lords, " That if the 
queen broke to us any one jot of the ap- 
pointment then made, that they should de- 
clare themselves plain enemies to her, and 
friends to us." As much promised the 
duke to do, in case that she would not re- 
move her Frenchmen at a reasonable day ; 
for the oppression which they did was ma- 
nifest to all men. This appointmeut made, 
and subscribed by the duke, Monsieur d'- 
Oysel, and the earl of Huntly, the Joth 
day of July, we returned to the town of 
Edinburgh, where we remained till the 
s 



138 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d, 1559 



next day at noon ; when after sermon, din- 
ner, and proclamation made at the market- 
cross in form as follows, we departed. 

THE FORM OF THE PROCLAMATION. 

" Forasmuch as it hath pleased God, 
that appointment is made betwixt the queen 
regent and us, the lords and whole protes- 
tants of this realm, we have thought good 
to signify unto you the chief heads of the 
same, which be these : 

First, " That no member of the congre- 
gation shall be troubled in life, lands, goods, 
or possessions by the queen, or by her au- 
thority, nor by any other justice within 
this realm, for any thing done in this late 
innovation, till that a parliament hath de- 
cided things that be in controversy. 

Secondly, " That idolatry shall not be 
erected, where it is now at this day sup- 
pressed. 

Thirdly, " That the preachers and mi- 
nisters shall not be troubled in the minis- 
tration, where they are already established, 
neither yet stopped to preach wheresoever 
they shall happen to travel within this 
realm. 

Fourthly, " That no bands of men of 
war shall be laid in garrisons within the 
town of Edinburgh. 

" These chief heads of appointment, con- 
cerning the liberty of religion, and conser- 
vation of our brethren, Ave thought good to 
notify unto you, by this our proclamation, 
that in case wrong or injury be done, by 
any of the contrary faction, to any member 
of our body, complaint may be made to us, 
to whom we promise, as we will answer to 
God, our faithful support to the uttermost 
of our powers." 

At this proclamation made with sound 
of trumpet, were offended all the papists : 
For, first, They alleged it was done in con- 
tempt of the authority. Secondly, That 
we had proclaimed more than was contain- 
ed in the appointment. And, last, That 
we, in our proclamation, had made no men- 
tion of any thing promised unto them. To 
such murmurs we answered, That no just 
authority could think itself contemned, be- 
cause that the truth was by us made mani- 
fest unto all, who otherwise might have 
pretended ignorance. Secondly, That we 



had proclaimed nothing, which was not 
finally agreed upon in word and promises 
betwixt us and those with whom the ap- 
pointment was made, whatsoever their 
scribes had after written, who in very deed 
had altered, both in words and sentences, 
our articles as they were first conceived. 
And yet, if their own writings were dili- 
gently examined, the self same thing shall 
be found in substance. And last, To pro- 
claim any thing in their favours, we thought 
it not necessary, knowing that in that be- 
half they themselves would be diligent 
enough : and in this we were not deceived ; 
for, within fifteen days after, there was not 
a shaveling in Scotland, to whom teind, or 
any other rent pertained, but he had that 
article of the appointment by heart, " That 
the kirkmen should be answered of [be duly 
paid] teinds, rents, and all other duties, and 
that no man should trouble nor molest 
them." 

We departed from Edinburgh, the 26th 
of July, came first to Linlithgow, and after 
to Stirling, where after consultation, the 
bond of defence and maintenance of reli- 
gion, and for mutual defence every one of 
other, was subscribed by all that were there 
present. The tenor of the bond was this : 

" We foreseeing the craft and slight of 
our adversaries, tending all manner of ways 
to circumvent us, and by privy means in- 
tend to assail every one of us particularly 
by fair hechts [offers] and promises, there- 
through to separate one of us from another, 
to our utter ruin and destruction : for re- 
medy thereof, we faithfully and truly bind 
us, in the presence of God, and as we ten- 
der the maintenance of true religion, that 
none of us shall in times coming pass to 
the queen's grace dowager, to talk or com- 
mune Avith her, for any letter or message 
sent by her unto us, or yet to be sent, with- 
out consent of the rest, and common con- 
sultation thereupon. And how soon that 
either message or writ shall come from her 
to us, with utter diligence we shall notify 
the same one unto another, so that nothing 
shall proceed herein without common con- 
sent of us all. At Stirling, the first day of 
August, 1559." 

This bond subscribed, and we foreseeing 



Book II.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



139 



that the queen and bishops meant nothing 
but deceit, thought good to seek aid and sup- 
port of all christian princes against her and 
her tyranny, in case we should be more 
sharply pursued; and because that Eng- 
land was of the same religion, and lay next 
unto us, it was judged expedient first to 
prove them, which we did by one or two 
messengers, as hereafter, in the own place, 
more amply shall be declared. 

After we had abidden certain days in 
Stirling, the earl of Argyle departed to 
Glasgow ; and because he was to depart to 
his own country, — with whom also passed 
lord James, — to pacify some trouble which, 
by the craft of the queen, was raised in his 
absence, he required the earl of Glencairn, 
lord Boyd, lord Ochiltree, and others of 
Kyle, to meet there, for some order to be 
taken that the brethren should not be op- 
pressed, which with one consent they did, 
and appointed the tenth of September for 
the next convention at Stirling. 

While these things were in doing at 
Glasgow, letters and a servant came from 
the earl of Arran to the duke his father, 
signifying unto him, that, by the providence 
of God, he had escaped the French king's 
hands, who most treasonably and most 
cruelly had sought his life, or at least to 
have committed him to perpetual prison : 
for the same time, the said French king, 
seeing that he could not have the earl him- 
self, gart [caused] put his younger brother — 
a bairn of such age as could not offend — 
in strait prison, where he yet remains, to 
icit, in the month of October, the year of 
God 15j9 ; which things were done by the 
craft and policy of the queen dowager, what 
time the duke and his friends were most 
frack [active] to set forward her cause. 
These letters received, and the estate of his 
two sons known, of whom the one was 
escaped, and the other cast in vile prison, 
the duke desired communing with the earl 
of Argyle, who, partly against the will of 
some that loved him, rode to the duke from 
Glasgow to Hamilton, where, abiding all 
night, he declared his judgment to the 
duke and to his friends, especially to Mr 
Gavin Hamilton. The duke required him 
and the lord James to write their friendly 



and comfortable letters to his son, which 
they both most willingly 'did, and after ad- 
dressed them to their journey ; but the 
very day of their departing, came one Bu- 
tonecourt, from the queen regent, with let- 
ters, as was alleged, from the king and 
queen of France to lord James, which he 
delivered with a bragging countenance and 
many threatening words. The tenor of his 
letters was this : 

" LE ROI. 

" My cousin, I have been greatly as- 
tonished, having understood the troubles 
that are happened in these parts ; and yet 
do more marvel that ye, of whom I had an 
whole [entire] confidence, and also have this 
honour to be so near the queen's grace, my 
wife, and had received of umquhille the 
king's grace my father, her grace and me, 
such graces and favours, that ye should be 
so forgetful as to make yourself the head, 
and one of the principal beginners and 
nourishers of the tumults and seditions that 
are seen there, the which because it is so 
strange as it is, and so against the profes- 
sion that ye at all times have made, I can- 
not goodly [really] believe it. And [if] it 
be so, I cannot think but ye have been en- 
ticed and led thereto by some persons that 
have seduced and caused you commit such 
a fault, as I am assured ye repent of al- 
ready, which will be a great pleasure to 
me, to the effect that I might lose a part of 
the occasion I have to be miscontent with 
you, as I will you to understand I am, 
seeing you have so far deceived the espe- 
rance [hope] I had of you, and your affec- 
tion towards God, and the weal of our ser- 
vice, unto the which ye know ye are as 
much and more obliged than any other of 
the lords there. For this cause, desiring 
that the matters may be dutifully amended, 
and [for] knowing what ye may [say] 
thereuntil ; 1 thought good on this manner 
to write unto you, and pray you to take 
heed to return to the good way, from which 
ye have declined, and cause me know the 
same by effects that ye have another inten- 
tion than this which the follies bypast 
make me now to believe; doing all that 
ever ye can to reduce all things to their 
first estate, and put the same to the right 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1659 



and good obedience that ye know to be due 
unto God and unto me. Otherwise, ye 
may be well assured, I will put to my 
hand, and that in good earnest, that you 
and all they that have done, and do as 
ye do, shall feel, through their own fault, 
that which they have deserved and merit- 
ed, even as I have given charge to this 
gentleman, present bearer, to make you 
know more largely of my part ; for which 
cause, I pray you credit him as ye would 
do myself. Praying God, my cousin, to 
have you in his holy and worthy protec- 
tion. 

" Written at Paris, the 17th July, 1559." 

The same messenger brought also letters 
from the queen our sovereign, more sharp 
and threatening than the former ; for her 
conclusion was, " Vows ensenteras lapoinc- 
ture a jamais" This credit was, that the 
king would spend the crown of France, 
ere that he were not revenged upon such 
seditious persons ; that he would never 
have suspected such inobedience and such 
defection from his own sister in him. To 
the which the said lord James answered, 
first by word and syne [afterwards] by 
writing, as follows : 
« Sir, 

" My duty remembered. Your majesty's 
letter from Paris, the 17th of July last, I 
received, proporting in effect, that your 
majesty should marvel that I, being forget- 
ful of the graces and favours shown me by 
the king, of blessed memory, your majesty's 
father, and the queen's grace, my sovereign, 
should declare myself head, and one of the 
principal beginners of the alleged tumults 
and seditions in these parts, deceiving there- 
by your majesty's expectation at all times 
had of me ; with assurance, that if I did 
not declare by contrary effects my repent- 
ance, I, with the rest that had put, or yet 
put hand to that work, should receive the 
reward that we had deserved and merited. 
Sir, it grieves me heavily that the crime of 
ingratitude should be laid to my charge by 
your highness, and the rather that I per- 
ceive the same to have proceeded of sinis- 
ter information, of them whose part it was 
not so to have reported, if true service by- 
gone had been regarded. And as touching 



the repentance, and declaration of the same 
by certain effects, that your majesty desires 
I show, my conscience persuades me in 
these proceedings to have done nothing 
against God, nor the dutiful obedience to- 
wards your highness and the queen's grace 
my sovereign, otherwise it should have 
been to repent, and also amended, accord- 
ing to your majesty's expectation of me. 
But your highness being truly informed, 
and persuaded that the thing which we 
have done makes for the advancement of 
God's glories, — as it does indeed, — without 
any derogation to your majesty's due obe- 
dience, we doubt not but your majesty shall 
be well contented with our proceedings, 
which being grounded upon the command- 
ment of the eternal God, we dare not leave 
the same unaccomplished, only wishing and 
desiring your majesty did know the same, 
and truth thereof, as it is persuaded to our 
consciences, and all them that are truly in- 
structed in the eternal word of our God, 
upon whom we cast our care for all dan- 
gers that may follow the accomplishment 
of his eternal will, and to whom we com- 
mend your highness, beseeching him to il- 
luminate your heart with the evangel of 
his eternal truth, to know your majesty's 
duty towards us your poor subjects, God's 
chosen people, and what ye ought to crave 
justly of them again ; for then we should 
have no occasion to fear your majesty's 
wrath and indignation, nor your highness' 
suspicion in our inobedience. The same 
God have your majesty in his eternal safe- 
guard. At Dumbarton, the 12th of August, 
1559." 

This answer, directed to the queen our 
sovereign, and to Francis her husband, the 
queen dowager received it, and was bold 
upon it, as she might well enough ; for it 
was supposed that the former letters were 
forged here at home in Scotland. The an- 
swer read by her, she said, " That so proud 
an answer was never given to king, prince, 
or princess :" and yet indifferent men 
thought that he might have answered more 
sharply, and not have transgressed modesty 
nor truth. For where they burden him 
with the great benefits which of them he 
had received, if in plain words he had 



Kook II.] OF RELIGION 

purged himself, affirming-, that the greatest 
benefit that ever he received of them, was 
to spend in their service, that which God 
by others had provided for him, no honest 
man would have accused him, and no man 
would have been able to have convicted 
him of a lie ; " But princes must be par- 
doned to speak what they please." 

For the comfort of the brethren, and 
continuance of the kirk in Edinburgh, was 
left there our dear brother John Willock, 
who, for his faithful labours and bold cou- 
rage in that battle, deserved immortal 
praise. For when it was found dangerous 
that John Knox, who before was elected 
minister to that church, should continue 
there, the brethren requested the said John 
Willock to remain with them, lest that, for 
lack of ministers, idolatry should be erected 
up again. To the which he so gladly con- 
sented, that it might evidently appear, that 
he preferred the comfort of his brethren, 
and the continuance of the church there, 
to his own life. One part of the French- 
men was appointed to lie in garrison at 
Leith, — that was the first benefit they got 
for their confederacy with them; — the other 
part was appointed to lie in the Canon- 
gate, the queen and her train abiding in the 
Abbey. Our brother John "Willock, the 
day after our departure, preached in St 
Giles' kirk, and fervently exhorted the 
brethren to stand constant in the truth 
which they had professed. At this and some 
other sermons were the duke and divers 
others of the queen's faction. This liberty 
of preaching, with resorting of all people 
thereto, did highly offend the queen and 
the other papists. And first they began to 
give terrors to the duke ; affirming, that he 
would be repute as one of the congregation, 
if he gave his presence at the sermons. 
Thereafter they began to require that mass 
should be set up again in St Giles' kirk, 
and that the people should be set at liberty 
to choose what religion they would ; for 
that — said they — was contained in the ap- 
pointment, that the town of Edinburgh 
should choose what religion they list. For 
obtaining hereof were sent to the tolbooth 
the duke, the earl of Huntly, and the lord 
Seyton, to solicit all men to condescend to 



IN SCOTLAND 14-1 

the queen's mind ; wherein the two last 
did labour that they could; the duke not so, 
but as a beholder, of whom the brethren 
had good esperance : and after many per- 
suasions and threatenings made by the 
said earl and lord, the brethren, stoutly 

I and valiantly in the Lord Jesus, gainsaid 
their most unjust petitions, reasoning, that 
as of conscience they might not suffer 
idolatry to be erected where Christ Jesus 
was truly preached, so could not the queen 
nor they require any such thing, unless she 
and they would plainly violate their faith 
and chief articles of the appointment ; for 
it is plainly appointed, that no member of 
the congregation shall be molested in any 
thing that — [at] the day of the appointment 
— he peaceably possessed ; but so it was that 
we, the brethren and protestants of the 
town of Edinburgh, with our ministers, 
the day of the appointment, did peaceably 
possess St Giles' kirk, appointed for us for 

: preaching of Christ's true evangel, and 

I right administration of his holy sacra- 
ments ; therefore, without manifest viola- 
tion of the appointment, ye cannot remove 
us therefrom, until a parliament have de- 
cided this controversy. This answer given, 

j the whole brethren departed and left the 

' foresaid earl, and lord Seyton, then pro- 
vost of Edinburgh, still in the tolbooth ; 

j who perceiving that they could not prevail 
in that matter, began to entreat that they 
would be quiet, and that they would so far 
condescend to the queen's pleasure, as that 
they would choose them another kirk with- 

; in the town, or at the least be contented 
that mass should be said either before or 
after their sermons. To the which answer 

! was given, that to give place to the devil, 

j who was the chief inventor of the mass, 
for the pleasure of any creature, they could 

: not. They were in possession of that kirk, 
which they could not abandon ; neither 
could they suffer idolatry to be erected in 
the same, unless by violence they should 

1 bo constrained so to do, and then they 
were determined to seek the next remedy. 
Which answer received, the earl of Huntly 
did lovingly entreat them to quietness; 
faithfully promising that in no sort they 
should be molested, so that they would be 



142 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



quiet and make no farther uproar : to the 
which they were most willing- ; for they 
sought only to serve God, as he had com- 
manded, and to keep their possession, ac- 
cording- to the appointment, which by God's 
grace they did, till the month of November, 
notwithstanding the great boasting of the 
enemy. For they did not only convene to 
the preaching, daily supplications, and ad- 
ministration of baptism, but also the Lord's 
table was ministered, even in the eyes of 
the very enemy, to the great comfort of 
many afflicted consciences. And as God 
did potently work with his true minister, 
and with his troubled kirk, so did not the 
devil cease to inflame the malice of the 
queen, and of the papists with her ; for 
short after her coming to the abbey of Ho- 
lyroodhouse, she caused mass to be said 
first in her own chapel, and after in the 
abbey, where the altars before were casten 
down. She discharged the common pray- 
ers, and forbade to give any portion to 
such as were the principal young men who 
read them. Her malice extended in like 
manner to Cambuskenneth, for there she 
discharged the portions of as many of the 
canons as had forsaken papistry. She gave 
command and inhibition, that the abbot of 
Lindores should not be answered of any 
part of his living in the north, because he 
had submitted himself to the congregation, 
and had put some reformation to his place. 
By her consent and procurement was the 
preaching stool broken in the kirk of Leith, 
and idolatry was erected in the same, where 
it was before suppressed. Her French cap- 
tains, with their soldiers in great com- 
panies, in time of preaching and prayers, 
resorted to St Giles' Kirk in Edinburgh, 
and made their common deambulatours 
[promenades] therein, with such loud talk- 
ing, as no perfect audience could be had. 
And although the minister was oftentimes 
therethrough compelled to cry out on them, 
praying God to rid them of such locusts ; 
they nevertheless continued still in their 
wicked purpose devised and ordained by 
the queen, to have drawn our brethren 
of Edinburgh, and them in cumber [trou- 
ble], so that she might have had any colour- 
ed occasion to have broken the league with 



them. Yet by God's grace they behaved 
themselves so, that she could find no fault 
with them ; albeit in all these things before 
named, and in every one of them, she is 
worthily counted to have contravened the 
said appointment. We pass over the op- 
pressing of our brethren in particular, which 
had been sufficient to have proven the ap- 
pointment to have been violated plainly; 
for the lord Seyton, without any occasion 
offered unto him, broke a chase [cane or 
whip handle] upon Alexander Whitelaw, as 
they came from Preston, accompanied with 
William Knox, towards Edinburgh, and 
ceased not to pursue him, till he came to 
the town of Ormiston : and this he did, 
supposing that the said Alexander White- 
law had been John Knox. In all this mean- 
time, and until that more Frenchmen ar- 
rived, they are not able to prove that we 
broke the appointment in one jot, except 
that a horned cap was taken off a proud 
priest's head, and cut in four pieces, be- 
cause he said he would wear it in despite 
of the congregation. In this meantime the 
queen, then regent, knowing assuredly what 
force was shortly to come unto her, ceased 
not, by all means possible, to cloak the in- 
coming of the Frenchmen, and to inflame 
the hearts of our countrymen against us. 
And for that purpose she wrote first unto 
my lord duke, in form as follows : 

THE QUEEN REGENT'S FALSE FLATTERING 
LETTER TO THE DUKE. 

" My lord and cousin, 
" After hearty commendation, we are in- 
formed that the lords of the westland con- 
gregation intend to make a convention 
and assembly of their kin and friends upon 
Govan Muir, beside Glasgow, on Monday 
come eight days, the 28th August instant, 
for some high purpose against us, which 
we can scarcely believe, considering they 
have no occasion upon our part so to do. 
And albeit ye know that the appointment 
was made against, or without our advice, 
yet we accepted the same at your desire, 
and have sinsyne made no cause whereby 
they might be moved to come in the con- 
trary thereof. Likeas we are minded yet 
to keep firm and stable all things promised 
by you in our behalf ; we think, on the 



Book II. ] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



113 



other part, it is your duty to require them, 
that they contravene not their part thereof 
in no case. And in case they mean any 
evil towards us, and so will break their 
promise, we believe that ye will, to the ut- 
termost of your power convene with us, 
and compel them to do that thing which 
they ought, if they will not ; praying you 
to have yourself, your kin and friends, in 
readiness to come to us, as ye shall be ad- 
vertised by proclamation, in case the con- 
gregation assemble themselves for any pur- 
pose against us, or against the tenor of the 
said appointment : assuring you, without 
they gather, and make first occasion, we 
shall not put you to any pains in that be- 
half. And that you will advertise us in 
writ, what we may lippen to [depend on] 
herein with this bearer, who will show you 
the fervent mind we bear to have concord 
with the said congregation, what offers we 
have made to them, and how desirous we 
are to draw them to the obedience of our 
sovereign authority, to whom ye shall give 
credit : and God keep you. At Edinburgh, 
the tenth day of August, 1559." 

The like letter she wrote to every lord, 
baron, and gentleman, of this tenor : 

HER LETTER TO THE BARONS. 

" Trusty Friends, 
" After hearty commendation, we doubt 
not but ye have heard of the appointment 
made beside Leith, betwixt my lord duke, 
the earl of Huntly, and Monsieur d'Oysel, 
on the one part, and the lords of the 
congregation on the other side, which ap- 
pointment we have approved in all points, 
albeit it was taken without our advice, and 
is minded to observe and keep all the con- 
tents thereof, for our part. Nottheless, as 
we are informed, the saids lords of the con- 
gregation intend shortly to convene all 
such persons as will assist to them, for en- 
terprising of such high purpose against us, 
our authority and tenor of the said appoint- 
ment, which we cannot believe, seeing they 
neither have, nor shall have any occasion 
given thereto on our part, and yet think 
not reasonable, in case they think any such 
thing : and therefore have thought it good 
to give warning unto our special friends of 
the advertisement we have gotten, and 



amongst the rest to you, whom we esteem 
of that number, praying you to have your- 
selves, your kin and folks, in readiness to 
come to us." And so forth, as in the other 
letter above sent to the duke, word after 
word. 

After that by these letters, and by the de- 
ceitful surmising of her solicitors [agents], 
she had somewhat stirred up the hearts of 
the people against us, then she began open- 
ly to complain, that we were of mind to 
invade her person ; that we would keep no 
part of the appointment ; and therefore she 
was compelled to crave the assistance of all 
men against our unjust pursuit. And this 
practice she used, as before is said, to abuse 
the simplicity of the people, that they 
should not suddenly espy for what purpose 
she brought in her new bands of men of 
war, who did arrive about the midst of 
August, to the number of a thousand men : 
the rest were appointed to come after, with 
Monsieur de la Broche, and with the bishop 
of Amiens, who arrived the nineteenth of 
September following, as if they had been 
ambassadors : but what was their negotia- 
tion the effect did declare, and they them- 
selves could not long conceal ; for, both by 
pen and tongue they uttered, that they were 
sent for the utter extermination of all these 
that would not profess the papistical reli- 
gion in all points. The queen's practice 
nor craft could not blind the eyes of all 
men ; neither yet could her subtlety hide 
her own shame, but that many did espy her 
deceit : and some spared not to speak their 
judgments liberally, who foreseeing the dan- 
ger gave advertisement, requiring that pro- 
vision might be found, before that the evil 
should exceed our wisdom and strength to 
put remedy to the same ; for prudent men 
foresaw, that she pretended a plain con- 
quest. But to the end, that the people 
should not suddenly stir, she would not 
bring in her full force at once, as before is 
said, but by continual traffic purposed to 
augment her army, so that in the end we 
should not be able to resist. But the great- 
est part of the nobility, and many of the 
people, were so enchanted by her treason- 
able solicitors [agents], that they could not 
hear, nor credit the truth plainly spoken. 



H4- HISTORY OF THE 

The French then, after the arriving' of these 
new men, began to brag- : then began they 
to divide the lands and lordships according 
to their own fancies ; for one was styled 
Monsieur d'Argyle, another Monsieur le 
Prior, the third, Monsieur de Ruthven ; 
yea, they were assured, in their own opi- 
nion, to possess whatsoever they list; so 
that some asked the rentals and revenues 
of divers men's lands, to the end that they 
might choose the best. And yet in this 
meantime, she ashamed not [was not a- 
shanied] to set forth a proclamation on this 
form : 

A PROCLAMATION SET FORTH BY THE QUEEN 
REGENT TO BLIND THE VULGAR PEOPLE. 

" For so much as we understand that cer- 
tain seditious persons have of malice, invent- 
ed and blown abroad divers rumours, and 
evil bruits, tending thereby to stir up the 
hearts of the people, and so to stop all 
reconciliations betwixt us and our subjects, 
being of the number of the congregation, 
and consequently to kindle and nourish a 
continual strife and division in this realm, 
to the manifest subversion of the whole 
estates thereof ; and among other purposes, 
have maliciously devised for that effect, and 
have persuaded too many, that we have vio- 
lated the appointment lately taken, in so 
far as any more Frenchmen are since come 
in, and that we are minded to draw in 
great forces of men of war forth of France, 
to suppress the liberty of this realm, op- 
press the inhabitants thereof, and make up 
strangers with their lands and goods ; which 
reports — God knows — are most vain, feign- 
ed, and untrue. For it is of truth, that no- 
thing has been done on our part since the 
said appointment, whereby it may be al- 
leged, that any point thereof has been con- 
travened : neither yet was at that time 
any thing communed or concluded to stop 
the sending in of Frenchmen ; as may clear- 
ly appear by inspection of the said appoint- 
ment, which the bearer hereof has present 
to show. Whatever number of men of war 
be arrived, we have such regard to our ho- 
nour, and quietness of this realm, that in 
case in the room of every one Frenchman 
that is in Scotland there were an hundred 
at our command, yet should not for that 



REFORMATION [ A . d. 1559 

any jot of what is promised be broken, or 
any alteration be made by our provocation; 
but the said appointment [be] truly and 
surely observed in every point, if the said 
congregation will, in like manner, faithfully 
keep their part thereof. Nor yet mean we 
to trouble any man in the peaceable pos- 
session of their goods and rooms [places], 
nor yet to enrich the crown, and far less 
any stranger, with your substances; for 
our dearest son and daughter, the king and 
queen, are by God's provision placed in the 
room, where all men of judgment may well 
consider they have no need of any man's 
goods : and for ourself, we seek nothing 
but dutiful obedience unto them, such as 
good subjects ought to give to their sove- 
reigns, without diminution of our liberties 
and privileges, or alteration of our laws. 
Therefore, we have thought good to notify 
unto you our good mind foresaid, and de- 
sire you not to give ear nor credit to such 
vain imaginations, whereof — before God — 
no part ever entered in our conceit; nor 
suffer not yourselves to be thereby led 
from your due obedience ; assuring you, ye 
shall ever find with us truth in promise, 
and a motherly love towards all you be- 
having yourselves as obedient subjects. But 
of one thing we give you warning, that 
whereas some preachers of the congrega- 
tion, in their public sermons, speak irre- 
verently and slanderously, as well of princes 
in general as of ourselves in particular, and 
of the obedience to the higher powers ; in- 
ducing the people, by that part of the doc- 
trine, to defection from their duty, which 
pertains nothing to religion, but rather to 
sedition and tumult, things directly con- 
trary to religion : therefore we desire you 
to take order in your towns and bounds, 
that when the preachers repair there, they 
use themselves more modestly in these be- 
halfs, and in their preaching not to mell 
[meddle] so much with civil policy and 
public government, nor yet name us, nor 
other princes, but with honour and reve- 
rence, otherwise it will not be suffered. 
And seeing ye have presently the declara- 
tion of our intention, we desire likewise 
to know what shall be your part to us, that 
we may understand what to lippen for [de- 



Book II. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



1 15 



pend on] at your hands ; whereof we desire 
a plain declaration in writ, with this bearer, 
without excuse or delay. At Edinburgh, 
the 28th of August, 1559." 

This proclamation she sent by her mes- 
sengers through all the country, and had 
her solicitors in all parts, who painful- 
\y travailed to bring men to her opinion ; 
amongst whom those were the principals, 
Sir John Ballantine, justice-clerk, Mr James 
Balfour, official of Lothian, Mr Thomas and 
Mr William Scotts, sons to the laird of 
Balwerie, Sir Robert Carnegie, and Mi- 
Gavin Hamilton, who for fainting of the 
brethren's hearts, and drawing them to the 
queen's faction, against their native coun- 
try, have declared themselves enemies to 
God, and traitors to their commonwealth. 
But above all others Mr James Balfour, 
official for the time, ought to be abhorred ; 
for he of an old professor, is become a new 
denier of Christ Jesus, and manifest blas- 
phemer of his eternal verity, against his 
knowledge and conscience : seeking to be- 
tray his brethren and native country into 
the hands of an unfaithful nation. 

The answer to this former proclamation, 
was made in form as follows : 
To the nobility, burgesses, and commonalty 
of this realm of Scotland, the lords, ba- 
rons, and others, brethren of the christian 
congregation, wish increase of all wisdom, 
and the advancement of the glory of God, 
and of the commonwealth. 
" The love of our native country craveth, 
the defence of your honours requires, and 
the sincerity of our consciences compelleth 
us, dearest brethren, to answer some part 
to the last writings and proclamations set 
forth by the queen's grace's regent, no less 
to make us and our cause odious, than to 
abuse your simplicities to your final destruc- 
tion, conspired of old, and now already put 
to work. And first, where she alleges that 
certain seditious persons have, of malice in- 
vented and blown abroad divers rumours, 
tending thereby, as she alleges, to stir up 
the hearts of the people to sedition, by rea- 
son that the Frenchmen are crept in of 
late in our country ; true it is, dear bre- 
thren, that all such as bear natural love to 
their country, to you, their brethren inha- 



bitants thereof, to our houses, wives, bairns 
the esperance of your posterity, and shortly 
to your commonwealth, and the ancient 
laws and liberties thereof, cannot but in 
heart lament, and with mouth and tears 
complain, the most crafty assaults devised 
and practised, to the utter ruin of all those 
things forenamed ; and that so manifestly 
is gone to work, that even in our eyes 
[sight], our dearest brethren, true members 
of our commonwealth, are most cruelly 
oppressed by strangers ; in so far as some 
are banished their own houses ; some rob- 
bed and spoiled of their substances, con- 
quest [acquired] by their just labours in the 
sweat of their brows ; some cruelly mur- 
dered at the pleasure of these inhuman sol- 
diers ; and altogether have their lives in 
such fear and dread, as if the enemies 
were in the midst of them, so that nothing 
can seem pleasant unto them which they 
possess in the bowels of their native coun- 
try, so near judges every man, and not but 
just cause, the practice used upon their 
brethren to approach next unto themselves, 
wives, bairns, houses, and substances, which 
altogether are cast at the feet of stran- 
gers, men of war, to be by them thus 
abused at their unbridled lust's desire. Now 
if it be sedition, dear brethren, to complain, 
lament, and pour forth before God the sor- 
rows and sobs of our dolorous hearts, cry- 
ing to him for redress of these enormities, 
which elsewhere are not to be found, and 
they altogether do proceed of the unlawful 
holding of strange soldiers over the heads 
of our brethren ; if thus to complain be 
sedition, then, indeed, dear brethren, can 
none of us be purged of that crime ; for as 
in very heart we condemn such inhuman 
cruelty, with the wicked and crafty pre- 
tence thereof, so can we, nor dare we not, 
neither by mouth speaking, nor yet by 
keeping of silence, justify the same. Nei- 
ther do we here aggrege [aggravate] the 
breaking of the appointment made at Leith, 
which always has manifestly been done ; 
but when we remember what oath we have 
made to our commonwealth, and how the 
duty we owed to the same compels us to 
cry out, that her grace, by wicked and un- 
godly counsel, goeth most craftily about 



146 



HISTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. b. 1559 



utterly to suppress the same and the an- 
cient laws and liberties thereof, as well 
against the king of France's promise, or her 
own duty, in respect of the high promotions 
that she has received thereby, which jus- 
tice should have caused her to have been 
indeed that which she would be called, and 
is nothing less in verity, to wit, a careful 
mother over this commonwealth ; but what 
motherly care she has used towards you, 
ye cannot be ignorant. Have ye not been, 
even from the first entry of her reign, ever 
suited and oppressed with unaccustomed 
and exorbitant taxations, more than ever 
were used within this realm? Yea, and 
how far was it sought here to have been 
brought in upon you and your posterity, 
under colour to have been laid up in store 
for the wars. The inquisition taken of all 
your goods, moveable and unmoveable, by 
vray of testament ; the seeking of the whole 
coal and salt of this realm, to have been 
laid up in store and girnel [granary], and 
she alone to have been merchant thereof, 
doth teach you by experience some of her 
motherly care. Again, what care over your 
commonwealth doth her grace instantly 
[constantly] bear, when even now presently, 
and of a long time bygone, by the ministry 
of some, who better deserved the gallows 
than ever did Cochran, * she doth so cor- 
rupt the lay it money [lawful coin], and hath 
brought it to such baseness, and to such 
quantity of scrufe [base porous metal, mere 
rust], that all men that have their eyes open 
may perceive an extreme beggary to be 
brought therethrough upon the whole 
realm, so that the whole exchange and 
traffic to be had with foreign nations, a 
thing most necessary in all commonwealths, 
shall thereby be utterly extinguished ; and 
all the gains received thereby is, that she 
therewith entertains strangers upon our 
heads ; for, brethren, ye know, that her 
money has served for no other purpose in 
our commonwealth this long time bygone. 
And the impunity of the wicked ministers, 
whom lately we spoke of, has brought the 



* TSie favourite of James III, who was 
hanged by the Scotish nobles at Lauder. — Ed. 



matter to such licentious enormity, and 
plain contempt of the commonwealth, that 
now they spare not plainly to break down 
and convert good and stark [solid] money, 
coined in our coinhouse, in our sovereign's 
lessage [nonage], into this their corrupted 
scrufe and baggages of hardheads and non- 
sounts [base hard metal pieces], most like 
as if she and they had conspired to destroy 
all the whole good coin of this realm, and 
consequently that part of the common- 
wealth. Besides all this, their clipped and 
ronged sollis [rounded sols], which had no 
passages [currency] these three years by- 
gone in the realm of France, are command- 
ed to have course [pass or be current] in this 
realm, to gratify thereby her new-corne-in 
soldiers : and all those things are done 
without the advice or consent of the nobi- 
lity and council of this realm, and manifest- 
ly therethrough, against our ancient laws 
and liberties. 

" Thirdly, Her last and most weighty pro- 
ceeding, more fully declares her motherly 
care her grace bears to our commonwealth 
and us, when in time of peace, but [with- 
out] any occasion of foreign wars, thousands 
of strangers are laid here and there upon 
the necks of our poor members of this 
commonw ealth ; their idle bellies fed upon 
the poor substance of the commonaHy, con- 
quest [acquired] by their just labours in the 
painful sweat of their brows, which to be 
true, Dunbar, North Berwick, Tranent, 
Prestonpans, Musselburgh, Leith, Canon- 
gate, Kinghorn, Kirkaldy, Dysart, with the 
depaupered souls that this day dwell there- 
in can testify, whose oppression, as doubt- 
less it has entered in before the justice 
seat of God, so ought it justly to move 
our hearts to have pity and compassion 
upon these our poor brethren, and at our 
powers to provide remedy for the same. 
And albeit her strangers had been garnish- 
ed with money, — as ye know well they are 
not, — yet can their here lying be nowise but 
most hurtful to our commonwealth, seeing 
that the fertility of this realm has never 
been so plenteous, that it was able of any 
continuance to sustain itself, and the inha- 
bitants thereof, without support of foreign 
countries ; far less able, besides the same, 



Book II.] 



O F RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



147 



to sustain thousands of strangers where- 
with it is burdened, to the dearthening of J 
all victuals, as the murmur and complaint 
of Edinburgh this day doth testify. But 
to what effect the commonwealth is this 
way burdened, the end doth declare; for 
shortly after were these brought to the 
field against our sovereign's true lieges, 
even us your brethren, who, God knows, 
sought nought else but peace of con- 
science, under protection of our sovereign, 
and for reformation of these enormities, 
— for no other cause but that we would 
not renounce the evangel of Jesus Christ, 
and subdue our necks under the tyranny 
of that man of sin, the Roman antichrist, 
and his forsworn shavelings, who at all 
times most tyrannously oppressed our 
souls with hunger of God's true word, and 
reft our goods and substances, to waste the 
same upon their foul lusts and stinking- 
harlots. But, O dear brethren, this was 
not the chief pretence and final scope of 
her proceedings, as these days do well de- 
clare ; for had not God given in our hearts 
to withstand that oppression with w r eapons 
of most just defence, you, () St Johnstone 
and Dundee, had been in no better estate 
nor your sister of Leith is this day, For 
though in very deed — God is witness — we 
meaned them nothing but in the simplicity 
of our hearts the maintenance of true reli- 
gion, and safety of our brethren professors 
of the same, yet lay there another serpent 
lurking in the breast of our adversaries, as 
this day — praise to God — is plainly opened 
to all that list to behold, to wit, to bring 
you and us both under the perpetual servi- 
tude of strangers ; for we being appointed, 
as ye know, touching religion, to be rea- 
soned with in the council at the day ap- 
pointed, and no occasion made to break the 
same on our side, as is well known, yet 
came there forth writings and complaints, 
that this day and that day we were pre- 
pared to invade her grace's person, when 
in very truth there were never such thing 
thought, as the very deed did declare : but 
because she was before deliberate to bring 
in Frenchmen to both our destructions, 
that ye should not stir therewith, she made 
you to understand, that these bands came 



only for safety of her own person. 0 craft ! 
I brethren, O subtlety! But behold the end ! 
; They are come, yet not so many, no, not 
the sixth part that she desired and looked 
for, and how are they come ? Not only 
with weapons to defend her grace's person, 
but with wives and bairns to plant in your 
native towns, as they have already begun 
in the town of Leith, the principal port and 
staple of all this realm, the girnel and fur- 
niture of the council and seat of justice; 
and here will they dwell till they may 
reinforce them with greater numbers of 
their fellow soldiers, to subdue then the 
rest, if God withstand not : and yet her 
grace feared nor ashamed not to write, that 
if there were an hundred Frenchmen for 
every one that is in Scotland, yet they 
should harm no man. Teil thou now, O 
Leith ! if that be true : if this be not a 
crafty entry to a manifest conquest fore- 
thought of old, judge ye, dear brethren, 
thus to fortify our towns, and even the 
principal part of our realm, and to lay so 
strong garrisons of strangers therein, with- 
out any consent of the nobility and council 
of this realm, but expressly against their 
mind, as our writings sent to her grace 
bear record : if this be not to oppose the 
ancient laws and liberties of our realm, let 
all wise men see to it. And further, to 
take the barn yards new gathered, the gir- 
nels replenished, the houses garnished, and 
to sit down therein, and by force to put 
the just possessors and ancient inhabitants 
therefrom, with their wives, children, and 
servants, to shift for themselves in begging 1 , 
if they have no other means, they being 
true Scotsmen, members of our common- 
wealth, aud our dear brethren and sisters, 
born, fostered, and brought up in the 
bowels of our native country : if this be 
not the manifest declaration of their old 
pretence and mind to our whole Scotisfa 
nation, let your own consciences, brethren, 
be judge herein. Was all Leith of the con- 
gregation ? No, I think not ; yet were all 
alike served. Let this motherly care then 
be tried by the fruits thereof : First, By 
the great and exorbitant taxations used 
upon you, and yet ten times greater press- 
ed at, as ye know. Secondly. The utter 



148 



HISTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. b. 1559 



depravation of our coin, to conquest [ob- 
tain! thereby money to entertain strange 
French soldiers upon you, and to make 
them strongholds, lest ye should sometime 
expel them out of your native realm. 
Thirdly, By the daily reinforcing of the 
said French soldiers in strength and num- 
ber, with wives and bairns, planting in your 
brethren's houses and possessions. Indeed, 
her grace is, and has been at all times care- 
ful to procure by her craft of fair words, 
fair promises, and sometimes buddis [bribes], 
to allure your simplicity to that point, to 
join yourselves with her soldiers, to dan- 
tone [overcome] and oppress us, that you 
the remnant — we being cut off — may be an 
easy prey to her sleights, which God, of 
his infinite goodness, has now discovered 
to the eyes of all that list to behold. But 
credit the works, dear brethren, if ye will 
not credit us ; and lay the example of fo- 
reign nations, yea, even of your own bre- 
thren before your eyes : and procure not 
your own ruin willingly. If ye tender 
true religion, ye see how her grace beareth 
herself plain enemy thereto, and maintains 
the tyranny of those idle bellies, the bi- 
shops, against God's kirk. If religion be 
not persuaded unto you, yet cast not away 
the care ye ought to have over the com- 
monwealth, which ye see manifestly and 
violently ruined before your eyes. If this 
will not move you, remember your dear 
wives, children, and posterity, your ancient 
heritages and houses : and think well these 
strangers will regard no more your right 
thereto, more than they have done your 
brethren of Leith, whenever occasion shall 
serve. But if ye purpose — as we doubt 
not but that all those that either have wit 
or manhood will declare and prove indeed 
— to bruik [retain] your ancient roumes 
[places] and heritages, conquered most va- 
liantly, and defended by your most noble 
progenitors against all strangers, invaders 
of the same, as the French pretend this 
day plainly ; if ye will not be slaves unto 
them, and have your lives, your wives, 
your bairns, your substance, and whatso- 
ever is dear unto you, cast at their feet, 
to be used and abused at the pleasure of 
strange soldiers, as you see your brethren 



at this day before your eyes. If you would 
not have experience some day hereof in 
your own persons, as we suppose the least 
of you all would not gladly have, but ra- 
ther would choose with honour to die in 
defence of his own native roum, than live 
and serve so shameful a servitude ; then, 
brethren, let us join our forces, and both 
with wit and manhood resist those begin- 
nings, or else our liberties hereafter shall 
be dearer bought. Let us further be per- 
suaded, when our neighbour's house is on 
fire, that we dwell not without danger. 
Let no man withdraw himself herefrom : 
and if any will be so unhappy and mis- 
chievous, — as we suppose none to be, — let 
us altogether repute, hold, and use him — 
as he is indeed — for an enemy unto us, to 
himself, and to his commonweal. ' The 
eternal and omnipotent God, the true and 
only revenger of the oppressed, be our 
comfort and protector against the rage and 
fury of the tyrants of this world ; and es- 
pecially from the insatiable covetousness of 
the Guisians' generation. Amen? " 

Besides this, our public letter, some men 
answered certain heads of her said procla- 
mation in this manner : 

" If it be sedition to speak the truth in 
all sobriety, and to complain when they are 
wounded, or to call for help against unjust 
tyranny before that their throats be cut, 
then can we not deny, but we are criminal 
and guilty of tumult and sedition. For we 
have said that our commonwealth is op- 
pressed, that we and our brethren are hurt 
by the tyranny of strangers, and that we 
fear bondage and slavery, seeing that mul- 
titudes of cruel murderers are daily brought 
to our country without our council, or 
knowledge and consent. We dispute not 
so much whether the bringing in of more 
Frenchmen be violating of the appointment, 
— which the queen nor her faction cannot 
deny to be manifestly broken by them in 
more cases than one, — as that we would 
know, if that the heaping of strangers upon 
strangers, above us, without our consent or 
counsel, be a thing that may stand with the 
liberty of our realm, and with the profit of 
our commonwealth. It is not unknown to 
all men of judgment, that the fruits of our 



Book Ii.J 



OK RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



L49 



country, in the most common years, are no 
more than sufficient reasonably to nourish 
the born inhabitants within the same. But 
now seeing that we have been vexed with 
wars, taken upon us at the pleasure of 
France, by the which the most fruitful por- 
tion of our country in corn has been wast- 
ed ; what man is so blind but that he may 
see, that such bands of ungodly and idle 
soldiers can be nothing else but an occasion 
to famish our poor brethren ? And in this 
point we refuse not — which is the chief — 
the judgment of all natural Scotsmen. 

The queen regent alleged, that although 
there were a hundred Frenchmen for one 
in Scotland, yet she is not minded to trou- 
ble any in his just possession. Whereunto 
we answer, that we dispute not what she 
intends, which not-the-less by probable con- 
jectures is to be suspected ; but always we 
affirm, that such a multitude of Frenchmen 
is a burden, not only unprofitable, but also 
intolerable to this poor realm, especially 
being intreated as they are by her and 
Monsieur d'Oysel ; for if their wages be 
paid out of France, then are they both — 
the queen regent, we say, and Monsieur 
d'Oysel — traitors to the queen and council ; 
for the poor commons of this realm have 
sustained them with the sweat of their 
brows, since the contraction of the peace, 
and somewhat before. 

What motherly affection she has declar- 
ed to this realm, and to the inhabitants of 
the same, her works have evidently de- 
clared, even since the first hour that she 
has borne authority. And albeit men this 
day will not see what danger hangs over 
their heads, yet fear we that ere it be long, 
experience shall teach some, that we fear 
not without cause. The cruel murder and 
oppression used by them whom she now 
fosters, is to us a sufficient argument, what 
is to be looked for, when her number is so 
multiplied, that our force shall not be able 
to gainstand their tyranny. 

Where she complains of our preachers, 
affirming that unreverently they speak of 
princes in general, and of her in particular, 
inducing the people thereby to defection 
from their duty, &c. and therefore that 
such things cannot be suffered : because 



this accusation is laid against God's true 
ministers, we cannot but witness what 
trede [course] and order of doctrine they 
have kept, and yet keep in that point. 

In public prayers they commend to God 
all princes in general, and the magistrates 
of this our native realm in particular. In 
open audience they declare the authority of 
princes and magistrates to be of God ; and, 
therefore, they affirm that they ought to 
be honoured, feared, and obeyed, even for 
conscience' sake ; providing that they com- 
mand or require nothing expressly repugn- 
ing to God's commandment and plain will, 
revealed in his holy word. Moreover, they 
affirm, that if wicked persons, abusing the 
authority established by God, command 
things manifestly wicked, that such as may 
and do bridle these inordinate appetites of 
princes, cannot be accused as resisters of 
the authority, which is God's good ordi- 
nance. To bridle the fury and rage of 
princes in free kingdoms and realms, they 
affirm it appertaineth to the nobility, born 
and sworn councillors of the same, and also 
to the barons and people, whose votes and 
consents are to be required in all great and 
weighty matters of the commonwealth ; 
which, if they do not, they declare them- 
selves criminal with their princes, and so 
subject to the same vengeance of God, 
which they deserve, for that they pollute 
the seat of justice, and do, as it were, make 
God the author of iniquity. They proclaim 
and cry, that the same God who plagued 
Pharaoh, repulsed Sennacherib, struck He- 
rod with worms, and made the bellies of 
dogs the graves and sepultures of despiteful 
Jezebel, will not spare the cruel princes, 
murderers of Christ Jesus' members in this 
our time. On this manner they spake of 
princes in general, and of your grace in 
particular. This only we have heard one 
of our preachers say, rebuking the vain 
excuse of such as Hatter themselves by 
reason of the authority ; many now a-days, 
said he, will have no other religion nor 
| faith than the queen and authority hold ; 
but is it not possible that the queen is so 
far blinded, that she will have no other 
religion, and no other faith, than may con- 
tent the cardinal of Lorraine. And may it 



150 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



not likewise be abil [be true] that the car- 
dinal be so corrupt, that he will admit no 
religion which does not establish the pope 
in his kingdom : but plain it is, that the 
pope is lieutenant of Satan, and enemy to 
Christ Jesus, and to his perfect religion. 
Let men therefore consider what danger 
they stand in, if their salvation shall de- 
pend upon the queen's faith and religion. 
Farther we never heard any of our preach- 
ers speak of the queen regent, neither pub- 
licly nor privately. Where her grace de- 
clared, it will not be suffered that our 
preachers mell [meddle] with policy, and 
speak of her or of other princes but with 
reverence : we answer, that as we will jus- 
tify and defend nothing in our preachers 
which we find not God to have justified 
and allowed in his messengers before them ; 
so dare we not forbid them openly to re- 
prehend that which the Spirit of God, 
speaking in the prophets and apostles, has 
reproved before them. Elijah did person- 
ally reprove Ahab and Jezebel of idolatry, 
of avarice, of murder, and such like. Isaiah 
the prophet called the magistrates of Jeru- 
salem, in his time, companions to thieves, 
princes of Sodom, bribe-takers, and mur- 
derers ; he complained that their silver was 
turned into dross, that their wine was min- 
gled with water, and that justice was 
bought and sold. Jeremiah said, that the 
bones of king Jehoiakim should wither 
with the sun. Christ Jesus called Herod a 
fox, and Paul called the high priest a 
painted wall, and prayed unto God that he 
should strike him, because against justice 
he caused him to be smitten. Now, if the 
like or greater corruptions be in the world 
this day, who dare enterprise to put silence 
to the Spirit of God, which will not be sub- 
ject to the appetites of wicked princes? 

We have before said, that the tenth day 
of September was appointed for a conven- 
tion to be holden at Stirling, to the which 
repaired the most part of the lords of the 
congregation. At that same time arrived 
the earl of Arran, who, after that he had 
saluted his father, came with the earl of 
Argyle and lord James to Stirling to the 
said convention, in the which divers godly 
men complained upon the tyranny used 



against their brethren, and especially that 
more Frenchmen were brought in to op- 
press their country. After the consulta- 
tion of certain days, the principal lords, 
with my lord of Arran, and the earl of Ar- 
gyle, passed to Hamilton, for consultation 
to be taken with my lord duke's grace : 
and in this meantime came the sure word, 
that the Frenchmen were begun to fortify 
Leith, which thing, as it did more evidently 
discover the queen's craft, so did it deeply 
grieve the hearts of the whole nobility 
there, who, with one consent, agreed to 
write to the queen, in form as follows : 
At Hamilton, the 19th day of Septem- 
ber, 1559. 

" Please your grace, 

" We are credibly informed, that your 
army of Frenchmen should instantly begin 
to plant in Leith, to fortify the same, of 
mind to expel the ancient inhabitants 
thereof, our brethren of the congregation ; 
whereof we marvel not a little, that your 
grace should so manifestly break the ap- 
pointment made at Leith, but [without] 
any provocation made by us and our bre- 
thren. And seeing the same is done with- 
out any manner of consent of the nobility 
and council of this realm, we esteem ths 
same not only oppression of our poor bre- 
thren, indwellers of the said town, but also 
very prejudicial to the commonwealth, and 
plain contrary to our ancient laws and 
liberties : herefore desire your grace to 
cause the same work enterprised to be 
stayed ; and not to attempt so rashly and 
manifestly against your grace's promise, 
against the commonwealth, the ancient laws 
and liberties thereof, which things, besides 
the glory of God, are most dear and tender 
unto us, and only our pretence [object or 
design], otherwise, assuring your grace we 
will complain to the whole nobility and 
commonalty of this realm, and most ear- 
nestly seek for redress thereof. And thus 
recommending our humble service unto 
your highness, your answer most earnestly 
we desire, whom we commit to the eternal 
protection of God. At Hamilton, day and 
year foresaid, by your grace's humble and 
obedient servitors," &c. 

This letter was subscribed with the hands 



Book II.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



of my lord duke, the carls of Arran, Argyle, 
Glencairn, and Monteith, by the lords 
Ruthven, Ochiltree, Boyd, and by divers 
others, barons and gentlemen. To this re- 
quest she would not answer by writ, but 
with a letter of credit, she sent Sir Robert 
Carnegie and Mr David Borthwick, two 
whom, amongst many others, she abused, 
and by whom she corrupted the hearts of 
the simple: they travailed with the duke, 
to bring him again to the queen's faction. 
La Broche and the bishop of Amiens were 
shortly before arrived ; and, as it was bruit- 
ed, were directed as ambassadors ; but they 
kept close their whole commission : they 
only made large promises to them that 
would be theirs, and leave the congrega- 
tion. The queen did grievously complain, 
that we had intelligence with England. 
The conclusion of their commission was to 
solicit my lord duke to put all in the 
queen's will, and then would she be gra- 
cious enough. It was answered, " That no 
honest men durst commit themselves to 
the mercy of such cut-throats as she had 
about her, whom, if she would remove, and 
join to her a council of natural Scotsmen, 
permitting the religion to have free passage, 
then should none in Scotland be more will- 
ing to serve her grace than should the 
lords and brethren of the congregation be." 

At the same time, the duke's grace and 
the lords wrote to my lord Erskine, cap- 
tain of the castle of Edinburgh, in form as 
follows: 

A LETTER TO LORD ERSKINE. 

" My lord and cousin, 
" After our hearty commendation, this 
present is to advertise you, that we are cre- 
dibly informed, the army of Frenchmen 
constantly in this realm, but [without] any 
advice of the council or nobility, are forti- 
fying, or else shortly intend to fortify 
the town of Leith, and expel the ancient 
inhabitants thereof; whereby they proclaim 
to all that will open their ears to hear, or 
eyes to see, what is their pretence [design]. 
And seeing the faithfulness of our ances- 
tors, and specially of your father, of ho- 
nourable memory, was so recommended 
and experimented to the estates and coun- 
cil of this realm, through affection they 



| perceived in him towards the common- 
wealth thereof, that they doubted not to 
give in his keeping the key — as it were — 
of the council, the justice, and policy of 
this realm, the castles of Edinburgh and 
Stirling ; we cannot but believe ye will 
rather augment the honourable favour of 
your house by steadfast favour and lautie 
[loyalty] to your commonwealth, than 
through the subtle persuasion of some, 
which caring not what after shall come of 
you and your house, at the present would 
abuse you, to the performance of their 
wicked enterprise and pretences against 
our commonwealth, utterly destroy the 
same. And herefore, seeing we have writ- 
ten to the queen's grace, to desist from 
that enterprise, otherwise that we will 
complain to the nobility and commonalty 
of the realm, and seek redress thereof ; we 
likewise beseech you, as our tender friend, 
brother, and a member of the same com- 
monwealth with us, that ye in nowise mell 
[meddle] nor assent to that ungodly enter- 
prise against the commonwealth ; and like- 



wise, that ye would save your body, and 
the jewels of this country, committed to 
you and your predecessors' lautie [loyalty] 
and fidelity towards your native country 
and commonwealth, if ye think to be re- 
pute hereafter one of the same, and would 
rather be brother to us than to strangers ; 
for we gather by the effects the secrets of 
men's hearts, otherwise unsearchable unto 
us. This we write, not that we are in 
doubt of you, but rather to warn you of 
the danger, in case ye thole [suffer] your- 
self to be enchanted with fair promises and 
crafty councillors. For let no man flatter 
himself ; we desire all may know, that 
though ye were our father, — since God has 
\ opened our eyes to see his will, — be he ene- 
i my to the commonwealth, which now is 
j assailed, and we with it, and all true mem- 
bers thereof, he shall be known — and as 
I he is indeed — enemy to us, to our lives, 
our houses, babes, heritages, and whatso- 
ever is contained within the same. For as 
the ship perishing, what can be safe that is 
| within it? So the commonwealth being be- 
j trayed, what particular member can live in 
J quietness ? And, therefore, in so far as the 



152 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



said castles are committed to your credit, 
we desire you to show your faithfulness 
and stoutness, as ye tender us, and whatso- 
ever appertains to us. And seeing we are 
assured ye will be assailed both with 
craft and force ; as now by warning- we 
help you against the first, so against the 
last ye shall not miss in all possible haste 
to have our assistance ; only show yourself 
the man. Save your person by wisdom, 
strengthen yourself against force, and the 
almighty God assist you in both the one 
and the other, and open your eyes, under- 
standing, to see and perceive the craft of 
Satan and his suppoistis [supporters of his 
cause]. At Hamilton, the 19th of Septem- 
ber, 1559. 

" By your brethren, the duke," &c. 

The duke and lords understanding that 
the fortification of Leith proceedeth, ap- 
pointed their whole forces to convene at 
Stirling the 15th day of October, and that 
from thence they might march forward to 
Edinburgh, for redress of the great enormi- 
ties which the Frenchmen did to the whole 
country, which by them was [so] oppressed 
that the life of all honest men was bitter 
unto them. 

In this meantime, the lords direct their 
letters to divers parts of the country, mak- 
ing mention what danger did hang over 
all men, if the Frenchmen should be suf- 
fered to plant in this country at their plea- 
sure. They made mention farther, how 
humbly they had sought the queen regent 
that she would send away to France her 
Frenchmen, who were a burden unprofita- 
ble and grievous to their commonwealth : 
and how that she notwithstanding did daily 
augment her number, bringing wives and 
bairns ; a declaration of a plain conquest, 
&c. 

The queen, then regent, perceiving that 
her craft began to be espied, by all means 
possible travailed to blind the people. And 
first, she sent forth her pestilent posts fore- 
named, in all parts of the country, to per- 
suade all men that she offered all things 
reasonable to the congregation ; and that 
they refusing all reason, pretended no reli- 
gion, but a plain revolt from the authority. 
She tempted every man in particular, as 



well those that were of the congregation, 
as those that were neutrals. She assaulted 
every man, as she thought most easily he 
: might have been overcome. To the lord 
Ruthven, she sent the justice-clerk and his 
wife, who was daughter to the wife of the 
said lord. What was their commission and 
credit is no farther known than the said 
lord has confessed, which is, large pro- 
mises of profit were offered, if that he would 
leave the congregation and be the queen's. 
To lord James, prior of St Andrews, was 
sent Mr John Spence of Condy, with a let- 
ter and credit as follows : 

The memorial of Mr John Spence of 

Condy, the 30th day of September. 
" Ye shall say, that the queen's grace's 
favour which is towards you, moves her to 
this, &c, 

" That she well knows, that the occasion 
of your departure from her was the favour 
of the word and of the religion, with the 
which, albeit that she was offended, yet 
knowing your heart, and the hearts of the 
other lords firmly fixed thereupon, she will 
bear with you in that behalf, and at your 
own sights she will set forward that cause 
at her power, as may stand with God's 
word, the common policy of this realm, 
and the prince's honour." Note — Good 
reader, what venom lurked here ! for plain 
it is, that the policy which she pretendeth, 
and the prince's honour, will never suffer 
Christ Jesus to reign in this realm. 

" To say, that the occasion of the assem- 
bling of these men of war, and fortifying 
of Leith, is, that it was given her to un- 
derstand by some about her, that it is not 
the advancement of the word and religion 
which is sought at this time, but rather a 
pretence to overthrow, or alter the autho- 
rity of your sister, of the which she be- 
lieves still that ye are not participant ; and 
considering the tenderness that is betwixt 
you and your sister, she trusts more in you 
in that behalf than in any living." But 
before the earl of Arran arrived, and that 
the duke departed from her faction, she 
ceased not continually to cry, that the prior 
sought to make himself king, and so not 
only to deprive his sister to make himself 
king, but also to defraud the lord duke's 



Book I J. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



153 



grace and his house ; but foreseeing a storm, 
she began to seek a new wind. 

" She farther willed to offer the away- 
sending 1 of the men of war, if the former 
suspicion could be removed. She lamented 
the trouble that appeared to follow if the 
matter should long stand in debate. She 
promised her faithful labours for reconcilia- 
tion, and required the same of him, requir- 
ing farther faith, favour and kindness to- 
wards his sister, and to advertise for his 
part what he desired, with promise that he 
might obtain what he pleases to desire," 
&c. 

To this letter and credit, the said lord 
James answered as follows : 
" Please your grace, 

" I have received your highness' writing, 
and have heard the credit of the bearer; 
and finding the business of such import- 
ance, that dangerous it were to give hastily 
answer, and also your petitions are such, 
that with my honour I cannot answer them 
privately by myself. I have thought good 
to delay the same till that I may have the 
judgment of the whole council: for this 
point I will not conceal from your grace, 
that amongst us there is a solemn oath, 
that none of us shall traffic with your grace 
secretly; neither yet that any of us shall 
make an address for himself particularly; 
which oath, for my part, I purpose to keep 
inviolated unto the end : but when the rest 
of the noblemen shall convene, I shall leave 
nothing that lies in my power undone that 
may make for the quietness of this poor 
realm, providing that the glory of Christ 
Jesus be not hindered by our concord. 
And if your grace shall be found so tracta- 
ble as now ye offer, I doubt not to obtain 
of the rest of my brethren such favours to- 
wards your service as your grace shall have 
just occasion to stand content: for God I 
take to record, that in this action I have 
neither sought, nor yet seek any thing else 
than God's glory to increase, and the liber- 
ty of this poor realm to be maintained. 
Farther, I have shown to your messenger 
what things have misliked me in your pro- 
ceedings, even from such a heart as I would 
wish to God you and all men should know. 
And this with hearty commendation of 



service to your grace, I heartily commit 
your highness to the eternal protection of 
the omnipotent. At St Andrews, the first 
of October." 

Sic subscribitur, 
" Your grace's most humble and 
obedient servitor, 

4< James Stewart." 

This answer received, she raged as hy- 
pocrisy useth when it is pricked ; and per- 
ceiving that she could not work what she 
would at the hands of men particularly, 
she set forth a proclamation, universally 
to be proclaimed, in the tenor as follows : 

"Forasmuch as it is understood to the 
queen's grace, that the duke of Chatelhe- 
rault has lately directed his missives in all 
parts of this realm, making mention that 
the Frenchmen lately arrived with their 
wives and bairns, are begun to plant in 
Leith, to the ruin of the commonwealth, 
which he and his partakers will not pass 
over with patient beholding, desiring to 
know what will be every man's part ; and 
that the fortification of Leith is a purpose 
devised in France, and that therefore Mon- 
sieur de la Broche, and the bishop of 
Amiens are come into this country ; a 
thing so vain and untrue, that the contrary 
thereof is notorious to all men of free judg- 
ment; therefore her grace willing, that the 
occasion whereby her grace was moved so 
to do be made patent, and what has been 
her proceedings since the appointment last 
made in the Links beside Leith, to the 
effect that the truth of all things may be 
made manifest, every man may understand 
how unjustly that will [or a design] to sup- 
press the liberty of this realm, is laid to 
her charge, has thought expedient to make 
this discourse following : 

" First, Although after the said appoint- 
ment, divers of the said congregation, and 
that not of the meanest sort, had violently 
contravened the points thereof, and had 
made sundry occasions of new cumber, 
the same was in a part winked at and 
overlooked, in hope that they with time 
would remember their duty, and abstain 
from such evil behaviours, which conver- 
sion her grace ever sought, rather than 
any punishment, with such care and solici- 
u 



154. HISTORY OF TH 

tude by all means, while, in the meantime, 
nothing was provided for her own secu- 
rity ; but at last, by their frequent mes- 
sages to and from England, their intelli- 
gence was then perceived : yet her grace 
trusts the queen of England — let them 
seek as they please — will do the office of a 
christian princess in time of a sworn peace, 
through which force was to her grace, see- 
ing so great defection of great personages, 
to have recourse to the law of nature ; and 
like as a small bird being pursued, will 
provide some nest, so her grace could do 
[no] less, in case of pursuit, than to provide 
some sure retreat for herself and her com- 
pany ; and. to that effect choosed the town 
of Leith, as place convenient therefore, be- 
cause it was first her dearest daughter's 
property, and no other person could claim 
title or entries thereto ; and also because 
one time before it had been fortified. About 
the same time that the seeking support of 
England was made manifest, arrived the 
earl of Arran, and adjoined himself to the 
congregation, upon farther promise than 
the pretended quarrel of religion, that was 
to be set up by them in authority, and so 
to pervert the whole obedience. And as 
some of the congregation at that time had 
put to their hands and taken the castle of 
Broughty, and put forth the keepers there- 
of: immediately came from the said duke 
to her grace, unlooked for, a writing, be- 
side many other things, complaining of the 
fortification of the said town of Leith, in 
hurt of the old inhabitants thereof, bre- 
thren to the said congregation, whereof he 
then professed himself a member ; and al- 
beit that the bearer of the said writing was 
an unmeet messenger in a matter of such 
consequence, yet her grace directed to him 
two persons of good credit and reputation 
with answer, offering, if he would cause 
amends be made for that which was com- 
mitted against the laws of the realm, to 
do farther than could be craved of rea- 
son, and to that effect to draw some confe- 
rence, which for lack of him and his col- 
leagues, took no end : Not-the-less they con- 
tinually sinsyne continue in their doings, 
usurping the authority, commanding and 
charging free burghs to choose provosts 



E REFORMATION [a. ». 1559 

and officers of their naming, and to assist 
them in the purpose they would be at ; and 
that they will not suffer provisions to be 
brought for sustentation of her grace's house. 
And great part so plainly have set aside all 
reverence and humanity, whereby every 
man may know that it is no matter of reli- 
gion, but a plain usurping of authority : 
and no doubt but simple men, of good zeal 
in time bygone, therewith falsely have been 
deceived. But as to the queen's grace's 
part, God, who knows the secrets of all 
hearts, well knows, and the world shall 
see by experience, that the fortification of 
Leith was devised for no other purpose but 
for recourse to her highness and her com- 
pany, in case they were pursued: where- 
fore, all good subjects that have the fear of 
God in their hearts, will not suffer them- 
selves by such vain persuasions to be led 
away from their due obedience, but will 
assist in defence of their sovereign's quar- 
rel against all such as will pursue the 
same wrongousiy. Therefore, her grace 
ordains the officers of arms to pass to the 
market-crosses of all head burghs of this 
realm, and there by open proclamation to 
command and charge all and sundry the 
lieges thereof, that none of them take upon 
band to put themselves in arms, nor take 
part w r ith the said duke or his assisters un- 
der the pain of treason." 

These letters being divulged, the hearts 
of many were stirred ; for they judged the 
narration of the queen regent to have been 
true : others understood the same to be ut- 
terly false. But because the lords desired 
all men [to] judge in their cause, they set 
out this declaration subsequent, &c. 

THE DECLARATION OF THE LORDS AGAIN sT 
THE FORMER PROCLAMATION. 

" "We are compelled unwillingly to an- 
swer the grievous accusations most unjust- 
ly laid to our charges by the queen regent 
and her perverse council, who cease not by 
all craft and malice to make us odious to 
our dearest brethren, natural Scotsmen, as 
that we pretended no other thing but the 
subversion and overthrow of all just autho- 
rity, when God knows that we thought 
nothing but that such authority as God ap- 
proved by his word, be established, honour- 



Book II. J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



155 



ed, and obeyed among us. True it is that 
we have complained — and continually must 
complain till God send redress — that our 
common country is oppressed with stran- 
gers ; that this infringing of soldiers, with 
their wives and children, and planting of 
men of war in our free towns, appeared to 
us a ready way to conquest ; and we most 
earnestly require all indifferent persons to 
judge betwixt us and the queen regent in 
this case, to wit, whether our complaint be 
just or not. For, for what other purpose 
should she thus multiply strangers upon us, 
but only in respect of conquest ; which is a 
thing not of late devised by her and her 
avaricious house. We are not ignorant 
that, six years ago, the question was de- 
manded, of a man of honest reputation, 
what number of men was able to daunton 
[overawe] Scotland, and bring it to the full 
obedience of France. She alleged, that to 
say that the fortification of Leith was a 
purpose devised in France, and that for that 
purpose was Monsieur de la Broche, and 
the bishop of Amiens sent to this country, 
is a thing so vain and untrue, that the con- 
trary thereof is notour to all men of free 
judgment. But evident it is, whatsoever she 
alleges, that since their arrival, Leith was 
begun to be fortified. She alleges, that she, 
seeing the defection of great personages, 
was compelled to have recourse to the law 
of nature, and like a small bird pursued, to 
provide for some sure retreat to herself and 
her company : but why does she not an- 
swer for what purpose did she bring in her 
new bands of men of war? Was there 
any defection espied before their arrival ? 
Was not the congregation under appoint- 
ment with her ? which whatsoever she al- 
leged, she is not able to prove that we had 
contravened in any chief point, before that 
her new throat-cutters arrived, yea, before 
that they began to fortify Leith, a place, 
said she, most convenient for her purpose, 
as in very deed it is, for the receiving stran- 
gers at her pleasure : for if she had feared 
the pursuit of her body, she had the Inch, 
Dunbar, Blackness, forts and strengths al- 
ready made. Yea, but these could not 
serve her turn so well as Leith, because it 
was her daughter's property, and none 



other could have title to it, and because it 
had been fortified oft befdre. That all men 
may know the just title her daughter and 
she had to the town of Leith, we shall in 
few words declare the truth. It is not un- 
known to the most part of this realm, that 
there has been an old hatred and contention 
betwixt Edinburgh and Leith ; Edinburgh 
continually seeking to possess that liberty, 
which by donation of ancient kings they 
have long enjoyed ; and Leith, by the con- 
trary, aspiring to a liberty and freedom in 
prejudice of Edinburgh. The queen re- 
gent, a woman that could make her profit 
at all hands, was not ignorant how to com- 
pass her own matter, and therefore secretly 
she gave advertisement to some of Leith, 
that she would make their town free, if 
that she might do it with any colour of 
justice. By which promise, the principal 
men of them did travail with the laird of 
Restalrig, — a man neither prudent nor for- 
tunate, — to whom the superiority of Leith 
appertained, that he should sell his whole 
title and right to our sovereign, for certain 
sums of money which the inhabitants of 
Leith paid, with a large taxation more, to 
the queen regent, in hope to be made free 
in despite and defraud of Edinburgh. 
Which right and superiority, when she had 
got, and when the money was paid, the 
first fruits of their liberty they now eat 
with bitterness, to wit, that strangers shall 
possess their town. This is the just title 
that her daughter and she may claim to 
that town. And where she alleges that it 
was fortified before, we ask, if that was 
done without consent of the nobility and 
estates of the realm, as now she and her 
crafty council do in despite and high con- 
tempt of us the lawful heirs and born coun- 
cillors of this realm. 

" How far we have sought support of 
England, or of any other prince, and how 
| just cause we had, and have so to do, we 
| shall shortly make manifest unto the world, 
| to the praise of God's holy name, and to 
the confusion of all those that slander us 
for so doing. For this we fear not to con- 
fess, that as in this our enterprise against 
the devil, idolatry, and the maintenance of 
the same, we chiefly and only seek God's 



156 HISTORY OF TH 

glory to be notified unto men, sin to be 
punished, and virtue to be maintained ; so 
where power faileth of ourselves, we will 
seek it wheresoever God shall offer the 
same ; and yet in so doing, we are assured, 
neither to offend God, neither yet to do 
any thing- repugnant to our duties. We 
heartily praise God who moved the heart 
of the earl of Arran to join himself with 
us his persecuted brethren ; but how mali- 
cious a lie it is, that we have promised to 
set him up in authority, the issue shall de- 
clare. God we take to record, that no such 
thing has to this day entered in our hearts, 
neither yet has he the said earl, neither 
any to him appertaining, moved to us any 
such matter ; which, if they should do, yet 
are we not so slender of judgment, that in- 
considerately we would promise that which 
after we might repent. We speak and 
write to the praise of God's glory, the 
least of us knows better what obedience is 
due unto a lawful authority than she or 
her council doth practise the office of such 
as worthily may sit upon the seat of justice, 
for we offer and we perform all obedience 
which God had commanded, for we neither 
deny toll, tribute, honour, nor fear to her 
and her officers ; we only bridle her blind 
rage, in the which she would erect and 
maintain idolatry, and would murder our 
brethren who refuse the same. But she 
doth utterly abuse the authority established 
by God : she profanes the throne of his 
Majesty in earth, making the seat of jus- 
tice, which ought [to] be the sanctuary and 
refuge of all godly and virtuous persons un- 
justly afflicted, to be a den and receptacle 
to thieves, murderers, idolaters, whore- 
mongers, adulterers, and of blasphemers of 
God and all godliness. This is more than 
evident, what men they are, and long have 
been, whom she by her power maintains 
and defends ; and also what has been our 
conversation since it has pleased God to 
call us to his knowledge, whom now in her 
fury she cruelly persecutes. We deny not 
the taking of the house of Broughty ; and 
the cause being considered, we think that 
no natural Scotsman will be offended at 
our fact. When the assured knowledge 
came to us that the fortification of Leith 



E REFORMATION [ A . d. 1559 

was begun, every man began to inquire 
what danger might ensue to the rest of the 
realm, if the French should plant in divers 
parts, and what were the places that might 
most annoy us. In conclusion it was found, 
that the taking of the said house by French- 
men should be destruction to Dundee, and 
hurtful to St Johnstone and to the whole 
country ; and therefore it was thought ex- 
pedient to prevent the danger, as that we 
did, for preservation of our brethren and 
common country. It is not unknown what 
enemies those two towns have, and how 
gladly would some have all good order and 
policy overthrown in them. The conjec- 
tures that the French were of mind shortly 
to have taken the same place were not ob- 
scure : but whatsoever they pretended, we 
cannot repent that we, as said is, have pre- 
vented the danger ; and would to God that 
our power had been in the same manner 
to have foreclosed their entrance to the 
town of Leith : for what trouble this poor 
realm shall endure before that these mur- 
derers and unjust possessors be removed 
from the same the issue will declare. If 
these accusations against my lord duke's 
grace, and that we refused conference, be 
truly and simply spoken, we will not refuse 
the judgment of these very men, whom 
she alleged to be of so honest reputation. 
They know that the duke's grace did an- 
swer, that if the realm might be set at li- 
berty from the bondage of these men of 
war which presently did oppress it, and 
was so fearful to him and to his brethren, 
that they were compelled to absent them- 
selves from the places where she and they 
made residence; that he and all the con- 
gregation should come and give all dutiful 
obedience to our sovereign her daughter, 
and to her grace, as regent for the time : 
but to enter in conference, so long as she 
kept above him and his brethren that fear- 
ful scourge of cruel strangers, he thought 
no wise man would counsel him. And this 
answer we approve, adding farther, 4 That 
she can make us no promise which she can 
keep or we can credit, so long as she is 
forced with the Frenchmen, and ruled with 
by the council of France. We are not ig- 
norant that princes think it good policy to 



Book IT.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



157 



betray their subjects by breaking of pro- 
mise, be they never so solemnly made.' 
We have not forgotten what counsel she 
and Monsieur d'Oysel gave to the duke 
against those that slew the cardinal and 
kept the castle of St Andrews, and it was 
this — that what promise they list to re- 
quire should be made unto them, but how 
soon the castle, was rendered, and things 
brought to such pass as was expedient, that 
he should chop the heads from every one 
of them. To the which when the duke 
answered, 4 That he would never consent 
to so treasonable an act, but if he pro- 
mised fidelity he would faithfully keep it ;' 
Monsieur d'Oysel said in mockage to the 
queen in French, 1 That is a good simple 
nature, but I know no other prince that 
would so do.' If this was his judgment in 
so small a matter, what have we to suspect 
in this our cause ; for now the question is 
not of the slaughter of a cardinal, but of the 
just abolishing of all that tyranny which 
that Roman antichrist has usurped above 
us, of the suppressing of idolatry, and of 
the reformation of the whole religion, by 
that vermin of shavelings utterly corrupted. 
Now, if the slaughter of a cardinal be a sin 
irremissible, as they themselves affirm, and 
if faith ought not to be kept with heretics, 
as their own law speaks, what promise can 
she, that is ruled by the counsel and com- 
mandment of a cardinal, make to us, that 
can be sure ? Where she accuses us, that 
we usurp the authority to command and 
charge free burghs to choose provost and 
officers of our naming, &c. ; we will that 
the whole burghs of Scotland testify in 
that case, whether that we have used any 
kind of violence, but lovingly exhorted 
such as asked support, to choose such in 
office as had the fear of God before their 
eyes, loved equity and justice, and were 
not noted with avarice and bribing. But 
wonder it is, with what face she can 
accuse us of that whereof we are inno- 
cent, and she so openly criminal, that 
the whole realm knows her iniquity. In 
that case, has she not compelled the town 
of Edinburgh to retain a man to be their 
provost most unworthy of any regimen in 
a well-ruled commonwealth ? Has she not 



enforced them to take bailies of her ap- 
pointment, and some of" them so meet for 
their office, in this troublesome time, ;is ;i 
souter is to steer a ship in a stormy day V 
She complains that we will not suffer pro- 
vision to be made for her house : in very 
deed we repent unfeignedly, that before 
this we took not better order that these 
murderers and oppressors whom she pre- 
tends to nourish — for our destruction — had 
not been disappointed of that great provi- 
sion of victuals which she and they have 
gathered, to the great hurt of the whole 
country. But as God shall assist us in 
time coming, we shall do diligence some- 
what to frustrate their devilish purpose. 
What both she and we pretend, Ave doubt 
not but God — who cannot suffer the abuse 
of his own name long to be unpunished — 
shall one day declare ; and unto him we 
fear not to commit our cause, neither yet 
fear we in this present to say, that against 
us she makes a most malicious lie, where 
she says, that it is no religion that we go 
about, but a plain usurpation of the autho- 
rity. God forbid that such impiety should 
enter in our hearts, that we should make 
his holy religion a cloak and coverture of our 
iniquity. From the beginning of this con- 
troversy, it is evidently known what have 
been our requests, which if the rest of the 
nobility and commonalty of Scotland will 
cause to be performed unto us, if then in 
us appears any sign of rebellion, let us be 
reputed and punished as traitors. But 
while strangers are brought in to suppress 
us, our commonwealth, and posterity; while 
idolatry is maintained, and Christ Jesus his 
true religion despised ; while idle bellies 
and bloody tyrants — the bishops — are main- 
tained, and Christ's true messengers perse- 
cuted ; while, finally, virtue is condemned 
and vice extolled ; while that we, a great 
part of the nobility and commonalty of this 
realm, are most unjustly persecuted ; what 
godly man shall be offended that we shall 
seek reformation of these enormities, yea, 
even by force of arms, seeing it is Otherwise 
denied unto us r We are assured, that neither 
God, neither nature, neither any just law tor- 
bids us. God has made us councillors by birth 
of this realm, nature binds us to love our 



158 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



own country, and just law commands to 
support our brethren unjustly persecuted ; 
yea, the oath that we have made, to be 
true to this commonwealth, compels us to 
hazard whatsoever God has given us, be- 
fore that we see the miserable ruin of the 
same. If any think that it is not religion 
which we now seek ; we answer, that it is 
nothing- else but the zeal of the true reli- 
gion which moves us to this enterprise : 
for as the enemies do craftily foresee that 
idolatry cannot he universally maintained, 
unless that we be utterly suppressed ; so 
do we consider that the true religion — the 
purity whereof Ave only require — cannot 
universally be erected unless strangers he 
removed, and this poor realm purged of 
these pestilences, which before hath infect- 
ed it. And, therefore, in the name of the 
eternal God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, 
whose cause we sustain, we require all our 
brethren, natural Scotsmen, prudently to 
consider our requests, and with judgment 
to discern betwixt us and the queen regent 
and her faction, and not to suffer them- 
selves to be abused by her craft and deceit, 
that either they shall lift their weapons 
against us their brethren, who seek nothing 
but God's glory, either yet that they ab- 
stract from us their just and dutiful sup- 
port, seeing that we hazard our lives for 
the preservation of them and us, and of 
posterity to come : assuring such as shall 
declare themselves favourers of her faction, 
and enemies to us, that we shall repute 
them, whensoever God shall put the sword 
of justice in our hands, worthy of such 
punishment, as is due for such as study to 
betray their country into the hands of 
strangers." 

This our answer was formed, and di- 
vulgate in some places, but not universally, 
by reason of our day appointed to meet at 
Stirling, as before it declared. In the 
meantime, the queen's posts ran with all 
possible expedition, to draw all men to her 
devotion ; and in very deed she found more 
favourers of her iniquity than we suspect- 
ed : for a man that of long time had been 
one of our number in profession, offered 
his service — as himself confessed — to the 
queen regent, to travail betwixt her grace 



and the congregation for concord. She re- 
fused not his offer, but knowing his sim- 
plicity, she was glad to employ him for her 
advantage. The man is Mr Robert Lock- 
hart, a man of whom many have had and 
still have a good opinion, as touching his 
religion ; but to enter in the dress of such 
affairs, not so convenient as godly and wise 
men would require. He travailed not-the- 
less earnestly in the queen regent's affairs, 
and could not be persuaded but that she 
meant sincerity, and that she would pro- 
mote the religion to the uttermost of her 
power. He promised in her name, that 
she would put away her Frenchmen, and 
would be ruled by the council of natural 
Scotsmen. When it was reasoned in his 
contrary, that if she was so minded to do, 
she could have found mediators a great deal 
more convenient for that purpose ; he fear- 
ed not to affirm, " That he knew more of 
her mind than all the French or Scots that 
were in Scotland, yea more than her own 
brethren that were in France." He travail- 
ed with the earl of Glencairn, the lords 
Ochiltree and Boyd, with the laird of Dun, 
and with the preachers, to whom he had 
some secret letters that he would not de- 
liver, unless that they would make a faith- 
ful promise that they should never reveal 
the things contained in the same. To the 
which it was answered, " That in nowise 
they could make such a promise, by reason 
they were sworn one to another, and alto- 
gether in one body, that they should have 
no secret dress nor intelligence with the 
queen regent, but that they would commu- 
nicate with the great council whatsoever 
that she proponed unto them before they 
did answer unto her ;" as by this answer, 
written by John Knox unto her grace the 
queen regent, may be understood. The 
tenor whereof follows : 
" Madam, 

" My duty most humbly premised ; your 
grace's servant, Mr Robert Lockhart, most 
instantly has required me and others to 
whom your grace's letters — as he alleges — 
were directed, to receive the same in secret 
manner, and to give to him answer accord- 
ingly. But because some of the number 
that he required, were and are upon the 



Book II.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



159 



great council of this realm, and there- 
fore are solemnly sworn to have nothing to 
do in secret manner, neither with your 
grace, nor with any that come from you, 
or from your council, and so they could 
not receive your grace's letters with such 
conditions as the said Mi* Robert required, 
and therefore thought he good to bring to 
your grace again the said letters close • 
and yet because as he reports, he has made 
to your grace some promise in my name ; 
at his request, I am content to testify 
by my letter and subscription, the sum of 
that which I did communicate with him. 
In Dundee, after many words betwixt him 
and me, I said, that albeit divers sinister 
reports had been made of me, yet did I 
never declare any evident token of hatred 
nor enmity against your grace : for if it be 
the office of a very friend to give true and 
faithful counsel to them whom he sees run 
to destruction for lack of the same, I could 
not be proven enemy, but rather an un- 
feigned friend to your grace. For what 
counsel I had given to your grace, my 
writings — as well my letter and addition 
to the same, now printed, as divers others 
which I wrote from St Johnstone — may 
testify. I farther added, that such an ene- 
my was I unto you, that my tongue did 
both persuade and obtain, that your au- 
thority and regimen should be obeyed of 
us in all things lawful, till ye declare your- 
self open enemy to this commonwealth, as 
now, alas, ye have done. This I willed 
him moreover to say to your grace, that if 
ye, following the counsel of nattering men, 
having no God but this world and their 
bellies, did proceed in your malice against 
Christ Jesus his religion, and true minis- i 
ters, that ye should do nothing else but ac- 
celerate and haste God's plague and ven- 
geance upon yourself and upon your pos- 
terity. And that — if you did not change 
your purpose hastily — you should bring 
yourself in such extreme danger, that 
when ye M ould seek remedy, it should not 
be so easy to be found as it had been be- 
fore. This is the effect and sum of all that 
I said at that time, and willed him, if he 
pleased, to communicate the same to your 
grace. And the same yet again I notify 



unto your grace, by this my Letter, written 
and subscribed at Edinburgh, the 26th of 
October, 1559." 

Sic subscribitur, 
" Your grace's to command in all 
godliness, 

" John Knox." 
Postscriptum. — " God move your grace's 
heart yet in time to consider, that ye 
fight not against man, but against the 
eternal God, and against his son Jesus 
Christ, the only prince of the kings of 
the earth." 
At the which answer, the said Mr Ro- 
bert was so offended, that he would not 
deliver his letters, saying, " That we were 
ungodly and injurious to the queen regent 
if we suspected any craft in her." To the 
which it was answered by one of the 
preachers, " That time should declare whe- 
ther he or they w ere deceived ; and if she 
should not declare herself enemy to the 
true religion which they professed, if ever 
she had the upper hand, then they would be 
content to confess that they had suspected 
her sincerity without just cause. But and 
if she should declare her malice no less iu 
times coming than she had done before, 
they required that he should be more mo- 
derate than to damn [condemn] them whose 
conscience he knew not." And this was 
the end of his travail for that time, after 
that he had troubled the conscience of 
many godly and quiet persons ; for he and 
others who were her hired posts [agents], 
ceased not to blow- in the ears of all men, 
that the queen was heavily done to ; that 
she required nothing but obedience to her 
daughter • that she was content that the 
true religion should be forwarded, and that 
all abuses should be abolished ; and by this 
mean they brought a grudge aud division 
amongst ourselves. For many — and our 
brethren in Lothian especially — began to 
murmur, that we sought another thing 
than religion, and so ceased to assist us 
certain days, after that we were conn 1 to 
Edinburgh, which we did according to the 
former diet, the 16th day of October. This 
grudge and trouble among ourselves was 
not raised by the foresaid Mr Robert only, 
but by these pestilents whom before we 



160 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. 15. 1559 



have expressed, and Mr James Balfour es- 
pecially, whose venomous tongues, against 
God and his true religion, as they deserve 
punishment of men, so shall they not es- I 
cape God's vengeance, unless that speed- j 
ily they repent. 

After our coming to Edinburgh the day I 
forenamed, we assembled in council, and 
determined to give new advertisement to I 
the queen's grace regent, of our conven- j 
tion, and in such sort ; and so with com- 
mon consent we send unto her our request, 
as follows : 

THE SECOND ADMONITION TO THE QUEEN 
REGENT. 

" Madam, 

" It will please your grace reduce to 
your remembrance, how at our last con- 
vention in Hamilton, we required your 
highness, in our most humble manner, to 
desist from the fortifying of the town of j 
Leith, then enterprised and begun, which 
appeared to us — and yet does — an entry 
to a conquest, and overthrow to our liber- 
ties, and altogether against the laws and 
customs of this country, seeing it was be- 
gun, and yet continues, without any con- 
sent and advice of the nobility and council 
of this realm. Yv'herefore now, as before, 
according to our duty to this our common- 
wealth, we most humbly require your 
grace to cause your strangers and soldiers 
whatsoniever to depart this said town of 
Leith, and make the same patent, not only j 
to the inhabitants, but also to all Scots- 
men, our sovereign lady's lieges ; assuring 
your highness, that if, refusing the same, 
ye declare thereby your evil mind towards 
the commonwealth and liberty of this 
realm, we will — as of before — mean and 
declare the cause unto the whole nobility 
and commons of this realm, and according 
to the oath which we have sworn for the 
maintenance of the commonwealth, in all 
manner of things to us possible, we will 
provide remedy : therefore, requiring most 
humbly your grace's answer in haste with 
the bearer, because in our eyes the act | 
continually proceeds, declaring a determi- 
nation of conquest, which is resumed of 
all men, and not without cause. And this 
after an humble commendation of service, 



we pray Almighty God to have your grace 
in his eternal tuition." 

These our letters received, our messen- 
ger was threatened and withholden a whole 
day : thereafter he was dismissed, without 
any other answer but that she would send 
an answer when she thought expedient. 

In this meantime, because the rumour 
ceased not, that the duke's grace usurped 
the authority, he was compelled with the 
sound of trumpet at the market-cross of 
Edinburgh to make his purgation in form, 
as follows, the 19th of October. 

THE PURGATION OF THE DUKE. 

" Forasmuch as my lord duke of Chatel- 
herault, understanding the false report made 
by the queen regent against him, that he 
and his son, my lord of Arran, should pre- 
tend usurpation of the crown and authority 
of this realm, when in very deed he or 
his son never once minded [meant] such 
things, but allenarly in simplicity of heart, 
moved partly by the violent pursuit of the 
religion and time professors thereof, partly 
by the compassion of the commonwealth 
and poor commonalty of this realm, op- 
pressed with strangers, he joined himself 
to the rest of the nobility, with all hazard, 
to support the common cause of that one 
and of that other ; has thought expedient 
to purge himself and his said son, in pre- 
sence of you all — as he had done in pre- 
sence of the council — of that said crime, 
of old, even by summons, laid to his charge, 
the second year of the reign of our sove- 
reign lady : which malice has continued 
ever against him, most innocent of that 
crime, as your experience bears witness 
and plainly protests, that neither he nor 
his said son seeks or suits any pre-eminence 
either to the crown or authority, but as 
far as his puissance may extend, is ready, 
and ever shall be, to concur with the rest 
of the nobility his brethren, and all others 
whose hearts are touched to maintain the 
common cause of religion and liberty of 
their native country, plainly invaded by 
the said regent, and her said soldiers, who 
only do forge such vain reports to with- 
draw the hearts of true Scotsmen from 
the succour they aught [owe] of bound 
duty to their oppressed commonwealth. 



Book I I.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



101 



Wherefore he exhorts all men that will 
maintain the true religion of God, or with- 
stand this oppression or plain conquest en- 
terprised by strangers upon native Scots- 
men, not to credit such false and untrue 
reports, but rather concur with us and the 
rest of the nobility to set your country at 
liberty, expelling strangers therefrom; which 
doing, ye shall show yourselves obedient to 
the ordinance of God, which was establish- 
ed for maintenance of the commonwealth, 
and true members of the same." 

The 21st of October, came from the 
queen then regent Mr Robert Foreman, 
lion king of arms, who brought unto us a 
writing in this tenor and credit : 

" After commendation, we have received 
your letter, of Edinburgh the 19th of this 
instant, which appears to us rather to have 
come from a prince to his subjects, than 
from subjects to them that bear authority; 
for answer thereof, we presently directed 
unto you this bearer, lion herald king of 
arms, sufficiently instructed with our mind, 
to whom ye shall give credit." 

Sic subscribitur, 

" Mary R." 

At Leith, the 21st of ) 
October, 1559. S 

HIS CREDIT IS THIS. 

" That she wondered how any durst pre- 
sume to command her in that realm, which 
needed not to be conquest by any force, con- 
sidering it was already conquest by marriage; 
that Frenchmen cannot justly be called 
strangers, seeing they were naturalized ; and 
therefore that she would neither make the 
town patent, neither yet send any man 
away, but as she thought expedient. She 
accused the duke of violating his promise ; 
she made long protestation of her love to- 
wards the commonwealth of Scotland ; and 
in the end commanded, that under pain of 
treason, all assisters to the duke, and unto 
us, should depart from the town of Edin- 
burgh." 

This answer received, credit heard, pre- 
conceived malice sufficiently espied, con- 
sultation was taken what was expedient to 
be done. And for the first it was conclud- , 
cd, that the herald should be stayed till | 



farther determination should be taken. The 
whole nobility, barons, and burghs then 
present, were commanded to convene in 
the tolbooth of Edinburgh, the same 21st 
day of October, for deliberation of these 
matters, where the whole case being ex- 
poned by the lord Ruthven, the question 
was proponed, Whether she that so con- 
temptuously refused the most humble re- 
quest of the born councillors of the realm, 
being also but a regent, whose pretences 
threatened the bondage of the whole com- 
monwealth, ought to be suffered so tyran- 
nously to empire above them ? And be- 
cause that this question had not been be- 
fore disputed in open assembly, it was 
thought expedient that the judgment of 
the preachers should be required ; who 
being called and instructed in the case, 
John Willock, who before had sustained 
the burden of the kirk of Edinburgh, be- 
ing commanded to speak, made discourse as 
follows, affirming— 

First, That albeit magistrates by God's 
ordinance, having of him power and autho- 
rity, yet is not their power so largely ex- 
tended, but that it is bounded and limited 
by God in his word. — And, 

Secondly, That as subjects are com- 
manded to obey their magistrates, so are 
magistrates commanded to give some duty 
to the subjects; so that God by his word, 
has prescribed the office of the one and of 
the other. 

Thirdly, That albeit God has appointed 
magistrates his lieutenants on earth, and 
has honoured them with his own title, call- 
ing them gods, that yet he never did so es- 
tablish any, but that for just causes they 
might have been deprived. 

Fourthly, That in deposing of princes, 
and those that had been in authority, God 
did not always use his immediate power, 
but sometimes he used some other means, 
which his wisdom thought good and justice 
approved, as by Asa he removed Maacha 
I his own mother from honour and autho- 
rity, which before she had bruiked ; by 
Jehu he destroyed Jehoram, and the whole 
posterity of Ahab ; and by divers others 
I he had deposed from authority those 
I whom before he had established by his 

X 



162 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



own word ; and hereupon concluded he, 
that since the queen regent denied her 
chief duty to the subjects of this realm, 
which was to minister justice unto them 
indifferently, to preserve their liberties from 
invasion of strangers, and to suffer them to 
have God's word freely and openly preach- 
ed amongst them: seeing, moreover, that 
the queen regent was an open and obstinate 
idolatress, a vehement maintainer of all su- 
perstition and idolatry, and finally, that she 
utterly despised the council and requests 
of the nobility, he could see no reason 
why they, the born councillors, nobility, 
and barons of the realm, might not justly 
deprive her from all regimen and authority 
amongst them. 

Hereafter was the judgment of John 
Knox required, who approving the sen- 
tence of his brother, added, first, That the 
iniquity of the queen regent, and misorder 
ought in nowise to withdraw neither our 
hearts, neither yet the hearts of other sub- 
jects, from the obedience due unto our so- 
vereigns. 

Secondly, That, and if we deposed the 
said queen regent rather of malice and pri- 
vate envy, than for the preservation of the 
commonwealth, and that for her sins ap- 
peared incurable, that we should not escape 
God's just punishment, howsoever that she 
had deserved ejection from honours. And, 

Thirdly, He required that no such sen- 
tence should be pronounced against her, but 
that upon her known and open repentance, 
and upon her conversion to the common- 
wealth, and submission to the nobility, place 
should be granted unto her of regress to 
the same honours, from the which, for just 
causes, she justly might be deprived. 

The votes of every man particularly by 
himself required, and every man command- 
ed to speak, as he will answer to God, 
what his conscience judged in that matter, 
there was none found, amongst the whole 
number, who did not by his own tongue 
consent to her deprivation ; thereafter was 
their protest committed to write, and regis- 
tered as followeth : 

"At Edinburgh, the 21st of October, 
1559. 

The nobility, barons, and burghs con- 



vened to advise upon the affairs of the 
commonwealth, and to aid, support, and 
succour the same, perceiving and lamenting 
the enterprised destruction of their com- 
monwealth, and overthrow of the liberty 
of their native country, by the means of 
the queen regent, and certain strangers her 
privy councillors, plain contrary to our so- 
vereign lord and lady's mind, and direct 
against the council of the nobility, to pro- 
ceed by little and little even to the utter- 
most, so that the urgent necessity of the 
commonwealth may suffer no longer delay, 
and earnestly craves our supports : seeing 
therefore, that the said queen regent — abus- 
ing and overpassing our sovereign lord and 
lady's commission given and granted to her 
— has in all her proceedings, pursued the 
barons and burghs of this realm, with 
weapons and armour of strangers, but [with- 
out] any process or order of law, they being 
our sovereign lord and lady's true lieges, 
and never called nor convicted of any crime 
by any judgment lawful ; as first at St 
Johnstone, in the month of May, she as- 
sembled her army against the town and in- 
habitants thereof, never called nor convict 
of any crime, but that they professed the 
true worship of God, conform to his most 
sacred word ; and likewise in the month of 
June last, without any lawful order or call- 
ing going before, invaded the persons of 
sundry noblemen and barons with force of 
arms convened at St Andrews, only for 
the cause of religion, as is notoriously 
known, they never being called nor con- 
victed of any crime ; attour [besides] laid 
garrisons the same month upon the inha- 
bitants of the said town of St Johnstone, 
oppressing the liberties of the queen's true 
lieges ; for fear of which her garrisons, a 
great part of the inhabitants thereof fled off 
the town, and durst not resort again into 
their houses and heritages until they were 
restored by arms, they notwithstanding 
never being called nor convicted of any 
crime. And farther, that same time did 
thrust in upon the heads of the inhabitants 
of the said town provost and bailies against 
all order of election. And lately, in this 
last month of September, has she done the 
like in the towns of Edinburgh and Jed- 



Book II.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



103 



burgh, and divers other places, in sign of 
manifest oppression of our liberties. And 
last of all, declaring of her evil mind to- 
wards the nobility, commonalty, and whole 
nation, has brought in strangers, and daily 
pretends to bring in greater force of the 
same ; pretending a manifest conquest of 
our native realm and country, as the deed 
itself declares: in so far as she having 
brought in the said strangers but [with- 
out] any advice of the council or nobility, 
and contrary to their express mind sent 
to her grace in writ, has placed and planted 
her said strangers in one of the principal 
towns and ports of this realm, sending con- 
tinually for greater forces, willing thereby 
to suppress our commonwealth, and the li- 
berty of our native country, to make us 
and our posterity slaves to strangers for 
ever; which, as it is intolerable in com- 
monwealths and free countries, so it is very 
prejudicial to our sovereign lady, and her 
heirs whatsomever, in case our sovereign 
lord decease but [without] heirs of her 
grace's person ; and to performance of these 
her wicked enterprises, conceived, as ap- 
pears, of inveterate malice against our 
whole country and nation, causes — but 
[without] any consent or advice of the 
council or nobility — coin layed [alloyed] 
money, so base, and of such quantity, that 
the whole realm shall be depaupered [im- 
poverished], and all traffic with foreign na- 
tions averted thereby ; and attour [besides], 
her grace places and maintains, contrary to 
the pleasure of the council of this realm, a 
stranger in one of the greatest offices of 
credit within this realm, that is, in keeping 
of the great seal thereof, whereuntil [from 
which] great perils may be engendered to 
the commonwealth and liberties thereof ; 
and farther, lately sent the said great seal 
forth of this realm by the said stranger, 
contrary the advice of the said council, to 
what effect God knows, and has else by 
his means altered the old laws and consue- 
tude [customs] of our realm, ever observed 
in the graces and pardons granted by our 
sovereigns to all their lieges having repent- 
ed of their offences committed against 
their highness, or the lieges of the realm, 
and has introduced a new captious style 



and form of the said pardons and remis- 
sions, attending to the practice of France, 
tending thereby to draw the said lieges of 
this realm, by process of time, in a deriv- 
able snare. And farther, shall creep in the 
whole subversion and alteration of the re- 
maining laws of this realm, in contrary the 
contents of the appointment of marriage ; 
and all peace being accorded amongst the 
princes, retains the great army of strangers 
after command sent by the king of France 
to retire the same, making excuse that 
they were retained for suppression of the 
attempts of the lieges of this realm, albeit 
the whole subjects thereof, of all estates, are 
and ever have been ready to give all dutiful 
obedience to their sovereigns, and their 
lawful ministers, proceeding, by God's or- 
dinance : and the said army of strangers 
not being paid of wages, was laid by her 
grace upon the necks of the poor com- 
monalty of our native country, who were 
compelled by force to defraud themselves, 
their wives, and their bairns, of that poor 
substance which they misfht conqueis [ac- 
quire] with the sweat of their brows, to sa- 
tisfy their hunger and necessities, and with 
the same to sustain the idle bellies of these 
strangers. Through the which in all parts 
raise [rose] such heavy lamentation, and 
complaint of the commonalty, accusing the 
council and nobility of their sloth, that as 
the same oppression we doubt not has en- 
tered in before the justice-seat of God, so 
has it moved our hearts to reuth [pity] and 
compassion : and for redress of the same, 
with other great offences committed against 
the public weal of this realm, we have 
convened here — as said is — and as often- 
times of before have most humbly and with 
all reverence desired and required the said 
queen regent, to redress the said enormi- 
ties, and specially to remove her strangers 
from the necks of the poor commonalty, 
and to desist from enterprising or fort iri ca- 
tion of strengths within this realm, against 
! the express will of the council and nobility 
of the same ; yet we being convened the 
more stark [strong], for fear of her stran- 
gers, whom we saw presume no other thing 
but with arms to pursue our lives and pos- 
I sessions, besought her grace to remove the 



164 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 659 



fear of the same, and niake the town patent 
to all our sovereign lord and lady's lieges ; 
the same on nowise would her grace grant 
unto, but when some of our company in 
peaceable manner went to view the said 
town, there was both small and great mu- 
nition shot forth at them. And seeing, 
therefore, that neither access was granted 
to be used, nor yet her grace would join 
herself to us, to consult upon the affairs of 
our commonwealth, as we that be born 
councillors of the same, by the ancient 
laws of the realm ; but fearing the judg- 
ment of the council would reform, as ne- 
cessity required, the foresaid enormities, 
she refuses all manner of assistance with 
us, and by force and violence intends to 
suppress the liberties of our commonwealth, 
and of us the favourers of the same : we, 
therefore, so many of the nobility, barons, 
and provosts of burghs, as are touched 
with the care of the commonwealth — unto 
the which we acknowledge ourselves not 
only born, but also sworn protectors and 
defenders, against all whatsomever invaders 
of the same, — and moved by the foresaid 
proceedings notorious, and with the lamen- 
table complaint of oppression of our com- 
monalty, our fellow members of the same : 
perceiving farther, that the present neces- 
sity of our commonwealth may suffer no 
delay, being convened, as said is, presently 
in Edinburgh, for support of our common- 
wealth, and reply consulted and advised, 
taking the fear of God before our eyes, for 
the causes foresaid, which are notorious, 
with one consent and common vote, each 
man, in order his judgment being required; 
in name and authority of our sovereign 
lord and lady, suspend the said commission 
granted by our said sovereigns to the said 
queen dowager, discharging her of all ad- 
ministration or authority she has or may 
have thereby, unto the next parliament to 
be set by our advice and consent ; and that 
because the said queen, by the foresaid 
faults notorious, declares herself enemy to 
our commonwealth, abusing the power of 
the said authority, to the destruction of the 
same : and likewise, we discharge all mem- 
bers of her said authority from thenceforth ; j 
and that no coin be coined from thence- 



forth, without express consent of the said 
council and nobility, conform to the laws 
of this realm, which we maintain : and or- 
dain this to be notified and proclaimed by 
officers of arms, in all the head burghs 
within the realm of Scotland. In witness 
of the which, our common consent and free 
vote, we have subscribed this present act 
of suspension with our hands, day, year, 
and place foresaid. 

Sic subscribitur, 
" By us, the nobility and commons 

of the protestants of the church 

of Scotland." 
After that this our act of suspension was 
by sound of trumpet divulged at the mar- 
ket-cross of Edinburgh, we dismissed the 
herald with this answer : 

" Please your grace, we received your 
answer, and heard the credit of lyon king 
of arms, whereby we gathered sufficiently 
your perseverance in evil mind towards us, 
the glory of God, our commonwealth, and 
the liberty of our native country ; for safe- 
ty of the which, and according to our du- 
ties, we have in our sovereign lord and 
lady's name suspended your commission, 
and all administration of the policy your 
grace may pretend thereby, being most as- 
suredly persuaded, your doings are direct 
contrary to our sovereign lord and lady's 
will, which we ever esteem to be for the 
weal, and not for the hurt of this our 
commonwealth. And as your grace will 
not acknowledge us our sovereign lord and 
lady's lieges, true barons and lieges, for 
your subjects and council, no more will we 
acknowledge you for our regent, or lawful 
magistrate unto us, seeing, if any authority 
ye have by reason of our sovereigns' com- 
mission granted unto your grace, the same, 
for most weighty reasons, is worthily sus- 
pended by us, in the name and authority of 
our sovereigns, whose council we are of in 
the affairs of this our commonwealth. And 
forasmuch as we are determined with ha- 
zard of our lives to set that town at li- 
berty, wherein ye have most wrongously 
placed your soldiers and strangers, for the 
reverence which we owe to your per- 
son, as mother to our sovereign lady, we 
require your grace to transport your person 



Book II. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



[65 



therefrom, seeing we are accustomed * for 
the necessity of the commonwealth, to suit 
the same by arms, being- denied oft the li- 
berty thereof, by sundry requisitions made 
of before attour [moreover that] your grace 
would cause depart with you out of the said 
town, any person having commission in am- 
bassadry, if any such be, or in lieutenant- 
ship of our sovereigns, together with all 
Frenchmen, soldiers, being within the same, 
whose blood we thirst not, because of the 
old and ancient amity and friendship betwixt 
the realm of France and us, which amity, 
by occasion of marriage of our sovereign 
lady to the king of that realm, should ra- 
ther increase than decrease ; and this we 
pray your grace and them both to do with- 
in the space of twenty-four hours, for the 
reverence we owe unto your persons. And 
thus recommending our humble service to 
your grace, we commit your highness to 
the eternal protection of God. At Edin- 
burgh, the 23d of October, 1559. 

" Your grace's humble servitors." 

The day following we summoned the 
town of Leith by sound of trumpet, in form 
as follows : 

" I require and charge in the name of 
our sovereign lord and lady, and of the 
council presently in Edinburgh, that all 
Scots and Frenchmen, of whatsomever es- 
tate or degree they be, that they depart of 
this town of Leith within the space of 
twelve hours, and make the same patent 
to all and sundry our sovereign lady's 
lieges. For seeing that we have not such 
hatred at either the one or the other, that 
Ive thirst for the blood of any of the two, 
for that one is our natural brother, born, 
nourished, and brought up within the 
bowels of our common country, and with 
that other our nation has continued in long- 
amity and alliance, and hopes that so shall 
do, so long as so they list to use us, and 
not suit to make slaves of our friends, 
which this strengthening of our town por- 
tends ; and therefore most heartily desire 
the one and the other to desist from forti- 
fying or maintaining of this town, in our 
sovereigns and their council's name, and to 



* Constrained — suppressed edition. 



make the same free within the space of 
twelve hours." 

Defiance given, there was skirmishing, 
without great slaughter, preparation of 
scales and ladders was made for the assault, 
which was concluded by the common con- 
sent of the nobility and barons. The scales 
were appointed to be made in St Giles' 
kirk, so that preaching was neglected, which 
did not a little grieve the preachers, and 
many godly with them. The preachers 
spared not openly to say, " That they fear- 
ed the success of that enterprise should not 
be prosperous, because the beginning ap- 
peared to bring with it some contempt of 
God and of his word. Other places, said 
they, had been more apt for such prepara- 
tions, than where the people convened to 
common prayers and unto preaching." In 
very deed the audience was wonderfully 
troubled at that time, which, and other mis- 
order espied amongst us, gave occasion to 
the preachers to affirm, " That God could 
not suffer such contempt of his word, and 
abuses of his grace, long to be unpunished." 
The queen had amongst us her assured es- 
pials, who did not only signify unto her 
what was our estate, but also what was our 
council, purpose, and devices. Some of 
our own company were vehemently sus- 
pected to be the very betrayers of all our 
secrets ; for a boy of the officials of Lo- 
thian, Mr James Balfour, was taken carry- 
ing a writing, which did open the most se- 
cret things [that] were devised in the coun- 
cil; yea, those very things which we 
thought to have been known but to a very 
few. By such domestical enemies were not 
only our purposes frustrated, but also our 
determinations were often overthrown and 
changed. The duke's friends gave unto 
him such terrors, that he was greatly trou- 
bled, and by his fear were troubled many 
others. 

The men of war — for the most part were 
men without God or honesty — made a mu- 
tiny, because they lacked a part of their 
wages : they had done the same in Linlith- 
gow before, where they made a proclama- 
tion, " that they would serve any man to 
suppress the congregation, and set up the 
mass again." They made a fray upon the 



166 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



earl of Argyle's highland men, and slew 
one of the principal children [servants] of 
his chamber, who notwithstanding behaved 
himself so moderately, and so studious to 
pacify that tumult, that many wondered as 
well of his prudent counsel and stoutness, 
as of the great obedience of his company. 
The ungodly soldiers notwithstanding ma- 
ligned, and continuing in their misorder, 
they boasted [taunted] the laird of Tulli- 
bardine and other noblemen, who exhorted 
them to quietness. All these troubles were 
practised by the queen, and put in execu- 
tion by the traitors amongst ourselves, who, 
albeit they then lurked, and yet are not ma- 
nifestly noted, yet we doubt not but God 
shall utter [discover] them to their confu- 
sion, and to the example of ethers. To 
pacify the men of war, a collection was de- 
vised ; but because some were poor, and 
some were niggards and avaricious, there 
could no sufficient sum be obtained. It was 
thought expedient that a cunye [mint] should 
be erected, that every noblemen should coin 
his silver work to supply the present neces- 
sity; and therefore David Forrest, John 
Heart, and others who before had charge 
of the coin-house, did promise their faith- 
ful labours. But when the matter came to 
the very point, the said John Heart, and 
others of his faction, stole away, and took 
with them the instruments apt for their pur- 
pose. Whether this was done by the false- 
hood and feebleness of the said John, or the 
practising of others, is yet uncertain. Rest- 
ed [there remained] then no hope amongst 
ourselves that any money could be furnish- 
ed ; and therefore it was concluded, by a 
few of those whom we judged most secret, 
that Sir Ralph Sadler and Sir James Crofts, 
then having charge at Berwick, should be 
tempted, if any would support us with any 
reasonable sum in that urgent necessity, 
and for that purpose was the laird of Or- 
miston directed unto them in so secret a 
manner as we could devise ; but yet our 
counsel was disclosed to the queen, who 
appointed the earl of Bothwell — as himself 
confessed — to await upon the returning of 
the said laird, as that he did with all dili- 
gence ; and so being assuredly informed by 
what way he came, the said carl of Both- 



well beset his way, and coming upon him at 
unawares, did take him, after that he was 
evil wounded in the head, for neither could 
he get his led horse, nor yet his steel bon- 
net. With him was taken the sum of 4000 
crowns of the sun, which the said Sir Ralph 
and Sir James most lovingly had sent for 
our support. The bruit hereof coming to 
our ears, our dolor was doubled ; not so 
much for loss of the money, as for the tin- 
sail [loss] of the gentleman, whom we sus- 
pected to have been slain, or at the least, 
that he should be delivered to the queen's 
hands ; and so upon the sudden, the earl of 
Arran, the lord James, the master of Max- 
well, with the most part of the horsemen, 
took purpose to pursue the said earl Both- 
well, if they might apprehend him in Crich- 
ton or Moreham, whereunto — as they were 
informed — he had retired himself after his 
treasonable fact, we call his fact treasonable, 
because that three days before he had sent 
his special servant, Mr Michael Balfour, to 
us to Edinburgh, to purchase of the lords 
of the council licence to come and speak 
[to] us; which we granted, after that he 
had promised, that in this meantime he 
should neither hurt us, nor yet any to us 
appertaining, till that he should write his 
answer again, whether that he would join 
with us or not. He gave us farther to un- 
derstand, that he would discharge himself 
of the queen, and thereafter would assist 
us : and yet in this meantime, he cruelly 
and traitorously hurt and spoiled the noble- 
man foresaid. Albeit that the departure 
and counsel of the earl of Arran and lord 
James, with their company foresaid, was 
very sudden and secret, yet w r as the earl of 
Bothwell, then being in Crichton, adver- 
tised, and so escaped with the money, 
w hich he took with himself, as the captain 
of his house, John Sommerville, who was 
taken without any long pursuit, confessed 
and affirmed. Because the noblemen that 
sought redress, sought rather his safety and 
reconciliation than destruction and hatred ; 
they committed his house to the custody of 
a captain, to wit, captain Forbes, to whom, 
and to all the soldiers there left, was given 
a sharp commandment, that all things found 
within the said house of Crichton — which 



Book II.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



161 



were put in inventory in presence of the 
lords — should be kept till that the said 
earl should give answer whether he would 
make restitution or not ; time of advertise- 
ment was granted unto him the whole day 
subsequent, till the going- down of the sun. 

In absence of the said lords and horse- 
men — we mean the same day that they de- 
parted, which was the last of October — the 
provost and town of Dundee, together with 
some soldiers, passed forth of the town of 
Edinburgh, and carried with them some 
great ordnance to shoot at Leith. The 
duke's grace, the earl of Glencairn, and the 
rest of the noblemen were gone to the 
preaching-, where they continued till near 
twelve hours. The French being: adver- 
tised by one named Clerk — who after 
was apprehended — that our horsemen were 
absent, and that the whole company were 
at dinner, issued, and with great expedition 
came to the place where our ordnance was 
laid. The town of Dundee with a few 
others resisted a while, as well with their 
ordnance as hackbuts ; but being- left of 
our ungodly and feeble soldiers, who fled 
without stroke offered or given, they were 
compelled to give back, and so to leave the 
ordnance to their enemies, who did further 
pursue the fugitives, to wit, to the midst of 
the Canongate, and to the foot of Leith 
Wynd. Their cruelty then began to dis- 
cover itself; for the decrepit, the ag-ed, 
women and children, found no greater fa- 
vour in their fury, than did the strong men, 
who made resistance. 

It was very apparent, that amongst our- 
selves there was some treason ; for when, 
upon the first alarm, all men made haste 
for relief of their brethren, whom in very 
deed we might have saved, or at least we 
might have saved the ordnance, and have 
kept the Canongate from danger ; for we 
were once marched forward with bold cou- 
rage, but then, we say, was a shout raised 
amongst ourselves — God will disclose the 
traitors one day — affirming, "that the whole 
French company were entered in at Leith 
Wynd upon our backs." What clamour and 
disorder did then suddenly arise, we list not 
to express with multiplication of w ords. 
The horsemen, and some of those that 



should have put order to others, over rode 
their poor brethren, at the'entrance of the 
Netherbow. The cry of discomfiture arose 
in the town, the wicked and malignant 
blasphemed, the feeble — amongst whom the 
justice-clerk, Sir John Ballantine, was — fled 
without mercy. With great difficulty could 
they be kept in at the West-port. Mr Ga- 
vin Hamilton, abbot of Kilwinning-, cried 
with a loud voice, " Drink now as ye have 
brewed." The French perceiving-, by the 
clamour of the fray, followed, as said is, to 
the midst of t he Canong-ate, to no great num- 
ber, but a twenty or thirty of their infants 
perdus;* for in that meantime, the rest retir- 
ed themselves with our ordnance. The earl 
Argyle and his men were the first that 
stopped the flying of our men, and com- 
pelled the port to be opened after it was 
shut. But in very deed, lord Robert Stew- 
art, abbot of Holyroodhouse, was the first 
that issued out ; after him followed many 
upon the backs of the French. At last 
came my lord duke, and then was no man 
more frank than Mr Gavin Hamilton fore- 
said. The French burnt a bakehouse, and 
took some spoil from the poor of the Ca- 
nongate ; they slew a drunken papist priest 
named Sir Thomas Sclater, an aged man, a 
woman giving suck and her child, and of sol- 
diers to the number of ten. Certain were 
taken, amongst whom captain Mowat was 
one, and Mr Charles Geddes, servitor to the 
master of Maxwell. The captain of the 
castle that day shot a shot at the French, 
declaring them thereby friends to us and 
enemies to them, but he suddenly repented 
of well-doing. The queen glad of victory, 
sat upon the rampart to salute and welcome 
her victorious soldiers ; one brought a kir- 
tel, another a petticoat, a third a pot or 
pan ; and of envy more than womanly 
laughter, she asked, " W^here bought ye 
your ware? Je pense que vous l'avez achete 
sans argent '?" This was the great and mo- 
therly care which she took for the trouble 
of the poor subjects of this realm. 

The earl Bothwell, lifted up in his own 
conceit by reason of this our repulse 
and discomfiture, utterly refused any res- 



* Foot lost, D. Buchanan's ed. 



168 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



titution ; and so within two days after 
was his house spoiled, in which was nothing 
©f any great importance, his evidents and 
certain clothing excepted, From that day 
back, the courage of many was dejected ; 
with great difficulty could men be retained 
within the town ; yea, some of the greatest 
estimation determined with themselves to 
leave the enterprise, many fled away secret- 
ly, and those that did abide — a very few 
excepted — appeared destitute of counsel and 
manhood. The master of Maxwell, a man 
stout and witty, foreseeing the danger, most 
gravely desired either to take such order 
that they might remain to the terror of the 
enemy, or else that they should retire 
themselves with their ordnances and ban- 
ners displayed in order ; b,ut the wits of 
men being dashed, no counsel could pre- 
vail. Thus we continued from Wednesday 
the last of October, till Monday the fifth of 
November, never two or three abiding firm 
in one opinion the space of twenty-four 
hours. The pestilent wits of the queen's 
practiscrs did then exercise themselves — 
God shall recompense their malicious craft 
in their own bosom, we doubt not — for 
they had caused two godly and forward 
young- men, the lairds of Ferniherst and 
Cessford, who once had gladly joined them- 
selves with us, to withdraw themselves and 
their friends : the same they did to the earl 
of Morton, Avho promised to be ours, but 
did never plainly join. They enticed the 
captain of the castle to deny us support in 
case we were pursued ; and, finally, the 
counsel of some was no less pestiferous 
against us than was the counsel of Ahitho- 
phel against David and his discomfited sol- 
diers, " Render, O Lord, to the wicked ac- 
cording to their malice." 

Upon Monday, the fifth of November, did 
the French issue out of Leith betimes, for 
keeping of the victuals, which should have 
come to us; we being troubled amongst 
ourselves, and — as said is — divided in opi- 
nion, were neither circumspect when they 
did issue, neither yet did we follow with 
such expedition as had been meet for men 
that would have sought our advantage ; our 
soldiers could be scarcely dung [driven] out 
of the town. The earl of Arran, lord 



James, and certain with them, made haste ; 
many honest men then followed, and made 
such diligence, that they caused the French 
once to retire somewhat afraidly. The rest 
that were in Leith, perceiving the danger of 
their fellows, issued out for their succour. 
The earl of Arran, and lord James foresaid, 
being more forward nor prudent and cir- 
cumspect, did compel the captains, as is al- 
leged, to bring their men so near, that either 
they must needs have hazarded battle with 
the whole Frenchmen — and that under the 
mercy of their cannons also — or else they 
must needs retire in a very narrow corner ; 
for our men were approached near to Res- 
talrig, The one part of the Frenchmen 
were upon the north towards the sea, the 
other part marched from Leith to Edin- 
burgh ; and yet they march so, that we 
could have fought with neither companies 
before they could have joined. We took 
purpose, therefore, to retire towards the 
town, and that with expedition, lest that 
the former company of the French should 
either have invaded the town, before that 
we could have come to the rescue thereof, 
or else have cut us off from the entrance of 
the abbey of Holyroodhouse, as apparently 
they had done, if the laird of Grange, and 
Alexander Whitelaw, with a few horse- 
men, had not stayed both their horsemen 
and footmen. The company that was next 
us perceiving that we retired with speed, 
sent forth their skirmishers, to the number 
of three or four hundred, who took us at a 
disadvantage ; before us having the mire 
[marsh] of Restalrig betwixt us and them ; 
so that in no ways we could charge them ; 
and we were inclosed by the park-dyke, so 
that in no ways could we avoid their shot : 
their horsemen followed upon our tails, and 
slew divers, our horsemen over-rode our 
footmen ; and so, by the narrowness of the 
place, there was no resistance made. The 
earl of Arran, and lord James, in great dan- 
ger, lighted among the footmen, exhorting 
them to have some respect to order, and to 
the safety of their brethren, whom, by their 
flying, they exposed to murder, and so 
w r ere criminal of their death. Captain 
Alexander Haliburton, a man that feared 
God, tarried with certain of his soldiers be- 



Book II J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



169 



hind, and made resistance, till that he was 
first shot, and then taken. But being 
known, these cruel murderers wounded 
him in divers parts to the death ; and yet, 
as it were by the power of God, he was 
brought into the town, where in few, but 
yet in most plain words, he gave confession 
of his faith, testifying, " That he doubted 
nothing of God's mercy, purchased to him 
by the blood of Christ Jesus, neither yet 
that he repented, that it pleased God to 
make him worthy to shed his blood, and 
spend his life in the defence of so good a 
cause." And thus, with dolour of many, 
he ended his dolour within two hours after 
the defeat, and did enter, we doubt not, into 
that blessed immortality, which abides all 
that believe in Christ Jesus truly. There 
was slain to the number of twenty-four or 
thirty men, the most part poor. There 
were taken the laird of Pitmillie, the laird 
of Fairnie, younger, the master of Buchan, 
George Lowell of Dundee, and some others 
of lower estate, John Dunbar, lieutenant to 
captain Mowat. Captain David Murray had 
his horse slain, and himself shot in the leg. 

Few days before our first defeat, which 
was upon All-Halloweven, William Mait- 
land of Lethington, younger, secretary to 
the queen, perceiving himself not only to be 
suspected as one that favoured our part, but 
also to stand in danger of his life, if he 
should remain among so ungodly a com- 
pany; for, whensoever matters came in 
question, he spared not to speak his con- 
science, which liberty of tongue and gravity 
of judgment the French did highly disdain, 
which perceived by him, he conveyed him- 
self away in a morning, and rendered him- 
self to Mr Kirkaldy, laird of Grange, who 
coming to us, did exhort us to constancy, 
assuring us, that in the queen there was no- 
thing but craft and deceit. He travailed 
exceedingly to hove retained the lords to- 
gether, and most prudently laid before their 
eyes the danger that might ensue their de- 
parting of the town ; but fear and dolour 
had so seized the hearts of all, that they 
could admit no consolation. The earl of 
Arran, and lord James, offered to abide, if 
any reasonable company would abide with 
them ; but men did so steal away, that the 



wit of men could not stay them ; yea, gome 
of the greatest determined'plainly that they 
would not abide. The captain of the castle, 
then lord Erskine, would promise unto us 
no favours, but said, " lie must needs de- 
clare himself friend to those that were able 
to support and defend him which an- 
swer given to the lord James, his sister's 
son, discouraged those that before had de- 
termined to have abode the uttermost, 
rather then to have abandoned the town, so 
that the castle would have stood their 
friend : but the contrary declared, every 
man took purpose for himself. The com- 
plaints of the brethren within the town of 
Edinburgh were lamentable and sore : the 
wicked then began to spue out the venom 
which before lurked in their cankered 
hearts. The godly, as well those that were 
departed, as the inhabitants of the town, 
were so troubled, that some of them would 
have preferred death to life at God's plea- 
sure. For avoiding of danger, it was con- 
cluded that they should depart at midnight. 
The duke made provision for his ordnance, 
and caused it to be sent before, but the rest 
was left to the care of the captain of the 
castle, who received it, as well that which 
pertained to lord James, as that of Dundee. 
The despiteful tongues of the wicked rail- 
ed upon us, calling us traitors and heretics ; 
every one provoked another to cast stones 
at us. One cried, ' Alas, that I might see ;' 
another, ' Fie, give advertisement to the 
Frenchmen that they may come, and we 
shall help to cut the throats of these here- 
tics.' And thus, as the sword of dolour 
passed through our hearts, so were the 
cogitations and former determinations of 
many hearts then revealed ; for we would 
never have believed that our natural coun- 
trymen and women could have wished our 
destruction so unmercifully, and have so 
rejoiced in our adversity — God move their 
hearts to repentance — for else we fear that 
he whose cause we sustain, shall let them 
feel the weight of the yoke of cruel stran- 
gers, in whose hands they wished us to 
have been betrayed. We stayed not till 
we came to Stirling, which we did the day 
after that we departed from Edinburgh, for 
it was concluded, that their consultation 

Y 



170 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



should be taken, what was the next remedy 
in so desperate a matter. 

The next Wednesday, which was the 
7th of November, John Knox preached — 
John Willock was departed to England, as 
before he had appointed — and entreated the 
4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and eighth verses of the 
Ixxx. psalm, where David in the person of 
the afflicted people of God, speaks thus : — 
" 4. O thou Eternal, the God of hosts, 
how long shalt thou be angry against the 
prayer of thy people. 5. Thou hast fed us 
with the bread of tears, and he has given to 
us tears to drink in great measure. 6. Thou 
hast made us a strife unto our neighbours, 
and our enemies laugh us to scorn among 
themselves. 7. O God of hosts, turn us 
again, make thy face to shine, and we shall 
be saved. 8. Thou hast brought a vine 
out of Egypt, thou hast cast out the 
heathen and planted it." 

This psalm had the said John begun in 
Edinburgh, as it were foreseeing our cala- 
mities, which in very deed he did not ob- 
scurely speak, but plainly did admonish us, 
that he was assured of troubles suddenly to 
come ; and, therefore, exhorted all men to 
prayers. He entreated the three first verses 
in Edinburgh, to the comfort of many. He 
declared the argument of the psalm, affirm- 
ing for his judgment, that it was made by 
David himself, who, in the spirit of pro- 
phecy, foresaw the miserable estate of God's 
people, especially after that the ten tribes 
were divided, and departed from the obedi- 
ence of Judah ; for it was not — said he — 
without cause, that Joseph, Ephraim, Ben- 
jamin, and Manasses, were especially named, 
and not Judah, to wit, because they came 
first to calamity, and were translated from 
their own heritance, while that Judah yet 
possessed the kingdom. He confessed that 
justly they were punished for idolatry com- 
mitted ; but he affirmed, that amongst them 
there continually remained some true wor- 
shippers of God, for whose comfort were 
the prophets sent, as well to call them to 
repentance, as to assure them of deliver- 
ance, and of the promise of God to be per- 
formed unto them. He divided the psalm 
in three parts, to wit, in a prayer. 2. In the 
ground whereupon their prayer was found- 



ed. 3. And in the lamentable complaints, 
and the vow which they make to God. 
Their prayer was, " That God should con- 
vert and turn them, that he should make 
his face to shine upon them, and that he 
should restore them to their former dig- 
nity." The grounds and foundations of 
their prayer were, 1. That God himself had 
become pastor and governor unto them. 
2. That he had taken the protection of 
them in his own hand. 3. That he had 
chosen his habitation amongst them. 4. That 
he had delivered them from bondage and 
thraldom. 5. That he had multiplied and 
blessed them with many notable benedic- 
tions. Upon those two parts he gave these 
notes, 1st, That the felicity of God's people 
may not be measured by any external ap- 
pearance ; for oftentimes it is, that the same 
people, to whom God becomes not only 
creator, hut also pastor and protector, is 
more severely entreated, than those nations 
where very ignorance and contempt of God 
reigneth. 2dly, That God never made his 
acquaintance and league with any people 
by his word, but there he had some of his 
elect, who, albeit they suffered for a time 
in the midst of the wicked, yet in the end 
they found comfort, and felt in very expe- 
rience, that God's promises are not vain. 
3dly, That these prayers were indited unto 
the people by the Holy Ghost, before they 
came to the uttermost of the trouble, to as- 
sure them that God, by whose Spirit the 
prayer was indited, would not contemn the 
same in the midst of their calamities. The 
third part, containing the lamentable com- 
plaint, he entreated in Stirling, in presence 
of my lord duke, and of the whole council. 
In exposition whereof, he declared where- 
fore God suffered sometimes his chosen 
flock to be exposed to mockage, to dan- 
gers, and to apparent destruction, to wit, 
that they may feel the vehemeney of God's 
indignation; that they may know how 
little strength is in themselves ; that they 
may leave a testimony to the generations fol- 
lowing, as well of the malice of the devil 
against God's people, as of the marvellous 
works of God in preserving his little flock 
by far other means than man can espy. In 
explaining these words, " How long, 



Book II.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



O Lord, wilt thou be angry against the 
prayer of thy people he declared how 
dolorous and fearful it was to fight against 
that temptation, that God turned away his 
face from our prayers, for that was nothing 
else than to comprehend and conceive God 
to be armed to our destruction ; which 
temptation no flesh can abide or overcome, 
unless the mighty Spirit of God interpose 
himself suddenly. 

The example he gave, the impatience of 
Saul, when God would not hear his prayers. 
The difference betwixt the elect and repro- 
bate in that temptation, he plainly declared 
to be, that the elect, sustained by the secret 
power of God's Spirit, did still call upon 
God, albeit he appeared to contemn their 
prayers, which — said he — is the sacrifice 
most acceptable to God, and is in a manner 
even to fight with God, and to overcome 
him, as Jacob did in wrestling with his 
angel ; but the reprobate — said he — being 
denied of their requests at God's hand, do 
either cease to pray, and altogether con- 
temn God, w r ho straitly commands us to call 
upon him in the day of our adversity, or 
else they seek at the devil that which they 
cannot obtain of God. 

In the second part, he declared how hard 
it was to this corrupt nature of ours, not to 
rejoice and put confidence in the self, when 
God gives victory ; and, therefore, how ne- 
cessary it was that man by affliction should 
be brought to the knowledge of his own in- 
firmity, lest that puffed up with vain confi- 
dence, he make an idol of his own 
strength, as did king Nebuchadnezzar. He 
did gravely dispute upon the nature of the 
blind world, which, in all ages, has inso- 
lently rejoiced when God did chasten his 
own children, whose glory and honour, be- 
cause the reprobate can never see, therefore 
they despise them, and the wondrous work 
of God in them. And yet, said he, the joy 
and rejoicing of the world, is but mere sor- 
row, because the end of it tends to sudden 
destruction, as the riotous banquetting of 
Belshazzar declareth. Applying these 
heads to the time and persons — he said — if 
none of God's children had suffered before 
us the same injuries that presently we sus- 
tain, these our troubles would appear in- 



tolerable. Such is our tender delicacy, and 
self-love of our own flesh, that these things 
which we lightly pass over in others, u 
can greatly complain of, if they touch our- 
selves. I doubt not but that some of us 
have oftener nor once read this psalm, as 
also we have heard and read the travails 
and troubles of our forefathers ; but which 
of us, either in hearing or reading their 
dolours and temptations did so descend into 
ourselves that we felt the bitterness of their 
passions ? I think none. And, therefore, 
has God brought us to some experience in 
our own persons. But, yet, because the 
matter may appear obscure, unless it be 
more properly applied, I cannot but of con- 
science use such plainness, as God shall 
grant unto me. Our faces are this day 
confounded, our enemies triumph, our 
hearts have quaked for fear, and yet they 
remain oppressed with sorrow and shame. 
But what shall we think to be the very 
cause that God has thus dejected us ? If 
I should say, our sins and former unthank- 
fulness to God, I speak the truth ; but yet, 
I speak more generally than necessity re- 
quires : for when the sins of men are re- 
buked in general, seldom it is that man de- 
scends into himself, accusing and damning 
in himself that which most displeaseth 
God ; but rather he doubts that to be a 
cause, Avhich before God is no cause in- 
deed. As for example, the Israelites, fight- 
ing against the tribe of Benjamin, were 
twice discomfited, with the loss of forty 
thousand men. They lamented and be- 
wailed both first and last ; but we find not 
that they came to the knowledge of their 
offence and sin, Avhich was the cause that 
they fell in the edge of the sword, but 
rather they doubted that to be the cause of 
their misfortune, which God had command- 
ed : for they asked, " Shall we go and 
fight any more against our brethren the 
sons of Benjamin ?" By which question 
it is evident that they supposed that the 
cause of their overthrow and discomfitures 
was, because they had lifted the sword 
against their brethren and natural countrv- 
nien ; and yet the express command of God 
that was given unto them did deliver them 
from all crime in that case. And yet, no 



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[a. d. 1559 



doubt but that there was some cause in the 
Israelites that God gave them so over into 
the hands of these wicked men, against 
whom he sent them by his own express 
commandment to execute his judgments. 
Such as do well mark the history and the 
estate of that people, may easily see the 
cause why God was offended. All the 
whole people had declined from God, ido- 
latry was maintained by a common consent 
of the multitude ; and as the text saith, 
" Every man did that which appeared good 
in his own eyes." In this meantime, the 
Levite complained of the villany that was 
done to himself, and unto his wife, which 
oppressed by the Benjaminites of Gibeah, 
died under their filthy lusts ; which hor- 
rible fact inflamed the hearts of the whole 
people to take vengeance upon that abomi- 
nation : and therein they offended not ; but 
in this they failed, that they go to execute 
judgment against the wicked, without any 
repentance or remorse of conscience for 
their own former offences, and defection 
from God. And, farther, because they 
were a great multitude, and the other far 
inferior to them, they trusted in their own 
strength, and thought themselves able 
enough to do their purpose, without any in- 
vocation of the name of God : but after that 
they had twice proved the vanity of their 
own strength, they fasted and prayed, and 
being humbled before God, they received a 
more favourable answer, and assured pro- 
mise of the victory. The like may be 
amongst us, albeit that suddenly we do not 
espy it : and to the end that every man 
may the better examine himself, I will di- 
vide our whole company in two sorts of 
men, the one are those that from the be- 
ginning of this trouble have sustained the 
common danger with their brethren, the 
other are those which be lately joined to 
our fellowship. In the one and the other, 
I fear, just cause shall be found that God 
should thus have humbled us. And albeit, 
that this appear strange at the first hear- 
ing, yet if every man shall examine him- 
self, and speak as that his conscience dyttis 
[dictates] unto him, I doubt not but he 
shall subscribe my sentence. Let us be- 
gin at ourselves, who longest have con^ 



tinued in this battle. When we were a 
few [in] number in comparison of our ene- 
mies, when we had neither earl nor lord — a 
few excepted — to comfort us, we called 
upon God, and took him for our protector, 
defence, and only refuge. Amongst us was 
heard no bragging of multitude, of our 
strength, nor policy; we did only sob to God, 
to have respect to the equity of our cause, 
and to the cruel pursuit of the tyrannical 
enemy. But since that our number has been 
multiplied, and chiefly since my lord duke's 
grace with his friends have been joined with 
us, there was nothing heard, but " This 
lord will bring these many hundred spears j 
this man has the credit to persuade the 
country ; if this earl be ours, no man in 
such a bounds will trouble us :" and this 
the best of us all, that before felt God's 
potent hand to [be] our defence, hath of 
late days put flesh to be our arm : but 
wherein yet had my lord duke's grace and 
his friends offended ? It may be that, as we 
have trusted in them, so they have put too 
much confidence in their own strength. 
But granting it be not so, I see a cause 
most just why the duke and his friends 
should thus be confounded amongst the 
rest of their brethren. I have not yet for- 
gotten what was the dolour and anguish of 
my own heart when at St Johnstone, Cu- 
par-muir, and Edinburgh crags, these cruel 
murderers, that now have put us to this dis- 
honour, threatened our present destruction 
my lord duke's grace and his friends, at all 
these three journeys, were to them a great 
comfort, and unto us a great discourage < 
for his name and authority did more affray 
and astonish us than did the force of the 
other ; yea, without his assistance, they 
never could have compelled us to appoint 
with the queen upon so unequal conditions. 
I am uncertain if my lord's grace has un- 
feignedly repented of that his assistance to 
these murderers unjustly pursuing us ; yea, I 
am uncertain if he has repented of that inno- 
cent blood of Christ's blessed martyrs, which 
was shed in his default. But let it be that 
so he has done, as I hear that he has con- 
fessed his fault before the lords and bre- 
thren of the congregation ; yet I am as- 
sured, that neither he, nor yet his friends. 



Book II.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



173 



did feci before this time the anguish and 
grief of heart which we felt when in their 
blind fury they pursued us: and, therefore, 
God hath justly permitted both them and 
us to fall in this fearful confusion at once. 
Us, for that we put our trust and confi- 
dence in man ; and them, because they 
should feel in their own hearts how bitter 
was the cup which they made others drink 
before them. Rests [remains] that both 
they and we turn to the Eternal our God — 
who beats down to death to the intent that 
he may raise up again, to leave the remem- 
brance of his wondrous deliverance to the 
praise of his own name — which if we do 
unfeignedly, I no more doubt but that this 
our dolour, confusion and fear, shall be 
turned into joy, honour, and boldness, than 
that I doubt that God gave victory to the 
Israelites over the Benjaminites, after that 
twice with ignominy they were repulsed 
and driven back. Yea, whatsoever shall 
become of us and of our mortal carcases, 
I doubt not but that this cause — in despite 
of Satan — shall prevail in this realm of 
Scotland. For as it is the eternal truth of 
the eternal God, so shall it once [ultimate- 
ly] prevail, howsoever for a time it is im- 
pugned. It may be that God shall plague 



some, for that they delight not in the truth, 
albeit for worldly respects' they seem to fa- 
vour it; yea, God may take some of his 
dearest children away before that their 
eyes see greater troubles ; but neither shall 
the one nor the other so hinder this action, 
but in the end it shall triumph. 

This sermon ended, in the which he did 
vehemently exhort all men to amendment 
of life, to prayers, and to the works of cha- 
rity, the minds of men began wonderfully 
to be erected [elated] : and immediately 
after dinner, the lords passed to council, 
unto the which the said John Knox was 
called to make invocation of the name of 
God, — for other preachers were none with 
us at that time, — in the end it was con- 
cluded, that William Maitland foresaid, 
should pass to London to expone our state 
and condition to the queen and council, 
and that the noblemen should depart to 
their quiet [homes], to the 16th day of 
December, which time was appointed to 
the next convention in Stirling, as in this 
our third book following shall be more am- 
ply declared. 

" Look upon us, O Lord, in the multi- 
tude of thy mercies, for we are brought 
even to the depth of the dungeon." 



THE HISTORY 

OF 

THE REFORMATION OF RELIGION 

WITHIN 

THE REALM OF SCOTLAND. 



THE THIRD BOOK. 



OF THE PROGRESS OF TRUE RELIGION WITHIN THE REALM OF SCOTLAND. 



After this our dolorous departure from 
Edinburgh, the fury and the rage of the 
French increased ; for then durst neither man 
nor woman that professed Christ Jesus with- 
in that town be seen ; the houses of the most 
honest men were given by the queen to the 
Frenchmen for a part of their reward. The 
earl Bothwell, by sound of trumpet, pro- 
claimed the earl of Arran traitor, with other 
despiteful words, which all was done for 
the pleasure and by the suggestion of the 
queen regent, who then thought the battle 
was won without farther resistance. Great 
practising she made for obtaining the castle 
of Edinburgh. The French made their 
faggots, with other preparations, to assault 
the said castle either by force, or else by 
treason : but God w r rought so potently with 
the captain, the lord Erskine, at that time, 
that neither the queen by flattery, nor the 
French by treason prevailed. Advertise- 
ment with all diligence passed to the duke 
of Guise, who then was king of France, — 
as concerning power to command, — requir- 
ing him then to make expedition, if he de- 
sired the full conquest of Scotland ; who 
delayed no time, but with a new army sent 
away his brother, marquis d'Albufe, and 
his company the Marticks,* promising that 



* Marticks, a band of PYench soldiers com- 
manded by one Martique. 



he himself should follow : but the righteous 
God, who in mercy looketh upon the afflic- 
tion of those that unfeignedly sob unto him, 
fought for us by his own outstretched arm ; 
for upon one night, upon the coast of Hol- 
land, were drowned of them eighteen en- 
signs, so that only rested [remained] the 
ship, in the which were the two principals 
foresaid, with their ladies, who violently 
driven back again to Dieppe, were compell- 
ed to confess, that God fought for the de- 
fence of Scotland. 

From England returned Robert Melvine, 
w r ho passed in company to London with 
the secretary a little before Christmas, and 
brought unto us certain articles to be an- 
swered, as by the contract that after was 
made, more plainly shall appear. Here- 
upon the nobility convened at Stirling, aud 
returned answer with diligence: where- 
of the French advertised, they marched to 
Linlithgow, who spoiled the duke's house, 
and wasted his lands of Kinneil ; and there- 
after came to Stirling, where they remain- 
ed certain days. — The duke, the earls of 
Argyle and Glencairn, with their friends, 
passed to Glasgow, the earl of Arran aud 
lord James passed to St Andrews ; for 
charge was given to the whole nobility, 
protestants, to keep their own bodies, till 
that God should send them farther support. 
— The French took purpose first to assault 



176 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



Fife, for at it was their great indignation. 
Their purpose was to have taken and forti- 
fied the town and abbey, [together] with 
the castle of St Andrews ; and so they 
came to Culross, after to Dunfermling, and 
then to Burntisland, where they began to 
fortify ; but desisted therefrom, and march- 
ed to Kinghorn, upon the occasion as fol- 
lows. 

When certain knowledge came to the 
earl of Arran and to lord James, that the 
French were departed from Stirling, they 
departed also from St Andrews, and began 
to assemble their forces at Cupar, and sent 
their men of war to Kinghorn, unto whom 
there resorted divers of the coast side, of 
mind to resist rather at the beginning, than 
when they had destroyed a part of theirtowns: 
but the lords had given an express com- 
mandment that they should hazard nothing 
until that they themselves were present. 
And for that purpose was sent unto them 
the lord Ruthven, a man of great expe- 
rience, and inferior to few in stoutness. 
In his company was the earl of Sutherland, 
sent from the earl of Huntly, as was alleg- 
ed, to comfort the lords in their afflictions ; 
but others whispered, that his principal 
commission was unto the queen regent : 
howsoever it was, he was hurt in the arm 
by the shot of an harquebus ; for the men 
of war, and the rascal multitude, perceiving 
certain boats of Frenchmen landing, which 
came from Leith, purposed to stop their 
landing; and so, not considering the ene- 
mies that approached from Burntisland, 
unadvisedly they rushed down to Pet- 
ticur — so is that bay betwixt Kinghorn 
called — and at the sea-coast began the skir- 
mishing, but never took heed to the enemy 
that approached by land, till that the horse- 
men charged them upon their backs, and the 
whole bands came directly upon their faces ; 
and so they were compelled to give back 
with the loss only of six or seven of their 
men, and with the taking of some, amongst 
whom were two that professed Christ Jesus, 
one named Paul Lambert, a Dutchman, and 
a French boy, fervent in religion, and clean 
of life, whom in despite they hanged over 
the steeple of Kinghorn. Thou shalt re- 
venge, O Lord, in thy appointed time. The 



cause that in so great a danger there was 
so small a loss, next unto the merciful pro- 
vidence of God, was the sudden coming of 
the lord Ruthven ; for even as our men 
had given back, he and his company came 
to the head of the brae [hill], and did not 
only stay the French footmen, but also some 
of ours broke upon their horsemen, and so 
repulsed them, that they did no farther hurt 
to our footmen. In that rencounter was 
the earl of Sutherland foresaid shot in the 
arm, and was carried back to Cupar. The 
French took Kinghorn, where they lay and 
wasted the country about, as well papists as 
protestants ; yea, even those that were con- 
federate with them, such as Seafield, Bal- 
muto, Balvery, Wemyss, and other enemies 
to God and traitors to their country ; of 
them, we say, they spared not the sheep, 
the oxen, the cows, the horses, and some 
say that some of their wives and daughters 
got favours of the French soldiers. And 
so did God recompence the papists in their 
own bosoms, for besides the defiling of 
their houses, as said is, two of them re- 
ceived more damage than did all the gen- 
tlemen that professed the evangel within 
Fife, the laird of Grange only excepted, 
whose house of the Grange the French 
overthrew by gunpowder. 

The queen regent, proud of this victory 
burst forth in her blasphemous railing, and 
said, " Where now is John Knox his God ? 
My God is now stronger than his, yea even 
in Fife." She posted to her friends in 
France news that thousands of the heretics 
were slain, and the rest were fled, and 
therefore required that some nobleman of 
her friends would come and take the glory 
of that victory. Upon that information 
was the Marticks, with two ships, and 
some captains and horse, directed to come 
to Scotland, but little to their own advan- 
tage, as we shall after hear. 

The lords of the congregation offended at 
the foolishness of the rascal multitude, call- 
ed to themselves the men of war, and re- 
mained certain days at Cupar, unto whom 
repaired John Knox, and in our greatest 
desperation, preached unto us a most com- 
fortable sermon : his text was, " The dan- 
ger in which the disciples of Jesus Christ 



Book 11 1. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



stood when they were in the midst of the 
sea, and Jesus was upon the mountain." 
His exhortation was, that we should not 
faint, but that we should still row against 
these contrary blasts till that Jesus Christ 
should come ; for, said he, I am as assuredly 
persuaded that God shall deliver us from 
this extreme trouble, as that I am assured 
that this is the evangel of Jesus Christ 
which I preach unto you this day : " The 
fourth watch is not yet come ;" abide a lit- 
tle, the boat shall be saved, and Peter, who 
has left the boat, shall not drown. 1 am as- 
sured, albeit I cannot affirm [assure, s. c] you, 
by reason of this present rage ; God grant 
that ye may acknowledge his hand, after 
that your eyes have seen his deliverance. In 
that sermon he comforted many, and yet 
he offended the earl of Arran ; for in his 
discourse upon the manifold assaults that 
the kirk of God had sustained, he brought 
for example the multitude of strangers that 
pursued Jehoshaphat after that he had re- 
formed religion. He entreated [spake of] 
the fear of the people, yea, and of the king 
himself at the first ; but after he affirmed 
that Jehoshaphat was stout, and to declare 
his courage in his God, he comforted his 
people and his soldiers ; he came forth in 
the midst of them, he spake lovingly unto 
them. He kept not himself, said he, in- 
closed in his chamber, but frequented the 
multitude, and rejoiced them with his pre- 
sence and godly comfort. These and the 
like sentences took the said earl to be spo- 
ken in reproach of him, because he kept 
himself more close and solitary than many 
men would have wished. 

After these things, determination was 
taken that the earl of Arran, and lord 
James, with the men of war, and some 
company of horsemen, should go to Dysart, 
and there lie to wait upon the French, that 
they destroyed not the sea-coast, as they 
intended utterly to have done. The said 
earl, and lord James, did as they were ap- 
pointed, albeit their company was very 
small ; and yet they did so valiantly, that 
it passed all credibility ; for twenty one 
days they lay in their clothes ; their boots 
never came otF : they had skirmishing almost 
every day, yea, some days from morning to 



evening. The French were four thousand 
soldiers, besides their favourers and fac- 
tion in the country. The lords were never 
together five hundred horsemen, with a 
hundred soldiers, and } ? ct they held the 
French so busy, that for every horse they 
slew to the congregation, they lost four 
French soldiers. 

William Kirkaldy of Grange, the day 
after that his house was cast down, sent 
his defiance to Monsieur d'Oysel, and unto 
the rest, declaring that unto that hour had 
he used the French favourably, he had 
saved their lives, when that he might have 
suffered their throats to have been cut ; 
but seeing they had used him with that 
rigour, let them not look for the like fa- 
vours in times to come. And unto Mon- 
sieur d'Oysel, he said, " He knew that he 
would not get him in the skirmishing, be- 
cause he knew he was but a coward ; but 
it might be that he should quit him a com- 
moun [encounter him] either in Scotland, 
or else in France." The said William 
Kirkaldy, and the master of Lindsay, es- 
caped many dangers. The master had his 
horse slain under him, the said William was 
almost betrayed in his house at Hallyards. 
But yet they never ceased, but night and 
day they waited upon the French : they 
laid themselves in a secret place, with some 
gentlemen before the day, to wait upon the 
French, who used commonly to issue in 
companies to seek their prey ; and so came 
forth one captain Batu with his hundred, 
and began to spoil ; whom the said master 
— now lord Lindsay — and the said William 
suffered, without declaration of themselves, 
or of their compan)', till that they had them 
more than a mile from Kinghorn, and then 
began the horsemen to break ; which per- 
ceived, the French altogether drew to a 
place called Glemis-house, and made for 
debate ; some took the house, and others 
defended the close and yard. The hazard 
appeared very unlikely, for our men had 
nothing but spears, and were compelled to 
alight upon their feet The other were 
within dykes, and every man had a culver- 
inj the shot was fearful to many, and 
divers Mere hurt, amongst whom were 
Robert Hamilton, and David Kirkaldy, 
z 



178 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. p. 1559 



brother to the said laird, who both were sup- 
posed to have been slain. The said laird 
perceiving men to faint, and begin to recoil, 
said, " Fie, let us never live after this day, 
that we shall recoil for French skybaldis 
[tatterdemalions]. And so the master of 
Lindsay and he burst in at the gate, and so 
others followed. The master struck with 
his spear at la Batu, and glancing upon his 
harness, for fierceness, stammered almost 
upon his knees ; but recovering suddenly, 
fastened his spear, and bore the captain 
backward, who, because he would not be 
taken, was slain, and fifty of his company 
with him. They that were in the house, 
with some others, were saved, and sent to 
Dundee to be kept. This mischance to the 
Frenchmen, made them to be more circum- 
spect in straying abroad in the country, 
and so the poor creatures got some relief. 
To furnish the French with victuals, was 
appointed captain Cullen, with two ships, 
who traveled betwixt the south shore and 
Kinghorn for that purpose. For his wages 
he spoiled Kinghorn, Kirkaldy, and so 
much of Dysart as he might ; for remedy 
whereof, were appointed two ships from 
Dundee : Andrew Sands, a stout man, and 
fervent in the cause of religion, was the 
principal. This same time arrived the 
Marticks, who, without delay, landed him- 
self, his coffers, and the principal gentle- 
men that were with him at Leith, leaving 
the rest in the ships till better opportunity ; 
but the said Andrew and his companion 
striking sail, and making as they would 
anchor hard beside them, boarded them 
both, and carried them to Dundee. In 
them were got some horse, and much har- 
ness, with some other trifles, but of money 
we heard not. Hereat the French offend- 
ed, avowed the destruction of St Andrews 
and Dundee ; and so upon a Monday, in 
the morning, the 23d of January, they 
marched from Dysart, and passed the water 
of Leven, ever keeping the sea-coast, by 
reason of their ships and victuals, as said 
is. About twelve hours they espied ships 
— which were seen that morning by us that 
Were upon the land, but were not known — 
Monsieur d'Oysel affirmed them to be 
French ships, and so the soldiers triumph- 



ed, shot their volley for salutation, and 
inarched forward unto Kincraig, fearing no 
resistance. 

But shortly after, the English ships met 
with captain Cullen, and seized him and 
his ships, which made them a little to 
muse. But suddenly came Mr Alexander 
Wood, who had been upon the admiral, and 
assured Monsieur d'Oysel, that they were 
Englishmen, and that they were the fore- 
runners of a greater number that followed, 
who were sent for support of the congre- 
gation. There might have been seen the 
riving of a beard,* and might have been 
heard such despite, as cruel men used to 
spue forth when God bridles their fury. 
Weariness and the night constrained them 
to lodge there : they sleeped scarcely, be- 
cause their ships were taken, in the which 
were their victuals and ordnance, which 
they intended to have placed in St An- 
drews. They themselves durst not stray 
abroad to seek ; and the laird of Wemyss' 
carriage, which likewise was coming with 
furnishing unto them, was stayed; and, 
therefore, bytimes in the morning they re- 
tired towards Kinghorn, and made more 
expedition in one day in returning, than 
they did in two in marching forward. The 
storm, which had continued near the space 
of a month, broke in the very time of their 
retiring, whereby many thought they would 
have been stayed, till that reasonable com- 
pany might have been assembled to have 
fought them ; and for that purpose did Wil- 
liam Kirkaldy cut the bridge of Tullibody. 
But the French, expert enough in such 
facts [works], took down a roof of a parish 
kirk, and made a bridge over the said 
water, called Devon ; and so they escaped, 
and came to Stirling, and thereafter to 
Leith : yet in their retreat they lost divers, 
among whom there was one whose miser- 
able end we must rehearse. As the 
French spoiled the country in their re- 
turning, a captain or soldier, we cannot tell 
(which), but he had a red cloak and a gilt 
morion, entered upon a poor woman, that 
dwelt in the Whiteside, and began to spoil 



* Riving of a beard tearing of whiskers. — 
Ed. 



Book III.] 



OF RELfGlON 



IN SCOTLAND. 



179 



The poor woman offered unto him such 
bread as she had ready prepared, but he, in 
no ways therewith content, Mould have 
the meal, and a little salt beef, which the 
poor woman had to sustain her own life, 
and the lives of her poor children ; neither 
could tears nor pitiful words mitigate the 
merciless man, but he would have whatso- 
ever he might carry. The poor woman 
perceiving him so bent, and that he stoop- 
ed down in her tub, for the taking forth of 
such stuff as was within it, first coupit 
[turned] up his heels, so that his head went 
down : and, thereafter, whether by herself, 
or if any other company came to help her, 
but there he ended his unhappy life ; God so 
punishing his cruel heart, who could not 
spare a miserable woman in that extremity. 
" Let all such soldiers receive such reward, 
O Lord, seeing that thou art the reven- 
ger of the oppressed." 

And now, because that from this time 
forward, frequent mention will be made of 
the comfortable support that we in our 
greatest extremity received, by God's pro- 
vidence, from our neighbours in England, 
we think it expedient simply to declare by 
what instruments that matter was first 
moved, and by what means it came to pass, 
that the queen and council of England 
showed themselves so favourable unto us. 

As John Knox had forewarned us, by his 
letters from Geneva, of all dangers that he 
foresaw to ensue our enterprise ; so when 
he came to Dieppe, mindful of the same, 
and revolving with himself what remedy 
God would please to offer, he took the 
boldness to write to Sir William Cecil, se- 
cretary of England, with whom the said 
John had been before familiarly acquainted, 
intending thereby to renew acquaintance, 
and so to open farther of his mind. The 
tenor of his first letter follows.* 

" The spirit of judgment, wisdom, and 
sanctitication, I wish unto you by Jesus 
Christ. 

" As I have no pleasure with long writ- 
ing to trouble you — right honourable — 



* This paragraph, the letter to Sir William 
Cecil, ami the paragraph that follows it, are 
wanting in the suppressed copy.— Ed. 



whose mind I know to be occupied with 
most grave matters, so mind 1 not greatly 
to labour by long preface to conciliate your 
favours, which I suppose I have already — 
howsoever rumours bruit the contrary — as 
it becometh one member of Christ's body 
to have of another. The contents, there- 
fore, of these my presents shall be absolved 
in two points. In the former, I purpose to 
discharge, in brief words, my conscience to- 
wards you : and in the other, somewhat 
must I speak in my own defence, and in 
defence of that poor flock of late assembled 
in the most godly reformed church and city 
of the world, Geneva. To you, Sir, I say, 
that as from God ye have received life, 
wisdom, honours, and this present estate in 
the which now you stand, so ought you 
wholly to employ the same to the advance- 
ment of his glory, who only is the author 
of life, the fountain of wisdom, and who 
most assuredly doth, and will honour and 
glorify them, that with simple hearts do 
glorify him ; which, alas, in times past you 
have not done, but being overcome with 
common iniquity, you have followed the 
world in the way of perdition : for to the 
suppressing of Christ's true evangel, to the 
erecting of idolatry, and to the shedding of 
the blood of God's most dear children, have 
you by silence consented and subscribed. 
This your most horrible defection from the 
truth known, and once professed, hath God 
to this day mercifully spared. Yet to man's 
judgment he hath utterly forgotten and 
pardoned the same : he hath not entreated 
you as he hath done others, of like know- 
ledge, whom, in his anger, but yet most 
justly according to their deserts, he did 
shortly strike after their defection. But 
you, guilty in the same offences, hath he 
fostered and preserved, as it were in his 
own bosom, during the time of that most 
miserable thraldom of that professed enemy 
of God, mischievous Mary: and now hath 
he set you at such liberty, as the fury of 
God's enemies cannot hurt you, except that 
willingly against his honour, you take plea- 
sure to conspire with them. As the benefit 
which you have received is great, so must 
God's justice require of you a thankful 
heart ; for seeing that his mercy hath 



J 30 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1659 



spared you, being- traitor to his majesty ; 
seeing- farther, that amongst your enemies 
he hath preserved you ; and, last, seeing- 
that you, worthy of hell, he hath promoted 
you to honours, and diguity, of you must 
he require — because he is just — earnest 
repentance for your former defection, a 
heart mindful of his merciful providence, 
and a will so ready to advance his glory, 
that evidently it may appear, that in vain 
you have not received these graces of God ; 
to performance whereof, of necessity it is, 
that carnal wisdom and worldly policy — 
to which both, you are bruited too much 
inclined — give place to God's simple and 
naked truth. Very love compels me to 
say, that except the Spirit of God purge 
your heart from that venom, which your 
eyes have seen to have been destruction to 
others, that you shall not long escape the 
reward of dissemblers. Call to mind what 
you heard proclaimed in the chapel of St 
James, when this verse of the first psalm was 
entreated, " Not so, O wicked, not so, but as 
the dust which the wind tosseth, &c." And 
consider, that now you travel in the same 
way which then they did occupy ; plainly 
to speak, now are you in that estate and 
credit, in the which you shall either comfort 
the sorrowful and afflicted for righteous- 
ness' sake, or else you shall molest and re- 
pugn the Spirit of God speaking in his mes- 
sengers. The comforters of the afflicted 
for godliness have promise of comfort in 
their greatest necessities ; but the troublers 
of God's servants — how r contemned that ever 
they his servants appear before the world — 
are threatened to leave their names in exe- 
cration to the posterities following. The ex- 
amples of the one and the other are not 
only evident in scriptures, but also haye 
been lately manifested in England And 
this is the conclusion of that, which to 
yourself, I say ; except that in the cause of 
Christ's evangel, ye be found simple, sin- 
cere, fervent, and unfeigned, you shall taste 
of the same cup, which politic heads have 
drunken in before you.* 

* Perhaps this is the most uncourtly letter 
that ever was written to a courtier. But it is 
remarkable for downright plain-dealing. Knox 
addresses Sir William as one who had made a 
profession of the gospel ; but it would appear 



" The other point concerning myself, and 
that poor flock now T dispersed, and as I 
hear say rudely entreated, is this : by di- 
vers messengers I have requested such pri- 
vileges as Turks commonly do grant to 
men of every nation, to wit, that freedom 
should be granted unto me peaceably to 
travel through England, to the end that 
with greater expedition I might repair to- 
wards my ow r n country, which now begins 
to thirst for Christ's truth. This request 
I thought so reasonable, that almost I had 
entered in the realm w ithout license de- 
manded ; and yet I understand that it hath 
been so rejected, that the solicitors thereof 
did hardly escape imprisonment, and some 
of that poor flock I hear to be so extremely 
handled, that those that most cruelly have 
shed the blood of God's most dear chil- 
dren, find this day amongst you greater fa- 
vours than they do. Alas, this appeareth 
much to repugn to christian charity ; for 
whatsoever hath been my offence, this I 
fear not to affirm in their cause, that if any 
which have suffered exile in these most 
dolorous days of persecution, deserve praise 
and commendation, for peace, concord, so- 
ber and quiet living, it is they. And as for 
me, how criminal soever I be in God's pre- 
sence, for the multitude of my sins ; yet 
before his justice seat I have a testimony 
of a clear conscience, that since my first 
acquaintance with England, willingly I 
never offended person within it — except in 
open chair [pulpit or seat], to reprove that 
which God condemneth, can be judged of- 
fence ; — hut I have, say you, written a trea- 
sonable book against the regimen and em- 
pire of women : if that be my offenee, the 
poor flock is innocent, except such as this 
day do fastest cry treason. For, Sir, — in 
God's presence I write, — with none in that 
company did I consult before the finishing 
of the same ; and therefore in Christ's 
name I require that the blame may lie 
upon me alone. The writing of that book 
will I not deny, but to prove it treasona- 
ble, I think it shall be hard : for, Sir, no 

that he had made shipwreck of the faith in the 
vortex of this world's politics ; and taking this 
to have been the case, we cannot be surprised 
that he made no answer to such a letter.— Ed. 



Book II I.J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



181 



more do I doubt of the truth of my princi- 
pal proposition than that I doubt that this 
was the voice of God which first did pro- 
nounce this penalty against women, " In 
dolour shalt thou bear thy children." It 
is bruited, that my book is, or shall be 
written against ; if so be, Sir, I greatly 
fear that flatterers shall rather hurt than 
help the matter which they would seem to 
maintain ; for except my error be plainly 
shown and confuted by better authority 
than by such laws as from year to year 
may and do change, I dare not promise si- 
lence in so weighty a business, lest that in 
so doing, I shall appear to betray a verity 
which is not subject to the mutability of 
the time : and if any think me either enemy 
to the person or yet to the regimen of her 
whom God hath now promoted, they are ut- 
terly deceived of me ; for the miraculous work 
of God, comforting his afflicted by an infirm 
vessel, I do acknowledge, and the power of 
his most potent hand — raising up whom 
best pleaseth his mercy to suppress such as 
fight against his glory — I will obey, albeit 
that both nature and God's most perfect 
ordinance repugn to such regimen. More 
plainly to speak, if queen Elizabeth shall 
confess that the extraordinary dispensation 
of God's great mercy maketh that lawful 
unto her which both nature and God's law 
do deny unto all women, then shall none 
in England be more willing to maintain 
her lawful authority than I shall be : but if 
— God's wondrous work set aside — she 
ground, as God forbid, the justness of her 
title upon consuetude, laws or ordinances 
of men ; then I am assured, that as such 
foolish presumption doth highly offend 
God's supreme majesty, so do I greatly 
fear that her ingratitude shall not long want 
punishment. And this in the name of the 
eternal God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, 
before whom both you and I shall stand to 
make account of all counsel we give, I re- 
quire you to signify unto her grace in my 
name ; adding, that only humility and de- 
jection of herself before God, shall be the 
firniity and stability of her throne, which 
I know shall be assaulted more ways than 
one. If this ye conceal from her grace, I 
will make it patent to the world that thus 



far I have communicated with you, having 
also farther to speak, if my weak judg- 
ment may be heard. Alas, Sir, is my of- 
fence — although at that time, and in that 
matter, I had written ten books — so hei- 
nous, that I cannot have license by preach- 
ing of Christ Jesus, to refresh these thirsty 
souls, which long have lacked the water of 
life. No man will I presently accuse, but I 
greatly fear, that the leprous have no plea- 
sure to behold fair [their] faces in the clear 
glass. Let no man be afraid that I require 
to frequent the court, either yet of any 
continuance to remain in England; but 
only thirst in passing through to my own 
native country, to communicate with you 
and some others such things as willingly I 
list not to commit to paper, neither yet to 
the credit and knowledge of many ; and 
then in the north parts to offer God's fa- 
vours to such as I suppose do mourn for 
their defection. And this, I trust, shall be 
no less profitable to her grace, and to all 
godly within England, than it shall be 
pleasing to me in the flesh. 

" This is the third time that I have beg- 
ged license to visit the hungry and thirsty 
among you, which, if now be denied, as be- 
fore God I have a testimony, that so much 
I seek not myself, as the advancement of 
Christ's evangel, and the comfort of such 
as whom I know afflicted; so shall the 
godly understand that England, in refusing 
me, refuseth a friend, how small that ever 
the power be. The mighty Spirit of the 
Lord Jesus move your heart deeply to con- 
sider your duty unto God, and the estate 
of that realm in which, by his appoint- 
ment, ye now serve. 

" Yours to command in godliness, 
" John Knox." 

From Dieppe, the I Oth 
of April, 1 oo9. 

To this letter was no answer made ; for 
shortly thereafter the said John Knox made 
forward to Scotland by sea, where he land- 
ed the 3d of May, and had such success as 
in the second book is declared. The said 
John being in St Andre svs after Cupar 
muir, entered in deep discourse with the 
laird of Grange ; the dangers were evi- 
dent, but the support was not easy to be 



182 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



seen. After many words, John Knox 
burst forth as follows : " If England 
would foresee their own commodity, yea, 
if they would consider the dangers where- 
in they themselves stand, they would not 
suffer us to perish in this quarrel; for 
France has decreed no less the conquest of 
England than of Scotland." After long- 
reasoning, it was concluded betwixt them 
two that support should be craved of Eng- 
land ; and for that purpose, the said laird 
of Grange first wrote to Sir Henry Percy, 
and after rode from Edinburgh and spake 
with him, to whom he made so plain de- 
monstration of the danger appealing to 
England, that he took upon him to write 
to secretary Cecil, who with expedition 
returned answer back again, giving him to 
understand that our enterprise altogether 
misliked not the council, albeit they de- 
sired farther resolution of the principal 
lords : which thing understood, it was con- 
cluded to write unto him plainly our whole 
purpose. The tenor of our letter was 
this : 

The first letter to Sir William Cecil from 
the lords of the congregation : 

" The contents of a letter directed by 
you, right worshipful, to Sir Henry Percy, 
was notified unto us by Mr Kirkcaldy of 
Grange, this Sunday the 25th of July, by 
the which we perceive, that the said 
Grange, of zeal and faithful heart, which 
he beareth to the furtherance of this our 
great and — before the world — dangerous 
enterprise, has travailed with you, as with 
an unfeigned favourer of Christ's true reli- 
gion, and of the liberty of our country, 
for knowledge of your minds towards us, 
in case we be assaulted by any foreign in- 
vasion, or greater power than we be well 
able to resist. Your comfortable answer 
to this question we have considered, to 
our joy and comfort, as also your motions 
and what ye demand ; to wit, what we, 
the protestants within this realm, do pur- 
pose ? To what end we mean to direct our 
actions ? How we will, and how we shall 
be able to accomplish the same ? What 
doubts we have of any adverse power ? 
And finally, in case support should be sent 
from you, what manner of amity might en- 



sue betwixt these two realms, &c. ? To 
the which in brief we answer, that our 
whole and only purpose, as God knoweth, 
is to advance the glory of Christ Jesus, 
the true preaching of his holy evangel, 
within this realm ; to remove superstition, 
and all sort of external idolatry ; to bridle 
the fury — to our power — of those that 
cruelly heretofore have shed the blood of 
our brethren ; and to our uttermost to 
maintain the liberty of this our country 
from the tyranny and thraldom of strangers, 
as God shall assist us. How we be able to 
accomplish these premises, is to us un- 
known ; only our hope is good that he that 
hath begun this good work in us, and hath 
by his power to this hour confounded the 
faces of our adversaries, will perform the 
same to his glory, which chiefly we seek in 
this our enterprise. Because we suppose, 
that neither our present danger, neither yet 
the warlike preparation which France 
maketh against us, be hid from you nor 
the council, we omit that part. As touch- 
ing the assurance of a perpetual amity to 
stand bebvixt these two realms; as no 
earthly thing of us is more desired, so crave 
we of God to make us the instruments by 
which this unnatural debate, which long 
hath continued betwixt us, may once be 
composed, to the praise of God's name, and 
to the comfort of the faithful in both 
realms. And if your wisdoms can foresee 
and advise the means and assurances how 
the same may be brought to pass, persuade 
yourselves, not only of our consents and 
assistance, but also of our constancy, as 
men may promise, to our lives' end ; yea, 
and farther, of a charge and commandment 
by us, to be left to our posterity, and that 
the amity betwixt us, in God contracted 
and begun, may be by them kept inviolate 
for ever. As for the revolting from you to 
France, which you seem to fear and sus- 
pect, at their pleasure, we utterly abhor 
that infidelity ; for now doth the voice of 
God continually sound in our ears, ' That 
such as profane the terrible and fearful 
name of our God, shall not escape ven- 
geance.' Our confederacy, amity, and league, 
shall not be like the pactions made by 
[ worldly men for worldly profit ; but as we 



Book III. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



183 



require it for God's cause, so will we iucall 
[invoke] his name for the observation of 
the same. Moreover, if we should lack 
any thing- to temporal commodity, yet 
should we never have occasion to return to 
them ; for we now feel and perceive the 
weight of their yoke, and intend, by the 
grace of God, to cut away such instru- 
ments as by whom before this realm was 
abused. True it is, that as yet we have 
made no mention of any change in autho- 
rity, neither yet are we minded to do any 
such thing, till extreme necessity compel 
us thereto : but seeing it is more than evi- 
dent, that France and the queen regent 
here, with her priests, pretend nothing but 
the suppressing of Christ's evangel, the ruin 
of us, and the subversion of this poor 
realm ; committing our innocence to God, 
and to the judgment of all godly and na- 
tural men, we are determined to seek the 
next remedy, in which we heartily desire 
your counsel and assistance. And this far 
we have enterprised, to make you partici- 
pant of our purpose; because in the said 
letter, you required of the said Mr Kirk- 
caldy some farther assurance than his own 
word or writing, which we doubt not but 
ye shall shortly receive from more than 
from us. We dare not hastily make the 
whole assembly, neither of lords, neither of 
barons, privy in this case, for dangers that 
may ensue by policy and craft of the ad- 
versaries ; your wisdoms, we doubt not, will 
communicate these only, with such as you 
know favourers of such a godly conjunction. 
It should much help in our opinion, if the 
preachers both in persuasion and public 
prayers — as ours do here — would commend 
the same unto the people. And thus, after 
our humble commendation to the queen's 
majesty, whose reign we desire to be pros- 
perous and long, to the glory of God, and 
comfort of his church, we heartily commit 
you to the protection of the Omnipotent." 
From Edinburgh, the 17th ) 
of July, 1559. 5 

With this our letter, John Knox wrote 
two, one to the said secretary, and another 
to the queen's majesty herself, in tenor as 
after follows : 



" John Knox his second letter to Mr 
Cecil, for deliverance of another to the 
queen of England. 

" With my humble commendation, please 
you, Sir, to deliver this other letter in- 
closed to the queen's grace. It containeth 
in few and in simple words my confession, 
what I think of her authority, how it is 
just, and what may make it odious in God's 
presence. I hear that there is a confuta- 
tion, set forth in print, against ' The first 
Blast.' God grant that the writer have no 
more sought the favours of this present 
estate, no less the glory of God, and the 
stable commodity of this country, than did 
he, w r ho enterprised in that ' Blast,' to 
utter his conscience. When I shall have 
time — which now is somewhat precious 
unto me — to peruse that work, I will com- 
municate my judgment with you. 

" The time is now, Sir, that all that either 
thirst Christ Jesus to reign in this isle, or 
yet the hearts of the inhabitants of the 
same to be joined together in love unfeign- 
ed, ought rather to study how the same 
might be brought to pass, than vainly to 
travail for the maintainance of that, where- 
of already we have seen the danger, and 
felt the smart. If the most part of women 
be wicked, and such as willingly we would 
not should reign over us ; and if the most 
godly, and such as have rare graces be yet 
mortal, we ought to take heed, lest in es- 
tablishing one judged godly and profitable 
to her country, we make an entrance and 
title to many, of whom not only shall the 
truth be impugned, but also shall the coun- 
try be brought in bondage. God give you, 
and other favourers of your country, eyes 
to foresee, and wisdom to avoid the dangers 
appearing. 

" By divers letters, I have required li- 
cense to have visited the north parts of 
England, but as yet I have received no fa- 
vourable answer. The longer, Sir, that it 
be delayed, the less comfort shall the faith- 
ful there receive, the weaker shall the 
queen's grace be. If I were not to her 
grace an unfeigned friend, I would not in- 
stantly beg- such liberty, which to me I 
know shall neither be profitable nor pleas- 



184 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. b, 1559 



ing in the flesh. The estate of things here 
common, I doubt not ye know. Some things 
I have — as oft I have written — which glad- 
ly I would communicate, which I mind not 
to commit to paper and ink ; find, therefore, 
the means, that I may speak with such one 
as you will credit in all things. The grace 
of the Lord Jesus rest with you. 

" I heartily beseech you to have my 
service humbly commended to the queen's 
grace ; adding, that whosoever maketh me 
odious to her grace, seeketh somew r hat be- 
sides the glory of God, and her grace's pros- 
perity ; and, therefore, cannot be assured 
and unfeigned friends. From, &c.*" 

The letter sent by the said John, to the 
queen's majesty of England, being inclosed 
in the foresaid Mr Cecil's letter. 

" To the virtuous and godly Elizabeth, 
by the grace of God, queen of Eng- 
land, &c, John Knox desireth the per- 
petual comfort of the Holy Spirit. 

" As your grace's displeasure against me, 
most unjustly conceived, has been, and is 
to my wretched heart a burden grievous, 
and almost intolerable ; so is the testimon}*- 
of a clear conscience to me a stay and up- 
hold, that in desperation I sink not, how 
vehement that ever the temptations appear : 
for, in God's presence, my conscience bear- 
cth me record, that maliciously, nor of pur- 
pose, I never offended your grace, nor your 
realm ; and, therefore, how r soever I be 
judged of man, I am assured to be absolved 
of him, who only knoweth the secrets of 
hearts. I cannot deny the w r riting of a 
book against the usurped authority, and un- 
just regimen of Avomen ; neither yet am I 
minded to retreat, or call back any princi- 
pal point, or proposition of the same, till 
truth and verity do farther appear. But 
why, that either your grace, or yet any 
such as unfeignedly favour the liberty of 
England, be offended at the author of such 
a work, I can perceive no just occasion. 
For, first, my book touched not your 
grace's person in special, neither yet is it 
prejudicial to any liberty of the realm, if 



the time of my writing be indifferently con- 
sidered. How could I be enemy to your 
grace's person, for deliverance whereof I 
did more study, and enterprise farther, then 
any of those that now accuse me ? And, as 
concerning your regimen, how could, or 
can I envy that which most I have thirst- 
ed, and for which — as oblivion will suffer — 
I render thanks unfeignedly unto God, that 
is, f That it hath pleased him of his eternal 
goodness, to exalt your head — which some- 
times was in danger — to the manifestation 
of his glory, and extirpation of idolatry.' 
And as for my offence, which I have com- 
mitted against England, either in writing 
that, or any other work, I will not refuse, 
that moderate and indifferent men judge 
and discern betwixt me and those that ac- 
cuse me, to wit, whether of the parties do 
most hurt to the liberty of England. I 
that affirm, 4 That no woman may be ex- 
alted over any realm, to make the liberty 
of the same thrall to a strange, proud, and 
cruel nation ; or, they that approve what- 
soever pleases princes for the time.' If I 
w r ere as well disposed to accuse, as some 
of them — to their own shame — have de- 
clared themselves ; I nothing doubt, but 
that in few words I shall let reasonable 
men understand, that some that this day 
lowly crouch to your grace, and labour to 
make me odious in your eyes, did, in your 
adversity, neither show themselves faith- 
ful friends to (your) grace, neither yet so 
loving and careful over their own native 
country, as they w r ould be esteemed. But 
omitting the accusation of others, for my 
own purgation, and your grace's satisfac- 
tion, I say, that nothing contained in my 
book is, nor can be prejudicial to your 
grace's just regimen, providing that you 
be not found ingrate unto God, ingrate 
you shall be proved in the presence of his 
throne — howsoever that flatterers justify 
your faction — if you transfer the glory of 
that honour, which ye now stand in, to 
any other thing, than to the dispensation 
of his mercy, which only maketh that 



* This letter, and the following one to queen 
Elizabeth, are both wanting in the suppressed 
edition. It is probable that they were purpose- 



ly omitted, that the queen might not take offence 
by having Knox's plain dealing with both her 
and her secretary exposed to her subjects. — Ed. 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



185 



lawful to your grace, which nature and 
law deny to all women. Neither would 
I that your grace should fear, that this 
your humiliation before God should in any 
case infirm or weaken your grace's just 
and lawful authority before men. Nay, 
madam, such unfeigned confession of God's 
benefits received shall be the establishment 
of the same, not only to yourself, but also 
to your seed and posterity; where, con- 
trariwise, a proud conceit and elevation 
of yourself, shall be the occasion, that your 
reign shall be unstable, troublesome, and 
short. God is witness, that unfeignedly 
I both love and reverence your grace; 
yea, I pray, that your reign may be long, 
prosperous, and quiet; and that for the 
quietness which Christ's members, before 
persecuted, have received under you. 

But if I should flatter your grace I were 
no friend, but a deceiveable traitor ; and, 
therefore, of conscience I am compelled to 
say, that neither the consent of people, the 
process of time, nor multitude of men, can 
establish a law which God shall approve ; 
but whatsoever he approveth by his eternal 
word, that shall be approved, and whatso- 
ever he condemneth shall be condemned, 
though all men on earth would hazard the 
justification of the same. And, therefore, 
madam, the only way to retain and keep 
these benefits of God, abundantly of late 
days poured now upon you, and upon your 
realm, is unfeignedly to render unto God, 
to his mercy, and undeserved grace, the 
whole glory of this your exaltation. For- 
get your birth and title which thereupon 
doth hang ; and consider deeply, how for 
fear of your life you did decline from God, 
and bow to idolatry. Let it not appear a 
small offence in your eyes, that you have 
declined from Christ Jesus in the day of his 
battle. Neither yet would I that ye should 
esteem that mercy to be vulgar and com- 
mon which you have received, to wit, that 
God hath covered your former offence, 
hath preserved you when you were most 
unthankful; and in the end, has exalted 
and raised you up, not only from the dust, 
but also from the ports of death, to rule 
above his people, for the comfort of his 
kirk. It appertaineth to you, therefore, to 



ground the justice of your authority, not 
upon that law, which from year to year 
doth change, but upon the eternal provi- 
dence of Him, who, contrary to nature, and 
without your deserving, hath thus exalted 
your head. If thus in God's presence ye 
humble yourself, as in my heart I glorify 
God for that rest granted to his afflicted 
flock within England, under you a weak 
instrument, so will I with tongue and pen 
justify your authority and regimen, as the 
Holy Ghost hath justified the same in De- 
borah, that blessed mother in Israel. But, 
if the premises — as God forbid — neglected, 
you shall begin to brag of your birth, and 
to build your authority and regimen upon 
your own law, — flatter you who so list — 
your felicity shall be short. Interpret my 
rude words in the best part, as written by 
him, who is no enemy to your grace. 

" By divers letters I have required li- 
cense to visit your realm, not to seek my- 
self, neither yet my own ease or commo- 
dity ; which if ye now refuse and deny, I 
must remit my cause to God, adding this for 
conclusion, that commonly it is seen, * That 
such as refuse the counsel of the faithful — 
appear it never so sharp — are compelled to 
follow the deceit of flatterers to their own 
perdition.' The mighty Spirit of the Lord 
Jesus move your heart to understand what 
is said, give unto you the discretion of 
spirits,* and so rule you in all your actions 
and enterprises, that in you God may be glo- 
rified v his kirk edified, and you yourself, as 
a lively member of the same, may be an 
example of virtue and godly life to all 
others. So be it. Of Edinburgh, the 28th 
day of July, 1559." 

These letters were directed to [by, 5. c] 
Alexander Whitelaw, a man that often has 
hazarded himself, and all that he had, for 
the cause of God, and for his friends being 
in danger for the same cause. Within a 
day or two after the departure of the said 
Alexander, there came a letter from Sir 
Henry Percy to John Knox, requiring him 
to meet him at Alnwick the third of August, 
for such affairs as he would not n rite, nor 



* Per haps discernment of spirits. 
2 A 



186 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



yet communicate with any, but with the 
said John himself. While he was prepar- 
ing himself for his journey — for secretary 
Cecil appointed to have met him at Stam- 
ford — the Frenchmen came furiously forth 
of Dunbar, of purpose to have surprised 
the lords being in Edinburgh, as in the se- 
cond book before is declared, which stayed 
the journey of the said John, till that God 
had delivered the innocents from that great 
danger, and then was he, having in his 
company, Mr Robert Hamilton, minister of 
the evangel of Jesus Christ, directed from 
the lords, with full commission and instruc- 
tions to expone their whole case and estate 
wherein they stood. Their passage was 
from Pitten weem by sea ; they arrived at 
Holy Island, and being advertised that Sir 
Henry Percy was absent from the north, 
they addressed themselves to Sir James 
Crofts, then captain of Berwick, and war- 
den of the east marches of England. They 
show unto him their credit and commis- 
sion ; he received them gently, and com- 
forted them with his faithful counsel, which 
was, " That they should travel no farther, 
neither yet should they be seen in public, 
and that for divers considerations. First, 
The queen regent had her espyellis 
[spies] in England. Secondly, The queen 
and the council that favoured our action, 
would that all things should be secret 
so long as they might. And last, said 
he, I think it not expedient, that in 
such rarity of preachers, ye two be any 
long time absent from the lords. And, 
therefore, said he, ye shall do best to 
commit to writing your whole mind and 
credit, and I shall promise to you upon my 
honour, to have answer to you, and to the 
lords again, before ye yourselves can be at 
London. And where that your letters 
cannot express all things so fully, as your 
presence could, I shall supply the same, not 
only by my pen, but also by my own pre- 
sence, to such as will inform the council 
sufficiently of all things." The said John 
and Mr Robert followed his counsel — for it 



was faithful and proceeded of love at that 
time; — they tarried with him very secretly 
within the castle of Berwick two days. In 
which time returned Alexander Whitelaw 
foresaid, with answer to the lords, and to 
master Knox. The tenor of which letter 
was this : 

master Cecil's letter to john knox. 
" Master Knox, 

" ' Non est masculus nequefoemina, omnes 
enim, ut ait Paulus, unum sumus in 
Christu Jesu :* Benedictus vir qui conjidit 
in Domino, et erit Dominus fiducia ejus.' I 
have received your letters, at the same 
time that I thought to have seen yourself 
about Stamford. What is now hitherto the 
cause of your let, I know not. I forbear 
to descend to the bottom of things, until I 
may confer with such one as you are ; and, 
therefore, if your chance shall be hereafter 
to come hither, I wish you furnished with 
good credit, and power, to make good reso- 
lution. Although my answer to the lords 
of the congregation be somewhat obscure, 
yet upon farther understanding you shall 
find the matter plain. I need to wish you 
no more prudence than God's grace, where- 
of God send you plenty. And so I end. 
Sic subscribitur, 

" Yours as a member of the 
same body in Christ, 

"M. Cecil." 

From Oxford, the 28th \ 
of July, 1559. 5 

Albeit the said John received this letter 
at Berwick, yet would he answer nothing 
till that he had spoken the lords whom he 
found at Stirling, and unto whom he de- 
livered the answer sent from the council of 
England— for Alexander Whitelaw took 
sickness betwixt Berwick and Edinburgh, 
and was troubled by the lord Seyton, as in 
the former book is declared ; — the answer 
sent by Mr Cecil was so general, that 
many amongst us despaired of any comfort 
to come from that country; and, therefore 
were determined that they -would request 
no farther. John Knox laboured in the 



* There is neither male nor female, for, as 
aaith Paul, they are all one in Christ Jesus. I 
suppose the. right honourable secretary of state 



meant this for an answer to Knox's obnoxious 
book against the government of women. — Ed. 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



J 87 



contrary ; but he could prevail no farther, 
but that he should have license and liberty 
to write as he thought best. And so took 
he upon him to answer for all, in form as 
follows : 

ANSWER TO MR CECIL'S WRITING. 

Two causes impeded me, right wor- 
shipful, to visit you at any part in Eng- 
land. Former, no signification of your 
mind and pleasure was made to me, for 
only did Sir Henry Percy will me to come 
and speak him, which conveniently at that 
time I could not do, by reason that the 
Frenchmen — which was the second cause 
of my stay — did then most furiously pursue 
us, while [until] our company was dis- 
persed ; and then durst I not be absent for 
divers inconveniences : neither did I think 
my presence with you greatly necessary, 
considering that the matter, which I most 
desired — w r as opened and proponed ; to the 
which I w ould have wished, that a more 
plain and special answer should have been 
made. For, albeit Mr Whitelaw, by his 
credit, Mr Kirkcaldy by his letter, and I, 
both by letters, and by that which I had 
received from Sir James Crofts, did per- 
suade your good minds ; yet could not the 
council be otherwise persuaded, but that 
this alteration in France had altered your 
former purpose. It is not unknown what 
favour we three do bear to England ; and, 
therefore, I wish, that rather your pen 
than our credit, or any thing written to any 
of us, should assure the lords and others, of 
your good mind — who are now in number 
but five hundred. Unless that money be 
furnished without delay to pay the soldiers 
for their service bypast, and to retain an- 
other thousand footmen with three hundred 
horsemen, till some stay be had in this 
danger, these gentlemen will be compelled 
to leave the fields. I am assured, as flesh 
may be of flesh, that some of them w ill 
take a very hard life before that ever they 
compoue, either with the queen regent, either 
yet with France : but this I dare not pro- 
mise of all, unless in you they see a greater 
forwardness. To support us will appear 
excessive [expensive], and to break promise 
w ith France will appear dangerous. But 
the loss of expenses, in my opinion, ought 



not to be esteemed from the first payment, 
neither yet the danger from the first ap- 
pearance. France is most fervent to con- 
quer us, and avoweth that against us they 
will spend their crown; so did my own 
ears hear Buttincourt brag. But most as- 
suredly I know, that unless by us they 
thought to make an entrance to you, they 
would not buy our poverty at that price. 
They labour to corrupt some of our great 
men by money — and some of our number 
are poor, as before I wrote, and cannot 
serve without support — some they threaten, 
and against others they have raised up a 
party in their own country. In this mean- 
time, if you lie by as neutrals, what will be 
the end you may easily conjecture. And, 
therefore, Sir, in the bowels of Christ 
Jesus, I require you to make plain answer, 
what the gentlemen here may lippen to [de- 
pend on], and [that] what the queen's ma- 
jesty will do, may be without delay put in 
execution. Rest in Christ Jesus. Of St 
Johnstone, the 28th day of, &c." 

Answer with great expedition was re- 
turned to this letter, desiring some men of 
credit to be sent from the lords to Berwick, 
for the receiving of money for the first 
support, with promise, that if the lords of 
the congregation meant no otherways than 
before they had written, and if they would 
enter in league with honest conditions, they 
should neither want men nor money to 
their just cause. Upon this answer, was 
directed from the lords to Berwick, Mr 
Henry Balnavis, a man of good credit in 
both the realms, who suddenly returned 
with such a sum of money as served all 
the public affairs till November next ; 
when John Cockburn of Ormiston being 
sent for the second support, and receiving 
the same, unhappily fell in the hands of 
the earl Both well, was wounded, taken and 
spoiled of a great sum, upon which mis- 
chance followed all the rest of our troubles 
before rehearsed. 

In the second book preceding, we have 
declared how secretary Lethington w as di- 
rected to England : but one thing we have 
before past by. In that, our greatest de- 
jection, this order was taken, that the 
duke's grace, the earl of Glencairn, lord 



188 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



Boyd, lord Ochiltree, and their friends, 
should remain together at Glasgow, for 
comfort of the country, and for giving of 
answers as occasion should require ; and 
that the earl of Arran, the lord James, the 
earl of Rothes, the master of Lindsay, and 
their adherents, should continue together 
within Fife for the same cause, that ad- 
vertisements might go from the one to the 
other, as need required. In the negotia- 
tion of secretary Lethington with the queen 
and council of England — in the which he 
travailed with no less wisdom and faith- 
fulness, than happy success — many things 
occurred, that required the resolution of the 
whole lords, amongst which there was one 
whereof before no mention is made. 

After that the queen and council of Eng- 
land had concluded to send their army into 
Scotland for expelling of the French, the 
duke of Norfolk was sent to Berwick with 
full instruction, power, and commission, to 
do in all things concerning the present af- 
fairs of Scotland, as might the queen and 
council in their own proper persons do. 
Hereupon the said duke required such a 
part of the lords of Scotland, as had 
power and commission from the whole, to 
meet him at such day and place as pleased 
them to appoint. This advertisement came 
first to Glasgow by the means of the master 
of Maxwell. Which read and considered 
by the lords, conclusion was taken that 
they should meet at Carlisle, and that was 
the procurement of the said master of 
Maxwell for his ease. Hereupon were 
letters directed from the lords lying in 
Glasgow, to lord James, requiring him with 
all possible expedition to repair towards 
them, for the purpose foresaid. Which let- 
ters read and advised upon, commandment 
was given to John Knox to make the an- 
swer. For so it was appointed at the di- 
vision of the said lords, that he should 
answer for the part of them that were in 
Fife ; and Mr Henry Balnavis for the part 
of them that abode at Glasgow. The said 
John Knox answered as follows : 

TO THE LORD DUKE's GRACE, AND THE LORDS 
AT GLASGOW. 

" After humble commendation of my ser- 
vice : albeit I have written oftener than 



once to Mr Henry Balnavis, what things 
have misliked [dissatisfied] me in your slow 
proceedings, as well in supporting your bre- 
thren, who many days have sustained ex- 
treme dangers in these parts, as in making 
provision how the enemy might have been 
annoyed, who lay in few numbers near to 
your quarters in Stirling. And in making 
likewise provision how the expectation of 
your friends — w r ho long have awaited on 
your answer — might have been satisfied : 
albeit, I say, that of these things I have 
before complained, yet, of very conscience, 
I am compelled to signify unto your ho- 
nours, that unless of these and other enor- 
mities I shall espy some redress, I am as- 
sured that the end shall be such as godly 
men shall mourn, that a good cause shall 
perish for lack of wisdom and diligence. 
In my last letters to Mr Henry Balnavis, I 
declared, that your especial friends in Eng- 
land wondered that no greater expedition 
is made, the weight of the matter being 
considered. If the fault be in my lord 
duke and his friends, I wrote also, that the 
greatest loss would be his and theirs in the 
end. And now I cannot cease, both to 
wonder and lament, that your whole coun- 
cil was so destitute of wisdom and discre- 
tion as to charge this poor man, the prior, 
to come to you to Glasgow, and thereafter 
to go to Carlisle, for such affairs as are to 
be entreated. Was there none amongst you 
that did foresee what inconveniences might 
ensue his absence from these parts '? I cease 
to speak of the dangers in [from] the enemy. 
Your friends have lain in the Frith now 
fifteen days bypast, — what was their former 
travail is not unknown, — they have never 
received comfort of any man, him only ex- 
cepted, more than they had lain upon the 
coast of their mortal enemy. Do ye not 
consider, that such a company shall need 
comfort and provision from time to time ? 
Remove him, and who abideth that care- 
fully will travail in that or in any other 
weighty matters in these parts ? Did ye 
not farther consider, that he had begun to 
meddle with the gentlemen who had de- 
clared themselves unfriends heretofore ; and 
also that order would have been taken with 
such as have been neutral : now, by reason 



Book II I.J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



189 



of his absence, the one shall escape with- 
out admonition, and the other shall be at 
their former liberty. I am assured that the 
enemy shall not slip, neither in that nor in 
other affairs, to undermine you and your 
whole cause, and specially to hurt this part 
of the country to revenge their former 
folly. If none of these former causes should 
have moved you to have considered, that 
such a journey at such a time was not meet 
for him, neither yet for them that must ac- 
company him ; yet discreet men would have 
considered, that the men that have lain in 
their jacks, and travelled their horses con- 
tinually the space of a month, required 
some longer rest, both to themselves, but 
especially to their horses, before they had 
been charged to such a journey than yet 
they have had. The prior may for satisfac- 
tion of your unreasonable minds enterprise 
the purpose ; but I am assured he shall not 
be able to have six honest men in all Fife 
to accompany him ; and how that either 
stands with your honours or with his safe- 
ty, judge ye yourselves : but yet wonder it 
is, that ye did not consider to what pain 
and faschery [trouble] shall ye put your 
friends of England, especially the duke of 
Norfolk and his council, whom ye shall 
cause to travel the most wearisome and 
fascheous gait [difficult road] that is in all 
England. In my opinion, whosoever gave 
you that counsel, either wanted right judg- 
ment in things to be done, or else had over 
much respect to his own ease, and over 
small regard to the travel and danger of 
their brethren. A common cause requires 
a common concurrence, and that every man 
bear his burden proportionably ; but pru- 
dent and indifferent men espy the contrary 
in this cause, especially of late days ; for 
the weakest are most grievously charged, 
and they to whom the matter most belongs, 
and to whom justly greatest burden is due, 
are exemed in a manner both from travel 
and expenses. To speak the matter plainly, 
wise men wonder what my lord duke's 
friends do mean, that they are so slack and 
backward in this cause : in other actions 
they have been judged stout and forward, 
and in this, which is the greatest that ever 
he or thev had in hand, they appear desti- 



tute of both grace and courage. I am not 
ignorant, that they that are most inward of 
their counsel are enemies to God, and there- 
fore cannot but be enemies to his cause : 
but wonder it is, that he and his other 
friends should not consider that the tinsel 
[loss] of this godly enterprise shall be the 
rooting out of them and their posterity 
from this realm. Considering, my lords, 
that by God's providence ye are joined 
with the duke's grace in this common 
cause, admonish him plainly of the danger 
to come ; will [press] him to beware of the 
counsel of them that are plainly infected 
with superstition, with pride, and with the 
venom of particular profit : which, if he 
do not at your admonition, he shall smart 
before he be aware. And if ye cease 
to put him in mind of his duty, it may be 
that for your silence ye shall drink some 
portion of the plague with him. Take my 
plain speaking, as proceeding from him that 
is not your enemy, being also uncertain 
when 1 shall have occasion to write here- 
after. God, the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, assist you with the Spirit of wisdom 
and fortitude, that to his glory, and to your 
lordships and our common comfort, ye may 
perform that thing which godly once was 
begun. Amen." 

Sic sabscinbitur, 

" Your grace's to command in godliness, 
" John Knox." 
From St Andrews, the 6th of ) 

February, in haste, 1559. } 

Upon the receipt of this letter, and con- 
sultation held thereupon, new conclusion 
was taken, to wit, that they would visit 
the said duke of Norfolk at Benvick, 
where he was. Thus far have we digress- 
ed from the style of the history, to let the 
posterity that shall follow understand, by 
what instruments God wrought the fami- 
liarity and friendship that after we found 
in England. Now we return to our former 
history. 

The parts of Fife set at freedom from 
the bondage of those bloody worms, solemn 
thanks were given in St Andrews unto 
God for his mighty deliverance. Short, 
after the earl of Arran and lord James ap- 
prehended the lairds of Wemyss, Seafield, 



]90 



HISTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1559 



Balgony, Dury, and others that assisted 
the French ; but they were set shortly at 
freedom, upon such conditions as .they 
minded never to keep, for such men have 
neither faith nor honesty. Mr James Bal- 
four, who was the greatest practiser, and 
had drawn the band of the Balfours, es- 
caped. The English ships daily multiplied, 
till that they were able to keep the whole 
Frith, whereat the French and queen re- 
gent enraged, began to execute their ty- 
ranny upon the parts of Lothian that lay 
near to Edinburgh. Let Mr David Borth- 
wick witness what favours his wife and 
place of Adistoun found of the French, 
for all the service that he had made to the 
queen regent. 

In the midst of February were directed 
to England, from the duke's grace and the 
congregation, the lord James, the lord Ruth- 
ven, the master of Maxwell, the master of 
Lindsay, Mr Henry Balnavis, and the laird 
of Pittarrow, who, with their honest com- 
panies and commission, departed by sea all, 
except the master of Maxwell, to Berwick ; 
where there met them the duke of Norfolk, 
lieutenant to the queen's majesty of Eng- 
land, and with him a great company of the 
gentlemen of the north, with some also of 
the south, having full power to contract 
with the nobility of Scotland, as that they 
did, upon such conditions as in the same 
contract are specified. And because we have 
heard the malicious tongues of wicked men 
make false report of that our fact [work], we 
have faithfully and truly inserted in this our 
history the said contract, as well that which 
was made at Leith, during the siege, as 
that which first was made at Berwick, that 
the memory thereof may abide to our pos- 
terity, to the end that they may judge with 
indifference, whether that we have done 
any thing prejudicial to our commonwealth, 
or yet contrary unto that dutiful obedience 
which true subjects owe to their superiors, 
whose authority ought to defend and main- 
tain the liberty and freedom of the realms 
committed to their charge, and not to op- 
press and betray the same to strangers. The 
tenor of our contract follows : 

THE CONTRACT MADE AT BERWICK. 

" James, duke of Chatelherault, earl of 



Arran, lord Hamilton, second person of 
the realm of Scotland, and heir apparent to 
the crown, the council, nobility, and prin- 
cipal estates of the same ; to all and sun- 
dry to whose knowledge these presents 
shall come, greeting. We have well con- 
sidered, and be fully persuaded, in what 
danger, desolation, and misery, the long en- 
mity with the kingdom of England has 
brought our country heretofore : how 
wealthy and flourishing it shall become, if 
these two kingdoms, as they be joined in 
one island by creation of the world, so 
may be knit in one constant and assured 
friendship. These considerations grounded 
upon a most infallible truth, ought no less 
to have moved our progenitors and fore- 
fathers than us : but the present dangers 
hanging over our heads, by the unjust deal- 
ing of those of whom we have always best 
deserved, has caused us to weigh them 
more earnestly than they did. The misbe- 
haviour of the French ministers here has 
of late years been so great ; the oppression 
and cruelty of the soldiers, the tyranny and 
ambition of their superiors and rulers, so 
grievous to the people ; the violent subver- 
sion of our liberty, and conquest of the 
land, whereat they have, by most crafty 
and subtle means, continually pressed, so 
intolerable to us all, that at last, when we 
could not obtain redress by humble suits 
and earnest supplications presented to the 
queen dowager, who both for duty's sake, 
and place she did occupy, ought to have 
been most careful of our estate ; we have 
been by very necessity constrained, not 
only to assay our own forces, but also to 
implore the queen's majesty's of England's 
aid and support, which her majesty has 
most genteely granted upon certain cove- 
nants specified in a treaty passed at Ber- 
wick betwixt the duke of Norfolk, his good 
grace, lieutenant of her majesty, on that 
one part, and certain our commissioners on 
that other part. Whereof the tenor fol- 
lows : 

" At Berwick, the twenty-seventh day of 
February, the year of our Lord God one 
thousand five hundred and fifty-nine years ; 
it is appointed and finally contracted be- 
twixt the noble and mighty prince, Thomas 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



191 



duke of Norfolk, earl Marshal of England, 
and lieutenant to the queen's most excellent 
majesty of the said realm in the north, in 
the name and behalf of her highness on the 
one part, and the right honourable lord 
James Stewart — now earl of Murray — Pa- 
trick lord Ruthven, Sir John Maxwell of 
Teregles, knight, William Maitland of Leth- 
ington younger, John Wiseheart of Pittar- 
row, and Mr Henry Balnaves of Hallhill, 
in name and behalf a noble and mighty 
prince James, duke of Chatelherault, se- 
cond person of the realm of Scotland, and 
the remanent lords of his part, joined with 
him in this cause, for the maintenance and 
defence of the ancient rights and liberties 
of their country on the other part, in form 
as hereafter follows : that is to say, that the 
queen's majesty having sufficiently under- 
stood, as well by information sent from the 
nobility of Scotland, as by the proceedings 
of the French, that they intend to con- 
quer the realm of Scotland, suppress the 
liberty thereof, and unite the same unto 
the crown of France perpetually, contrary 
to the laws of the same realm, and the pac- 
tions, oaths, and promises of France; and 
being thereto most humbly and earnestly 
required by the said nobility, for, and in 
the name of the whole realm, shall accept 
the said realm of Scotland, the said duke 
of Chatelherault being declared, by act of 
Parliament in Scotland to be heir apparent 
to the crown thereof, and the nobility and 
subjects thereof into her majesty's protec- 
tion and maintenance, only for preservation 
of the same in their old freedoms and li- 
berties, and from conquest, during the time 
that the marriage shall continue betwixt 
the queen of Scots and the French king, 
and one year after. And for expelling out 
of the same realm of such as presently and 
apparently goeth about to practise the said 
conquest, her majesty shall with all speed 
send into Scotland a convenient aid of men 
of war on horse and foot, to join with the 
power of Scotsmen, with artillery, muni- 
tion, and all other instruments of war 
meet for the purpose, as well by sea as by 
land, and not only to expel the present 
power of French within that realm oppres- 
sing the same, but also to stop, as far as 



conveniently may be, all greater forces )f 
French to enter therein for the like pur- 
pose; and shall continue her majesty's aid 
to the said realm, nobility, and subjects of 
the same, unto the time the French — being 
enemies to the said realm — be utterly ex- 
pelled thence : and shall never transact, 
compone, nor agree with the French, nor 
conclude any league with them, except the 
Scots and the French shall be agreed, thai 
the realm of Scotland may be left in a due 
freedom by the French ; nor shall leave 
the maintenance of the said nobility and 
subjects, whereby they might fall as a prey 
into their enemies' hands, as long as they 
shall acknowledge their sovereign lady and 
queen, and shall endeavour themselves to 
maintain the liberty of their country, and 
the estate of the crown of Scotland. And 
if in case any forts or strengths within the 
realm be won out of the hands of the 
French at this present, or at any time here- 
after by her majesty's aid, the same shall 
be immediately demolished by the Scots- 
men, or delivered to the said duke and his 
party foresaid at their option and choice ; 
neither shall the power of England fortify 
within the ground of Scotland, being out 
of the bounds of England, but by the ad- 
vice of the said duke, nobility, and estates 
of Scotland. For the which causes, and 
in respect of her majesty's most genteel cle- 
mency and liberal support, the said duke 
and all the nobility, as well such as be now 
joined, as such as shall hereafter join with 
him, for defence of the liberty of that realm, 
shall to the uttermost of their power, aid 
and support her majesty's army against 
the French and their partakers, with horse- 
men and footmen, and with victuals, by 
land and by sea, and with all manner of 
other aid to the best of their power, and so 
shall continue during the time that her ma- 
jesty's army shall remain in Scotland. 

Item. They shall be enemies to all such 
Scotsmen and French, as shall in anyways 
show themselves enemies to the realm of 
England, for the aiding and supporting 
the said duke and nobility, to the delivery 
of the realm of Scotland from conquest. 

Item. They shall never assent nor per- 
mit, that the realm of Scotland shall be 



192 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. e. 1559 



conquered, or [otherwise, s. c] knit to the 
crown of France, than it is at this pre- 
sent only by marriage of the queen their 
sovereign to the French king-, and by the 
laws and liberties of the realm, as it ought 
to be. 

" Item. In case the Frenchmen shall at 
any time hereafter invade, or cause be in- 
vaded the realm of England, they shall 
furnish the number of two hundred horse- 
men, and one thousand footmen, at the 
least, or such part of either of them, at 
the choice of the queen's majesty of Eng- 
land ; and shall conduct the same to pass 
from the borders of Scotland next Eng- 
land, upon her majesty's charges, to any 
part upon the realm of England, for the 
defence of the same. And in case the in- 
vasion be upon the north parts of England, 
on the north part of the water of Tyne, to- 
wards Scotland, or against Berwick, on the 
north side of the water of Tweed, they 
shall convene and gather their whole forces 
upon their own charges, and shall join with 
the English power, and shall continue in 
good and earnest pursuit of the quarrel of 
England, during the space of thirty days, 
or so much longer as they were accustom- 
ed to remain in the fields for the defence of 
Scotland, at the commandment of their so- 
vereigns, at any time bypast. And also 
the earl of Argyle, lord justice of Scot- 
land, being presently joined with the said 
duke, shall employ his force and good 
will, where he shall be required by the 
queen's majesty, to reduce the north parts 
of Ireland to the perfect obedience of Eng- 
land, conform to a mutual and reciprocal 
contract, to be made betwixt her majesty's 
lieutenant, or depute of Ireland being for 
the time, and the said earl ; wherein shall 
be contained what he shall do for his part, 
and what the said lieutenant, or depute, 
shall do for his support, in case he shall 
have to do with James Mackonell, or any 
others of the isles of Scotland or realm of 
Ireland : for performance and sure keeping 
whereof, they shall for their part enter to 
the foresaid duke of Norfolk the pledges 
presently named by him, before the entry 
of her majesty's army within Scotland, to 



remain in England for the space of six 
months, and to be exchanged upon deliver- 
ance of new hostages of like or as good 
conditions as the former ; or being the law- 
ful sons, brethren, or heirs of any of the 
earls, or barons of parliament, that have, or 
hereafter shall show themselves and persist 
open enemies to the French in this quarrel, 
and so forth from six months to six 
months, or four months to four months, as 
shall best please the part of Scotland. And 
the time of the continuance of the hostages 
shall be during the marriage of the queen 
of Scots to the French king, and one year 
after the dissolution of the same marriage, 
until farther order may be had betwixt 
both the realms for peace and concord. 

" And, furthermore, the said duke, and all 
the nobility, being earls and barons of the 
parliament, joined with him, shall subscribe 
and seal these articles and counts, within 
the space of twenty or thirty days at the 
uttermost, next following the day of the 
delivery of the said hostages ; and shall also 
procure and persuade all others of the no- 
bility that shall join themselves hereafter 
with the said duke, for the causes above 
specified, likewise to subscribe and seal 
these articles, at any time after the space 
of twenty days after their conjunction, upon 
requisition made by them on the part of the 
queen's majesty of England. 

" And, finally, the said duke, and nobil- 
ity joined with him, certainly perceiving, 
that the queen's majesty of England is 
thereunto moved only upon respect of 
princely honour and neighbourhood, for 
the defence of the freedom of Scotland 
from conquest, and not of any other sinis- 
ter intent, do, by these presents, testify 
and declare, that [neither] they, nor any 
of them, mean by this compt to withdraw 
any due obedience to their sovereign lady 
the queen, nor in any lawful thing to with- 
stand the French king, her husband and 
head, that during the marriage shall not 
tend to the subversion and oppression of 
the just and ancient liberties of the said 
kingdom of Scotland ; for preservation 
whereof, both for their sovereign's honour, 
and for the continuance of the kingdom in 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



193 



ancient estate, they acknowledge them- 
selves bound to spend their goods, lands, 
and lives. And for performance of this 
present contract for the part of England, 
the queen's majesty shall confirm the same, 
and all clauses therein contained, by her let- 
ters patent, under the great seal of Eng- 
land, to be delivered to the nobility of 
Scotland, upon the entrance of the pledges 
aforesaid within the ground of England. 
In witness whereof, the said duke's grace 
of Norfolk has subscribed these presents, 
and thereunto has affixed his seal, the day, 
year, and place foresaid ; which contract 
we find honest, reasonable, and that our 
said commissioners therein have consider- 
ately respected the commonwealth of this 
realm, of us and our posterity ; and, there- 
fore, do ratify, allow, confirm, and approve 
the same, with all clauses and articles 
therein contained, by these presents. In 
witness hereof, to the same, subscribed 
with our hands, our seals of arms, in like 
cases accustomed, are appended. At the 
camp, forenent Leith, the tenth day of May, 
1560 years. Follow 

THE SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
" The Duke of Chattelher.au lt, 
Earl of Arkax, 
Earl of Huntly, 
Earl of Glencairn, 
Earl of Morton, 
Earl of Rothes, 
Earl of Monteith, 
Earl of Argyle, 
Lord Ogilvie, 
Lord Borthwick:, 
Lord James Stewart, 
Lord of St John", 
Lord John of Aberbrothock, 
Lord Boyd, 

Lord SOMMERVILLE, 

Lord Ochiltree, 
Lord Robert Stewart, 
Alexander Gordon, 
Gavin Hamilton, of Koilwifrning, 
James Stewart of St Coliu's-inch, 
Abbot of Kinloss, 
Abbot of Culross." 
The instructions given, subscribed to the 
said commissioners that went to Ber- 
wick, are these as follow : 
" 1. And for the first, if it shall be asked ; 
of you by the said duke of Norfolk's j 
grace, and others the queen's majesty's ap- 



pointed commissioners, if our pledges be in 
readiness? Ye shall answer, that they 
are, and in St Andrews the 24th of tins 
instant, and shall be ready to deliver in 
hostages for security of our promise, and 
part of contract, they offering and making 
security for their part by the queen's ma- 
jesty's subscription and great seal, and de- 
livering the same unto you; providing that 
they choose and make their election of 
the pledges as is convenient. 

" 2. Secondly, If the said commissioners 
shall demand of you, what enterprise the 
army of England shall take upon hand 
at their first coming ? Ye shall answer, 
in general the expulsion of the French 
soldiers forth of this realm : and first and 
in special forth of the town of Leith, seeing 
their great forts are there. 

" 3. Item. If it shall be asked of you, at 
what place our friends and brethren of 
England shall meet, and at what day, what 
number, and what noblemen in company ? 
Ye shall refer all these things to their elec- 
tion and choice. 

" 4. Item. If it be demanded of you, how 
the army shall be furnished with victuals, 
and especially the horsemen ? Ye shall 
answer, that with their advice a sufficient 
order shall be taken therein. 

" 5. Item. If it be required, how the mu- 
nition shall be carried, and oxen furnished 
to that effect ? Ye shall answer, as we 
have given in commission to Lethingtou, 
which we ratify. 

" 6. Item. If it shall be asked, who shall 
be lieutenant to the army of Scotland ? Ye 
shall answer, my lord duke's grace. 

" 7. Item. If it shall be inquired, what 
number our whole army extends to? \ e 
shall answer, they will — God willing — be 
five thousand men. 

" 8. Item. If it shall be required, what 
manner of way Leith shall be assaulted ? 
Ye shall desire all preparations to be in 
readiness, and the advice to be taken after 
the placing of armies, and view of the 
strength shortly. 

" 9. Item. If it shall be asked of the 
castle of Edinburgh 1 , if they will stand 
friends or not ? Ye shall declare our dili- 
gence made, and to be made shortly here- 
2 B 



194 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d . 1559 



unto ; but for the present to assure them of 
nothing-. 

" 10. Item. If it be asked, in case the 
castle be unfriend, where the army shall be 
placed ? Ye shall answer, for the first in 
Musselburgh and Tranent, and these parts, 
till the battery, and all the preparations be 
in readiness. 

"11. Item. In case it be inquired of all 
bylayers, and in special of my lord of 
Huntly in the north ? Ye shall answer in 
general, a good hope is had of the most part 
thereof ; and touching my lord Huntly in 
special, ye shall show how he has sent writ- 
ings to my lord of Arran, with a servant of 
credit, to assure him of his assistance ; and 
for that cause has desired letters of suspen- 
sion of the queen dowager's commission to 
be sent to him, to be used by him in these 
parts ; and other letters to arrest the clergy 
rents and hires both in these parts, with 
proclamations to cause all men to be in 
readiness to pass forward, for maintaining 
of religion, and expulsion of strangers. 
My lord has written to him, that he may 
come to him in proper person, whereof the 
answer is not returned yet. 

" 12. Item. If it shall be asked the place 
and manner of meeting of our folks, or of 
us and them, in case Stirling be kept ? We 
refer the answer hereof to your discretion. 

" 13. Item. If it shall be asked, that 
their layed [leaden, s. c] money shall have 
passage for their vivors ? Ye shall reason 
the commodity and incommodity thereof 
with the council. 

" 14. Item. If it shall be asked, what 
pioneers shall be had ? Ye shall answer, 
their number being expressed, and money 
in readiness to pay them, they shall have 
sufficiency. 

" 15. Item. If they desire, that we de- 
clare our cause unto the princes of Al- 
manie [Germany], and the king of Den- 
mark, desiring their assistance ? Ye shall 
answer, that we think the same good, and 
shall speedily take order therewith. 

" 1G. Item. If it shall be asked of you 
to confirm for us, and in our name, the 
things past and granted by our former 
commissioner the young laird of Lething- 
ton ? Ye shall in all points for us, and 



in our name, confirm the same, so far as 
it shall make either for the weal and con- 
junction of the two realms, or this pre- 
sent cause, or yet for the security of our 
part for the fulfilling of the same : and 
also ye shall accept their offers tending to 
the same fine [end], and such security on 
that part, as ye may purchase, and espe- 
cially such as Ave heretofore expressed. 
Given at Glasgow, the 1 0th of February, 
1559. 

" Item. We give and grant you full 
power to augment, or diminish these said 
heads and articles, as ye think the weal 
of the cause shall require in all points. 
Sic subscribitw, 
" John of Monteith, 
Andrew of Rothes, 
R. Bovd, 

William Murray, of Tullybardin, 

John Erskine of Dun, 

James Hamilton*, 

Alexander Gordon, 

Archibald Argyle,* 

Glencairn, 

Ochiltree, 

James Haliburton." 

Short after this contract were our 
pledges delivered to Mr Winter, admiral of 
the navy that came to Scotland, a man of 
great honesty, so far as ever we could espy 
of him, who were safely conveyed to New- 
castle ; and so the English army by land 
began to assemble towards the borders ; 
whereof the French and queen regent as- 
sured, they began to destroy what they 
could in the towns and country about ; for 
the whole victuals they carried to Leith, 
the mills they broke, the sheep, oxen and 
cows, yea, and. the horse of poor labourers, 
they made all to serve their tyranny. And, 
finally, they left nothing which the very 
enemy could have devised, except that they 
demolished not gentlemen's houses, and 
burnt not the town of Edinburgh, in which 
point God bridled their fury, to let his 
afflicted understand that he took care of 
them. 

Before the coming of the land army, the 
French past to Glasgow, and destroyed the 



* It is Alexander Argyle in the suppressed 
edition, but it must be a misprint. — Ed. 



Book III.] 



OK RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



195 



country thereabout. What tyranny the 
Marticks used upon a poor Scotish soldier it 
is fearful to hear, and yet his fact may not 
be omitted. Silver would they give none 
to the poor men, and so were they slow 
to depart [out, s. c] of the town ; for albeit 
the drum struck, the ensign could not be 
got. There was a poor craftsman, who 
bought for his victuals a gray loaf, and was 
eating- a morsel of it, and was putting- the 
rest of it in his bosom. The tyrant came 
to him, and with the poor caitif 's own 
whinger first struck him on the breast, and 
after cast it at him, and so the poor man 
staggering and falling, the merciless tyrant 
ran him threw with his rapier, and there- 
after commanded him to be hanged over 
the stair. " Lord, thou wilt yet look, and 
recompense such tyranny, how contempt- 
ible so ever the person was." 

The second of April, the year of God 
1560 years, the army by land entered into 
Scotland, the conducting whereof was com- 
mitted to the lord Gray, who had in his 
company the lord Scroope, Sir James 
Crofts, Sir Henry Percy, Sir Francis Lake, 
with many other captains and gentlemen, 
having charge, some of footmen, and some 
of horsemen. The army by land were 
estimated at ten thousand men. The queen 
regent passed to the castle of Edinburgh, 
and some others of her faction. At Pres- 
ton [Prestonpans] met them the duke's 
grace, the earl of Argyle — Huntly came 
not till the siege was confirmed — lord 
James, the earls of Glencairn and Mon- 
teith, lords Ruthven, Boyd, Ochiltree, 
with all the protestant gentlemen of the 
west, Fife, Angus, and Mearns ; so that 
for few days the army was great. 

After the deliberation of two days had 
at Inveresk, the whole camp marched for- 
ward with ordnance, and all preparations 
necessary for the siege, and came to Res- 
talrig. Upon the Palm Sunday even, the 
French had themselves in battle array 
upon the Links without Leith, and had 
sent forth their skirmishers, who begin- 
ning before ten hours, continued skirmish- 
ing till after four hours at afternoon, when 
then was given upon them a charge by some 
horsemen of Scotland, and some of Eng- 



land ; but because the principal captain of 
the horsemen of England was not present, 
the whole troops durst not charge, and so 
was not the overthrow and slaughter of the 
French so great as it once appeared to have 
been ; for the great battle was once at the 
trot: but when they perceived that the 
great force of horsemen stood still, and 
charged not, they returned and gave some 
rescue to their fellows that fled ; and so 
there fell only in that defeat about three 
hundred Frenchmen. God would not give 
the victory so suddenly, lest that man 
should glory in his own strength. The 
small victory that was got put both the 
English and Scots in over great security, 
as the issue declared. The French inclosed 
within the town, the English army began 
to plant their pavilions betwixt Leith and 
Restalrig ; the ordnance of the tow n, and 
especially that which lay upon St Antony's 
steeple, did them great annoyance ; against 
which place was bent eight cannons, which 
shot so continually, and so just, that within 
few days that steeple was condemned, and 
all the ordnance that was on it dismounted, 
which made the English more negligent 
than it became good men of war to have 
been ; for perceiving that the French made 
no pursuit without their walls, they took 
an opinion that they would never issue 
more, and that made some of the captains 
for pastime to go up to the town of Edin- 
burgh : the soldiers, for their ease, laid 
their armour beside them, and, as men 
without danger, fell to the dice and cards ; 
and so upon the Pasche Monday, at the 
very hour of nine [noon, s. c.\ the French 
issued both upon horse and foot, and with 
great violence entered within the English 
trenches, slew r and put to flight all that 
were therein. The watch was negligently 
kept, and so were the succours slow, and 
long in coming ; for the French, before that 
any resistance was made unto them, ap- 
proached near to the great ordnance. But 
then the horsemen trooped together, and 
the footmen got themselves in array, and so 
repulsed the French back again to the 
town ; but the slaughter M as great, some 
say it double exceeded that which the 
French received the first day. And this 



196 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



was the fruit of their security and ours, 
which after was remedied ; for the English- 
men most wisely considering themselves not 
able to siege the town round about, devised 
to make mounds at divers quarters of the 
town, in the which they and their ordnance 
lay in as good strength as they did within 
the tow n. The common soldiers kept the 
trenches, and had the said mounds for their 
safeguard and refuge, in case of any greater 
pursuit than they were able to sustain. The 
patience and stout courage of the English- 
men, but principally of the horsemen, is 
worthy of all praise : for, where was it ever 
heard, that eight thousand — they never ex- 
ceeded that number that lay in camp — 
should besiege four thousand of the most 
desperate throat-cutters that were to be 
found in Europe, and lay so near unto them 
in daily skirmishing the space of three 
months and more. The horsemen night 
and day kept watch, and did so valiantly 
behave themselves, that the French got no 
advantage from that day back to the day of 
the assault, whereof we shall shortly hear. 
In this meantime was this other bond made 
of all the nobility, barons, and gentlemen 
professing Christ Jesus in Scotland, and of 
divers others that joined with us, for expel- 
ling of the French army, amongst whom 
the earl of Huntly was principal. The 
bond follows :. 

THE LAST BOND AT LEITH. 

" At Edinburgh, the 27th day of April, 
in the year of God 1560 years, we, whose 
names are underwritten, have promised and 
obliged ourselves faithfully, in the presence 
of God, and by these presents promise, 
that we altogether in general, and every 
one of us in special by himself, with our 
bodies, goods, friends, and all that we may 
do, shall set forward the reformation of re- 
ligion, according to God's word, and pro- 
cure, by all means possible, that the truth 
of God's word may have free passage with- 
in this realm, with due administration of 
the sacraments, and all things depending 
upon the said word : and suchlike, deeply 
weighing with ourselves the misbehaviour 
of the French ministers here, the intolera- 
ble oppression committed by the French 
men of war upon the poor subjects of this 



realm, by maintenance of the queen dowa- 
ger, under colour and pretence of autho- 
rity, the tyranny of their captains and 
leaders, and manifest danger of conquest in 
which the country presently stands by rea- 
son of divers fortifications upon the sea- 
coast, and other novelties of late attempt- 
ed by them ; promise that we shall, every 
one with other, as well as altogether, with 
the queen of England's army, presently 
come in for our deliverance, effectually 
concur, join together, take and hold plain 
part for expulsion of the said stran- 
gers, oppressors of our liberty, forth of 
this realm, and recovery of our ancient 
liberties and freedoms, to the end that in 
time coming we may, under the obedience 
of the king and queen our sovereigns, be 
only ruled by the laws and customs of the 
country and born men of the land ; and 
that never one of us shall have privy in- 
telligence by writing, message, or commu- 
nication with any of our said enemies or 
adversaries in this cause, but by the advice 
of the rest — at least of five— of the coun- 
cil. Attour yet [besides], we shall tender 
the common cause as if it were the cause of 
every one of us in particular, and that the 
causes of every one of us now joined toge- 
ther, being honest and lawful, shall be all our 
causes in general ; and he that is enemy to 
the causes foresaid, shall be enemy to us 
all, in so far, that whatsoever person will 
plainly resist these our godly enterprises, 
and will not concur as a good and true 
member of this commonwealth, we shall 
fortify the authority of the council to re- 
duce them to their duty. Likeas we shall 
fortify the authority foresaid of the coun- 
cil, in all things tending to the furtherance 
of the said causes : and if any particular 
debate, quarrel, or controversy shall arise, 
for whatsoever causes bygone, present, or 
to come, betwixt any of us — as God forbid 
— in that case, we shall submit ourselves 
and our said questions to the decision of the 
council, or to arbitrators to be made by them, 
&c. Providing always, that this be not pre- 
judicial to ordinary jurisdiction of judges, 
but that men may pursue their actions by 
order of law civilly or criminally, as they 
please." 



Book J 1 1. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



197 



This contract and bond came not only 
to the ears, but also to the sight of the 
queen dowager, whereat she stormed not a 
little, and said, " The malediction of God 
I give them that counselled me to perse- 
cute the preachers, and to refuse the peti- 
tions of the best part of the true subjects 
of this realm. It was said to me, that the 
English army could not lie in Scotland ten 
days ; but now they have lain near a month, 
and are more like to remain than they 
were the first day they came." They that 
gave such information to the queen, spake 
as worldly wise men, and as things appeared 
to have been ; for the country being al- 
most in all the parts thereof wasted, the vic- 
tuals next adjacent to Leith either brought 
in to their provision or else destroyed, the 
mills and other places — as before is said — 
being cast down, it appeared that the camp 
could not have been furnished except it 
had been by their own ships, and as that 
could not have been of any long conti- 
nuance, so should it have been nothing 
comfortable : but God confounded all world- 
ly wisdom, and made his own benediction 
as evident to appear as if in a manner he 
had fed the army from above : for all kind 
of victuals there was more abundant, and 
of more easy prices in the camp at all times 
that it lay — after that eight days were past 
— than either they had been in Edinburgh 
any two years before, or yet have been in 
that town to this day, the twentieth of 
May, 1566. The people of Scotland so 
much abhorred the tyranny of the French, 
that they would have given the substance 
that they had, to have been rid of that 
chargeable burden, which our sins had pro- 
voked God to lay upon us in giving us into 
the hands of a woman, whom our nobility 
in their foolishness sold to strangers, and 
with her the liberty of this realm. " God, 
for his great mercy's sake, preserve us yet 
from farther bondage, in the which we are 
like to fall, if he provide not remedy ; for 
our nobility w r ill yet remain blind still, and 
will follow her affections, come after what- 
soever may." But to return to our history. 

The camp abounding in all necessary 
provision, order was taken for confirmation 
of the siege, and so the trenches were 



drawn as near the town as tbey well 
might. Tbe great camp removed from Etaft- 
talrig to the west side of the Water of 
Leith ; and so were the cannons planted 
for the battery, and did shoot at the south- 
west wall ; but by reason the wall was 
earth, the breach was not made so great 
upon the day but that it Avas sufficiently 
repaired in the night ; whereof the Eng- 
lishmen beginning to weary, determined to 
give the breach an assault, as that they did 
upon the 7th of May, 1560, beginning be- 
fore the day-light, and continuing till it 
was near seven hours. And albeit the Eng- 
lish and Scots, with great slaughter of sol- 
diers of both, were repulsed, yet was there 
never a sharper assault given by so few 
hands ; for they extended not beyond a 
thousand men that assaulted the whole two 
quarters of the town, and yet they damped 
the whole block-houses ; yea, they once 
put the French clean off their wails, and 
were upon both the east and west block- 
houses : but they wanted backing, for their 
ladders wanted six quarters of their just 
height ; and so while the former were com- 
pelled to fight upon the top of the wall, 
their fellows could not come to support 
them, and so were they by multitudes 
driven back again, when it was once 
thought that the town was won. 

Sir James Crofts was blamed of many 
for not doing his duty that day, for he was 
appointed, with a sufficient number of the 
most able men, to have assaulted the north- 
west quarter upon the sea-side, where, at 
low water — as at the time of the assault it 
was — the passage was easy : but neither he 
nor his approached to their quarter ap- 
pointed. He had before, at their first 
coming in, spoken with the queen regent 
at the front blockhouse of the castle of 
Edinburgh. Whether she had enchanted 
him or not, we know not, but by suspicion 
of that day, in the which he deceived the 
expectation of many, and, so far as man 
could judge, was the cause of that great 
repulse ; for some ascribed the shortness of 
the ladders to him : but that omitted, which 
might have proceeded of negligence, his 
absence from the pursuit of his quarter, 
was the cause that the French, which were 



198 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



appointed there to defend, seeing no pur- 
suit, came to the relief of their fellows ; 
and so the two joined together, with great 
slaughter gave the repulse to our company. 
The Frenchmen's harlots, of whom the 
most part were Scotish whores, did no less 
cruelties than did the soldiers; for besides 
that they charged their pieces, and minis- 
tered unto them other weapons, some con- 
tinually cast stones, some carried chimleys 
[grates] of burning fire, some brought tim- 
ber and other impediments of weight, which 
with great violence they threw over the 
wall upon our men, but especially when 
they began to turn their backs. Now, al- 
though in all this we acknowledge the 
secret work of God, who by such means 
would beat down as well the pride of Eng- 
land as of Scotland, yet ought neither the 
feebleness nor falsehood of man to be ex- 
cused, neither yet the cruelty of the adver- 
saries be concealed. The queen regent sat 
at the time of the assault — which was 
both terrible and long — upon the fore-wall 
of the castle of Edinburgh, and when she 
perceived the overthrow of us, and that the 
ensigns of the French were again displayed 
upon the walls, she gave a gaff of laughter, 
and said, " Now will I go to the mass and 
praise God for that which my eyes have 
seen." And so was friar Black ready for 
that purpose, whom she herself a little be- 
fore had deprehended with his harlot in 
the chapel : but whoredom and idolatry 
agree well together, and that our court 
can witness this day, the 16th of May, 
1566. 

The French, proud of the victory, strip- 
ped naked all the slain, and laid their car- 
cases before the hot sun along their wall, 
where they suffered them to lie more days 
than one : unto the which, when the queen 
regent looked, for mirth she hopped, and 
said, " Yonder are the fairest tapestry that 
ever I saw, 1 would that the whole fields be- 
twixt this place and you were strewed with 
the same stuff." This fact was seen of all, 
and her words were heard of some, and 
misliked of many ; against the which John 
Knox spake openly in pulpit, and boldly 
affirmed, " That God should revenge that 
contumely done to his image, not only in 



the furious and godless soldiers, but even 
in such as rejoiced thereat." And the very 
experience declared that he was not deceiv- 
ed, for within few days after — yea some 
say the same day — began her belly and 
loathsome legs to swell, and so continued, 
till that God did execute his judgments 
upon her, as after we shall hear. 

The defeat received, it was fully per- 
suaded to the queen regent and her faction, 
that the siege would rise, and that the 
English army would depart : and so began 
the papists wondrously to brag, and yet 
God did frustrate their expectation ; for the 
army determined to remain till new ad- 
vertisement came from the queen and coun- 
cil. 

The duke of Norfolk, who then lay at 
Berwick, commanded the lord Grey to con- 
tinue the siege, and promised, " That he 
should not want men so long as they were 
to be had betwixt Trent and Tweed, for so 
far was he lieutenant." He farther promis- 
ed his own presence, in case he should be 
required ; and for assurance thereof, he 
sent his own pavilions, such as seldom be- 
fore had been seen in Scotland, with his 
officers and provision : and with expedition 
were sent two thousand fresh men, where- 
by the camp, greatly comforted, began to 
forget the former discomfiture, and to sus- 
tain the daily skirmishing as they did be- 
fore, in the which the French, after the 
day of the assault, did ever receive the 
hurt and the repulse, as the slaughter of 
many that came to the Cole-raik [Cockill- 
raik, sup. ed.] did witness. The greatest 
damage that either English or Scots re- 
ceived after that day, was the slaughter of 
two gentlemen, the one master of house- 
hold to my lord James, Robert Colvin of 
Cleish, a man stout, modest, and wise, who 
was shot in the thigh with a falcon or hack- 
but of Croicke, and departed the misery of 
this life within two hours after. The other 
was Alexander Lockhart, brother to the 
laird of Bar, who rashly discovering him- 
self in the trenches, was shot in the head, 
and immediately thereafter departed this 
life. 

While the siege thus continued, a sudden 
fire chanced in Leith, which devoured 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



199 



many houses and much victual ; and so be- 
gan God to fight for us, as the lord Er- 
skine said to the queen regent in plain 
words, " Madam," said he, " I can see no 
more, but seeing that men may not expel 
unjust possessors forth of this land, God 
himself will do it ; for yon fire is not kindled 
by man." Which words offended the queen 
regent not a little ; whose sickness daily in- 
creasing, great craft she used that Monsieur 
d'Oysel might have been permitted to have 
spoken with her : belike she would have 
bade him farewell, — for their old familia- 
rity was great, — but that denied, she wrote 
as it had been to her surgeon and apothe- 
cary, showing her grace's sickness, and re- 
quiring some drugs. The letter being pre- 
sented to the lord Grey, he espied the craft, 
for few lines being written above and so 
much white paper left, he said, " Drugs 
are more abundant and fresher in Edinburgh 
than they can be in Leith, there lurketh 
here some other mystery ;" and so he be- 
gan to try, and by holding the paper to 
fire, he perceived some writing to ap- 
pear, and so began he to read ; but what it 
was no other man can tell, for immediately 
he burned the bill, and said to the messen- 
ger, " Albeit I have been her secretary, 
yet tell her I shall keep her counsel ; but 
say to her, such wares will not sell till a 
new market." 

The answer received, she was nothing 
content ; and then travailed she earnestly* 
that she might speak with the earls Argyle, 
Glencairn, Marshall, and with the lord 
James. After deliberation it was thought 
expedient that they should speak [with, 
sup. c] her, but not all together, lest that 
some of the Guyse's practice had lurked 
under the colour of such friendship. Her 
regret was unto them all, " That she had be- 
haved herself so foolishly, as that she had 
compelled them to seek the support of 
others than of their own sovereign, and 
said, that she sore repented that ever it 
came to that extremity ; but she was not 
the wyte [to be blamed], but the wicked 
counsel of her friends on the one part, and 
the earl of Huntly on the other part : for 
if he had not been, she would have agreed 
with them at their communing at Preston." 



They gave unto her both , the counsel and 
the comfort which they could in that ex- 
tremity, and willed her to send for some 
godly learned man, of whom she might re- 
ceive instruction, for these ignorant papists 
that were about her, understood nothing of 
the mystery of our redemption. Upon their 
motive was John Willock sent for, with 
whom she talked a reasonable space, and 
who did plainly show unto her as well the 
virtue and strength of the death of Jesus 
Christ, as the vanity and abomination of 
that idol the mass. She did openly confess, 
" That there was no salvation, but in and 
by the death of Jesus Christ but of the 
mass we heard not her confession. Some 
say she was anointed of [after] the papisti- 
cal manner, which was a sign of small 
knowledge of the truth, and of less repent- 
ance for her former superstition : yet, how- 
soever it was, Christ Jesus got no small 
victory over such an enemy. For albeit 
before she had avowed, that in despite of 
all Scotland, the preachers of Christ Jesus 
should either die or be banished the realm ; 
yet was she not only compelled to hear that 
Christ Jesus was preached, and all idolatry 
openly rebuked, and in many places sup- 
pressed, but also she was constrained to 
hear one of the principal ministers of the 
realm, and to approve the chief head of re- 
ligion, wherein we dissent from all papists 
and papistry. Short thereafter she finished 
her unhappy life ; unhappy, Ave say, to 
Scotland, from the first day she entered 
into it unto the day she departed this life, 
which was the ninth of June, the year of 
God 1560 years. God, for his great mercy's 
sake, rid us from the rest of [the, s. c] Guysan 
blood. Amen, Amen. For of the tyranny of 
the Guysan blood in her, that for our un- 
thankfulness, now reigneth above us, we 
have had sufficient experience; but of any 
virtue that ever was espied in king James the 
fifth — whose daughter she is called- — to this 
hour we have never seen any sparkle to ap- 
pear. 

Upon the 16th day of June, after the 
death of the queen regent, came into Scot- 
land Monsieur Randame, and with him the 
bishop of Vallance in commission from 
France, to entreat of peace : from England 



200 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. r>. 1560 



there came Sir William Cecil, chief se- 
cretary, and doctor Witton. Their nego- 
tiation was longsome, for both England 
and we fearing deceit, sought by all means 
that the contract should be sure. And they 
upon the other part, meaning to gratify 
such as had sent them — who meant no- 
thing but mere falsehood — protracted time 
to the uttermost : yea, while that they of 
Leith were very scanty of victuals, and these 
of the Inch had perished, had it not been 
that by policy they got a ship with victuals, 
and some invention,* which was upon 
Mid-summer even, whereof they made no 
small triumph, which also for a season 
stayed the appointment, yet in the end 
peace was concluded, in form as follows : 
" The articles transacted and agreed by 
the reverend father in God, John, 
bishop of Vallance, and Monsieur Ran- 
dame, deputies to the king and queen 
of Scotland, upon the matters present- 
ed to them, by way of petition, for the 
part of the nobility and people of Scot- 
land. 

" In the first, upon the complaint and 
petition of the said nobility and people of 
this country, anent the number of men of 
war sustained by their majesties in these 
parts in time of peace ; it is humbly re- 
quested by the said deputies, that they 
would provide opportune remedy there- 
upon, to the solace and relief of the coun- 
try. The said deputies considering the 
said desire to be just, and conform to rea- 
son, concluded, concorded, and affirmed, 
that the king and queen shall procure no 
French men of war, nor no other nation 
to come to these parts in time coming, 
but [except] if strangers would pretend 
to enter into this realm with an army or 
navy, to occupy the same; in the which 
case provision shall be made by their ma- 
jesties, the judgments and council of the 
estates of the realm being had thereto. 
And that the French men of war, now 
being in the town of Leith, shall be sent to 
France the same time that the army and 
navy of the Englishmen and Scotsmen be 



* It seems that this word should be munition, 
anrl it is so in the suppressed edition — Ed. 



scailled [dispersed] and departed both by sea 
and land, the which shall be done in the 
best manner may be, as at more length con- 
sideration shall be had thereupon : and as 
to the bands of Scotish men of war being at 
the said place, they shall be broken, and 
the men of war licensed to depart. More- 
over, as to the forts of Dunbar and Inch- 
keith, there shall remain in them a hun- 
dred and twenty Frenchmen allenarly 
[only], which shall be parted and distributed 
in these two places, and there shall remain 
no more in Dunbar but threescore men of 
war, so it be not affirmed by the captains 
chosen to that effect by both the parties, 
that for keeping of the same, a greater 
number is not needful; also to depart when 
the estate of the realm can find a sure 
and good remedy, upon the expenses made 
in the said places, to keep the same from 
peril of invasion, or deprivation thereof 
from them that would pretend to occupy 
the same, they shall show the same to 
their majesties as hastily as may be done ; 
and in the meantime the number of the 
said men of war shall not be augmented. 
And in like manner, it shall not be lesum 
[lawful] to the said men of war to do any 
injury to any person, nor yet to maintain 
or defend any Scotsman, of what quality 
soever he be, against the will and authority 
of the magistrates of the realm, or to re- 
ceive them in the said places, that the mi- 
nister of justice may not put hands on 
them ; nor yet shall intromit with them 
any manner of way, with the quarrels and 
discords of the lords, or other particular 
men of this realm: but they themselves 
shall be obliged, in case of any quarrel, to 
be punished after the laws and consuetude 
of this realm, and to answer for them- 
selves before the judges ordinaries for the 
same. Last of all, that from this time 
forth they be not compelled to take on 
credit, they shall be every month satisfied 
of their wages, so that two Scotish lords 
chosen by the council; may present it, at 
weapon showing, and musters of the said 
men of Avar, and also to visit the said forts, 
to see if the number of them be eiked [men 
added to them] ; and it shall not be lawful 
to the said men of war to take any victuals 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



201 



for their sustenance, to the munition of the 
said places, but by payment of ready money, 
numerat [told down], and with the pleasure 
to them that deliver the same to them; 
and, therefore, the said lords oblige them 
to give them so much as is needful to them, 
they having to pay therefore. 

" Item. Upon the petition presented to 
the said lords deputies anent the demolition 
of the fortifications, the said deputies con- 
sented, concorded, and affirmed, that the 
fortification of Leith shall be demolished, 
and that two or three or four captains shall 
be chosen to [by, sup. c] both the parties, 
to visit the castle of Dunbar, and if it be 
found by them, that the reparation, ampli- 
fication, and fortification made thereof now 
after the peace, greater number of men is 
required to the keeping thereof, the repa- 
ration and fortification thereof shall be de- 
molished, so soon as may be done, and shall 
remain only untouched, that thing which 
[we, sup. c] may make the said castle more 
sure, and in least danger from invasion* 
Providing not the less that no greater 
number of men therein be required for 
keeping of the same. Moreover, in times 
coming, the king and queen shall make no 
more new forts within this realm, and shall 
not augment them that are else made, nor 
shall repair them that are demolished, 
without counsel and consent of the estates, 
nor yet shall transport to these parts any 
artillery, munition of war, powder, or vic- 
tuals, but so much as may go [serve, s. c] 
for keeping of the said places by the space 
of six months or one year. 

" Item. Anent the petition made anent 
the debts contracted by the French men of 
war in this country, the said concorded, 
that the king and queen shall cause restore 
all that which happens to be found given 
and granted to the king's lieutenant and 
his captains, and other officers, for the 
nourishment, sustenance, and maintenance 



* This part of the article is not very intelligi- 
ble. Spotswood, who gives only a short abridg- 
ment of these conditions, gives "the following as 
what he understood to be their meaning relative 
to Dunbar and Inchkeith : — " That a garrison 
of threescore Frenchmen be permitted to remain 
in the castle of Dunbar, and as many in the isle 



of the said Frenchmen, or that which is 
found owing by the lieutenant for service 
of his majesty, that may appear by writ, or 
confession of parties. 

" Item. Upon the petition made anent 
the convention of estates of this realm, the 
said deputies consented, concorded, &c. that 
the estates of the realm may convene and 
hold parliament the twentieth day of the 
month of July next to come ; upon the which 
day the parliament shall be continued [ad- 
journed], as use is, unto the first day of the 
month of August following. Providing 
always, that before they begin to treat any 
thing in the said parliament, all tumult of 
war be discharged and cease, that they that 
are present may be free without fear of 
men of war or others; and that in the 
meantime a messenger be sent by the said 
deputies to the king and queen, to certify 
them of these things agreed, treated, and 
concorded, requesting their majesties 
humbly to be contented with the same. 
And the said convention shall be as lawful 
in all respects, as the same had been or- 
dained and done by express commandment 
of their majesties ; providing that no mat- 
ter therein be treated before the said first 
day of August. 

" Item. Upon the article presented anent 
war and peace, the said deputies consent, 
concord, &c. that the king and queen 
neither make peace nor war in these parts, 
but by the judgment, counsel, and consent 
of the three estates, according to the ordi- 
nance and consuetude of the country ; and 
as was observed by their predecessors. 

" Item. Upon the petition presented to 
the said deputies anent the government 
and regimen of the policy, they have con- 
sented, &c. that twenty-four worthy men 
of this realm be chosen by the three estates, 
of the which the king and queen shall 
choose seven, and the estates seventeen; 
which in their majesties' absence shall take 



of Inchkeith, until the estates should find means 
to maintain the said forts on their own charges 
from all peril of foreign invasion ; the said sol- 
diers in the meantime living obedient to the laws 
of the realm, and taking nothing from the sub- 
jects without payment of" ready money."— Ed. 

9 n 



202 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



order, and make an ordinary council for 
administration foresaid, so that no man, of 
whatsoever quality he be, shall have the 
power to order any thing to be done touch- 
ing the said business, without the media- 
tion, authority, and consent of them : as 
[consequently] that the said counsellors 
shall convene together, as often as they 
may, but they shall convene no less than 
twelve together ; and when any matter of 
importance occurs, they shall be all called 
to consult, and take order by them, or the 
most part of them, if need be. And if it 
happens any of the said seven chosen by 
the king and queen to decease, their ma- 
jesties shall choose another forth of the 
said number of twenty-four, in place of him 
that deceases. And if any of the said 
seventeen chosen by the estates dies, the 
remnant forechosen by them shall name 
another of the said number of twenty-four. 
Moreover, if it be thought expedient to 
the said estates, that other two be aug- 
mented to the said number of twelve, then 
and in that case the king and queen shall 
choose one, and the estates another. And 
so was this article agreed under condition, 
that is to say, that the same be no preju- 
dice in time coming to the king and queen, 
and rights of the crown. And the said de- 
puties offered their labours to make media- 
tions to the king and queen, for maintaining 
pensions and expenses of the said counsel- 
lors, and ordinary officers of the said coun- 
cil, to be provided of the rents and pro- 
vents [revenues, sup. c] of the crown. 

" Item. Upon the petition made to the 
said deputies, anent the officers of this 
realm, &c. they consented and concorded, 
&c. that in time coming the king and queen 
shall not depute any strangers in the ad- 
ministration of the civil and criminal jus- 
tice, and likewise in the office of chancel- 
lor, keeper of the seal, treasurer, comp- 
troller, and other like offices, and shall not 
use them, but shall be content with their 
own subjects born within this realm. More- 
over, it shall not be lawful to put the offices 
of treasurer, comptroller, into the hands of 
any kirkman, or others which are not able 
to exercise the said offices, the which comp- 
troller and treasurer shall be provided of 



sufficient commission to use the said offices. 
But it shall not be lawful to them to dis- 
pone, or sell wards of marriages, or other 
casualties, or any other thing whatsomever 
they be pertaining to their offices, without 
counsel and consent of the said council, to 
that effect that the council may know that 
all things be done to the profit of the king 
and queen ; and yet they will not bind, or 
astrict the king and queen by this article, 
that they may not give when they think 
expedient. 

" Item. They concorded, that in the first 
convention and parliament of the estates of 
this realm, there shall be constituted, ordain- 
ed, and established a law of oblivion, which 
afterwards shall be confirmed by the king 
and queen's majesties : by the which all 
remembrance of bearing of armour, and 
other things which have been done, shall be 
buried, earthed, and forgot, from the sixth 
day of the month of March, in the year 
of God 1558 years. And by the same law, 
they which have contravened the laws of 
this realm shall be exempt, and free of all 
pains contained therein, such like as if it 
had never been contravened ; providing that 
the privileges of the said law be not ex- 
tended to them, which the estates of the 
realm shall think unworthy thereof. 

" Item. It is agreed and concluded, that in 
the said convention, or parliament, the estates 
of the realm, as [the, s. c] use is, and of the 
manner is required, shall be called ; in the 
which all they that have used to convene, 
and be present, may come without all fear 
or force done, or to be done to them by 
any person, so that the said shall oblige 
them, that where in time coming any sedi- 
tion, or convention of men of war shall 
happen to be, without the command of 
the council, being of the number of twelve, 
the realm and country shall repute the 
causers thereof, and them that convene as 
rebels, and shall pursue them as such like, 
that they may be punished by the laws of 
the realm, so that the king and queen shall 
not be compelled in times coming to send 
any men of war, or strangers in these 
parts, for obtaining of due obedience of 
their subjects. 

" Item. They offered to concord and 



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OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



203 



agree, that there shall be a general peace 
and reconciliation among all lords and sub- 
jects of this realm ; so that they that are 
called of the congregation, and they which 
are not of the same, shall put no reproach 
to others of the things which are done from 
the said sixth day of March, 1558. 

" Item. They offered, concorded, and 
affirmed, that the king and queen shall not 
pursue, revenge, nor make any persecution 
of the things that have been done, nor yet 
shall they suffer the same to be done by 
their subjects, Frenchmen, but shall have 
all things in oblivion, as if the same had 
never been done. And such like, the lords 
of this realm of Scotland shall do in all 
business betwixt them and the Frenchmen 
in these parts. And if, by sinister informa- 
tion, or any other occasion, their majesties 
have conceived an evil opinion against their 
subjects, they shall utterly forget and 
change the same ; nor they shall not de- 
prive any of them, nor divide any of them, 
or of their subjects, of the offices, benefices, 
or estates which they have bruiked [pos- 
sessed] in the said realm before, by reason 
of any things they have meddled with, 
from the said sixth day of March 1558. 
And farther, shall make no occasion of de- 
privation, or deposing of them by any other 
colour without cause, but rather they shall 
esteem and treat them in time coming as 
good and obedient subjects, providing that 
the said lords and other subjects, on their 
part, make to their majesties whole obedi- 
ence, such like as other natural and faith- 
ful subjects ought to their sovereigns. 

" Item, It is concorded and agreed, that 
it shall be lawful to none of the lords 
of the nobility of Scotland, or any others, 
to make convocation of men of war, but in 
the ordinary causes approved by the laws 
and consuetude of the realm ; and that 
none of them shall cause any men of war, 
strangers, to come in these parts, and much 
less shall attempt to do any thing against 
the king and queen, or against the autho- 
rity of the council and other magistrates 
of the realm ; and they which have pre- 
sented the said petition shall be obliged 
thereunto. And in case any of them, or 



others, find occasion to invade, or take ar- 
mour against any man, as he pretends, 
after that he has communicated the matter 
with the council of the realm, he shall pre- 
sent his complaint to their majesties ; and 
generally they shall oblige them, under the 
said pains, to do the things which pertain 
to good and faithful subjects, for the quiet- 
ness and tranquillity of the realm, and 
rights of their sovereigns. 

" Item, It is agreed, &c. that if any bi- 
shops, abbots, or any other kirkmen, shall 
complain or allege them to have received 
any inj uries, either in their persons or goods, 
the complaint shall be seen and considered by 
the estates in the said convention and par- 
liament, and there shall be made redress as 
they shall find according to reason : and, in 
the meantime, no man shall stop them, but 
they shall bruik their goods ; nor shall do 
any skaith, injury, or violence to them. 
And if any does contravene to this article, 
he shall be pursued by the lords, as a per- 
turber of a good commonwealth. 

" Item, It is concorded, &c. that the said 
lords shall oblige them to observe, and 
cause to be observed, all and sundry points 
and articles agreed in this treatise : aud if it 
happens that any of them, or any other, 
would contravene the same, the remanent 
lords and residue of the whole people, shall 
be enemies to him, and shall pursue him 
till he be chastised and punished according 
to his demerits, 

" Item, It is concorded, &c. that ail the 
whole realm may know that the king and 
queen are not willing to [keep, s. c] any re- 
membrance of any of the troubles and dif- 
ferences bygone, and so far as concerns 
the nobility and other subjects of the realm, 
that their majesties desire to treat them 
humanely, and to be favourable unto them ; 
the said deputes have promised and con- 
corded, that the duke of Chatelherault, and 
all other noblemen of Scotland, shall be 
remitted, and put again in all their goods 
and benefices, which they had and enjoyed 
in France, that they may bruik [possess] 
and enjoy the same in the same manner as 
they did before the differences, the sixth 
[ day of March 1 558 years foresaid, even as 



204 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



the said controversies had never chanced : 
and also, that all capitulations and articles 
agreed upon in times bygone, and specially 
they that were appointed in the king and 
queen's contract, shall be observed and 
kept, as well for the part of their majes- 
ties as for the part of the nobility and peo- 
ple of Scotland, And as concerning David, 
son to the said duke of Chatelherault, now 
being in Bois de Vincent, liberty shall be 
granted to him to return to Scotland, and 
to do as he pleases. Moreover, when 
the said deputies exponed, that some time 
it might chance that the king might mis- 
ter of [have occasion for] his great guns 
and artillery in France, the said lords hav- 
ing consideration thereof, concorded, that 
no other artillery be transported or trans- 
lated out of this realm but they which 
were sent and brought in from the day of 
the decease of Francis king of France, of 
good memory, to these parts ; and that all 
other artillery and munition be reponed in 
places where they were taken forth, and 
in special [those] that have the arms of 
Scotland, shall be put in the places where 
they were taken forth off ; and there shall 
be noblemen of Scotland appointed there- 
fore, and two for the part of the king's ma- 
jesty are to be deputed, to recognise the 
same before the shipping thereof. 

" And, moreover, that where for the part 
of the nobility and people of Scotland, cer- 
tain articles concerning the religion and 
other points were presented, which the 
said deputies would not touch, but consi- 
dering the weight and importance of them, 
remitted the same to be recognised and 
decided by their majesties ; the said lords 
and nobility promised, that a certain num- 
ber of noblemen should be chosen in the 
next convention and parliament, to be sent 
to their majesties, which shall expone to 
their highnesses the things which shall be 
thought needful for the estate of their bu- 
siness ; and for the forementioned and other 
articles and points undecided with the said 
deputies, to the effect that they may know 
their majesties' intention and benevolence 
upon the things which shall be exponed for 
the part of the country, the which also 
shall have with them a confirmation and 



ratification by the estates of the realm of 
the articles which are concorded and agreed 
by the said deputies, to whom also the 
same time, or before, shall be given and 
delivered a like confirmation and ratifica- 
tion made by their majesties, so being that 
the said estates send their ratification fore- 
said. 

" The proclamation of these things above 
written and made, the 8th day of July, 
the year of God 1560. 

" To the loving of the most puissant lord, 
and comfort of all Christians, the most 
puissant prince and princess, and most chris- 
tian king and queen Francis and Mary, by 
the grace of God king and queen of France 
and Scotland, and by the most puissant 
princess Elizabeth, by the same grace queen 
of England, &c. it is concorded, and recon- 
ciliation of peace and amity made, which 
is to be observed inviolable amongst them, 
their subjects, realms and countries, foras- 
much as in name of the said prince and 
princess, it is commanded and straightly 
charged to all manner of persons under 
their obedience, or being in their service, 
from this time forth, to desist from all hos- 
tility both by sea and land, and to keep a 
good peace the one with the other, and 
with charge to the breakers under their 
great peril." 

These things transacted, and the peace 
proclaimed, as said is, sudden provision 
was made for transporting of the French 
to France, of whom the most part were 
put into the English ships, who also car- 
ried with them the whole spoil of Leith ; 
and that was the second benefit which they 
received of their late promised liberty, the 
end whereof is not yet come. The English 
army by land departed the 16th of July, 
the year of God 1560 years. The most 
part of our nobility protestants, honourably 
convoyed them, as in very deed they had 
well deserved; but the lord James would 
not leave the lord Grey, with the other 
noblemen of England, till that they entered 
into Berwick ; after whose returning, the 
council began to look as well upon the 
affairs of the commonwealth as upon the 
matters that might concern the stability of 
religion. As before we have heard, the 



Book III. J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



205 



parliament was concluded to begin the 20th 
of July, and to be continued till the 1st of 
August next ; and therefore the lords made 
the greater expedition, that all things might 
be put in convenient order; but before all 
things, the preachers exhorted them — for 
then in Edinburgh were the chief part of 
the ministers of the realm — to be thankful 
unto God, and next to provide, that the 
ministers might be distributed as the neces- 
sity of the country required. A day was 
stated, when that the whole nobility, and 
greatest part of the congregation, assembled 
in St Giles' kirk in Edinburgh, where, 
after the sermon made for that purpose, 
public thanks were given unto God for his 
merciful deliverance, in form as follows : 

THANKSGIVING FOR OUR DELIVERANCE, WITH 
PRAYERS. 

" O eternal and everlasting God, Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has not only 
commanded us to pray, and promised to 
hear us, but also willeth us to magnify thy 
mercies and glorify thy name when thou 
showest thyself pitiful and favourable unto 
us, especially when thou deliverest us from 
desperate dangers : for so did thy servants 
Abraham, David, Jehoshaphat, and Heze- 
kiah, yea, thy whole people of Israel omit- 
ted not the same, when thou by thy mighty 
hand didst confound their enemies, and didst 
deliver them from fear and danger of death 
intended. We ought not, nor can we for- 
get, O Lord, in how miserable estate stood 
this poor country, and we the just inhabi- 
tants of the same not many days past, 
when idolatry was maintained, when cruel 
strangers did empire, when virgins were 
deflowered, matrons corrupted, men's wives 
violently and villanously oppressed, the 
blood of innocents shed without mercy; 
and finally, when the unjust command- 
ments of proud tyrants were obeyed as a 
law. Out of those miseries, O Lord, 
could neither our wit, policy, nor strength, 
deliver us; yea, thou didst show to us, 
■ how vain was the help of man where thy 
blessing giveth not victory.' In those our 
anguishes, O Lord, we sobbed unto thee, 
we cried for thy help, we proclaimed thy 
name, as thy troubled flock, persecuted for 
thy truth's sake. Mercifully hast thou 



heard us, O Lord, mercifully, we say, be- 
cause that neither in us, neither yet in our 
confederates, was there any cause why that 
thou shouldst have given unto us so joy- 
ful and sudden a deliverance : for neither 
of us both ceased to do wickedly, even in 
the midst of our greatest troubles ; and yet 
hast thou looked upon us so pitifully as 
that we had given unto thee most perfect 
obedience. For thou hast disappointed the 
counsels of the crafty ; thou hast bridled 
the rage of the cruel ; and thou hast of 
thy mercy set this our perishing realm at a 
reasonable liberty. O give us hearts — thou 
Lord that only givest all good gifts — with 
reverence and fear, to meditate thy won- 
drous works late wrought in our eyes. Let 
not the remembrance of the same unthauk- 
fully to slip out of our wavering minds. 
We grant and acknowledge, O Lord, that 
whatsoever we have received shall fall in 
oblivion with us, and so turn to our con- 
demnation, unless thou, by the power of 
thy Holy Spirit, keep and retain us in re- 
cent and perpetual memory of the same. 
We beseech thee, therefore, O Father of 
mercies, that as of thy undeserved grace 
thou hast partly removed our darkness, 
suppressed idolatry, and taken from above 
our heads the devouring sword of merciless 
strangers, that so it will please thee to pro- 
ceed with us in this thy grace begun : and 
albeit that in us there is nothing that may 
move thy Majesty to show us thy favour; 
O yet, for Christ Jesus thy only w r ell be- 
loved Son's sake — whose name we bear, 
and whose doctrine we profess — we beseech 
thee never to suffer us to forsake or deny 
this thy verity, which now we profess : 
but seeing that thou hast mercifully heard 
us, and hast caused thy verity to triumph 
in us ; so we crave of thee continuance to 
the end, that thy godly name may be glori- 
fied in us thy creatures. And seeing that 
nothing is more odious in thy presence, O 
Lord, than is ingratitude, and violation of 
an oath, and covenant made in thy name ; 
and seeing that thou hast made our confe- 
derates of England the instruments by 
whom we are now set at this liberty, to 
whom we in thy name have promised mu- 
tual faith again ; let us never fall to that 



206 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



unthankfulness, O Lord, that either we de- 
clare ourselves unthankful unto them, or 
profaners of thy holy name. Confound 
thou the counsels of those that go about 
to break that most godly league contracted 
in thy name, and retain thou us so firmly 
together, by the power of thy Holy Spirit, 
that Satan have never power to set us 
again at variance or discord. Give us thy 
grace to live in that christian charity which 
thy Son our Lord Jesus hath so earnestly 
commanded to all the members of his body ; 
that other nations, provoked by our exam- 
ple, may set aside all ungodly war, conten- 
tions, and strife, and study to live in tran- 
quillity and peace, as it becomes the sheep 
of thy pasture, and the people that daily 
look for our final deliverance, by the com- 
ing again of our Lord Jesus ; to whom, 
with thee, and the Holy Spirit, be all ho- 
nour, glory, and praise, now and ever. 
Amen." 

Hereafter were the commissioners of 
burghs, with some of the nobility and ba- 
rons, appointed to see the equal distribu- 
tion of ministers, to change and transport 
as the most part should think expedient. 
And so was John Knox appointed to Edin- 
burgh, Christopher Goodman — who the 
most part of the troubles had remained in 
Ayr — was appointed to St Andrews, Adam 
Heriot to Aberdeen, Mr John Rowe to St 
Johnstone, Paul Meffan — to whom was no 
infamy then known — to Jedburgh, William 
Christison to Dundee, and David Ferguson 
to Dunfermline, and Mr David Lindsay to 
Leith. There were nominated for superin- 
tendants, Mr John Spottiswood for Lothian, 
Mr John Winram for Fife, Mr John Wil- 
lock for Glasgow, the laird of Dun for 
Angus and Mearns, Mr John Carswell for 
Argyle and the Isles. These to be elected at 
the days appointed, unless that the countries 
wherein they were to be appointed could in 
the meantime find out men more able or 
sufficient, or else show such causes as might 
inhabill them [make them unfit] from that 
dignity. 

The parliament approaching, due adver- 
tisement was made, by the council, to all 
such as by law and ancient custom had, or 
might claim to have vote therein. The as- 



sembly was great, notwithstanding that 
some, as well of those that were called 
spiritual as temporal lords contemptuously 
did absent themselves : and yet the chief 
pillars of the papistical kirk gave their pre- 
sence, such as the bishops of St Andrews, 
Dumblane, and Dunkeld, with others of 
the inferior sort, besides them that had re- 
nounced papistry and openly professed 
Jesus Christ with us, such as the bishop of 
Galloway, the abbots of Lindores, Culross, 
St Colmes-inch, Newbottle, and Holyrood- 
house, the prior of St Andrews, Colding- 
ham, and St Mary Isle, the sub-prior of St 
Andrews, and divers others, whom we ob- 
served not. 

At the same time of parliament, John 
Knox publicly taught the prophet Haggai; 
the doctrine was proper for the time. In 
application whereof he was so special, and 
so vehement, that some, having greater re- 
spect to the world than to God's glory, 
feeling themselves pricked, said in mock- 
age, " "We must now forget ourselves, and 
bear the barrow to build the house of 
God." God be merciful to the speaker ; 
for we fear that he shall have experience 
that the building of his own house — the 
house of God being despised — shall not be 
so prosperous, and of such firmness, as we 
desire it were. And albeit some mocked, 
yet others were godly moved, who did as- 
semble themselves together to consult what 
things were to be proponed to that present 
parliament ; and after deliberation, was this 
subsequent supplication offered. 

" The barons, gentlemen, burgesses, and 
others, true subjects of this realm, pro- 
fessing the Lord Jesus within the same, 
to the nobility and states of parliament 
presently assembled within the said 
realm, desire grace, mercy, and peace, 
from God the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, with the increase of his 
Holy Spirit, &c. 
" Please your honours to reduce to re- 
membrance how divers and sundry times, 
we — with some of yourselves— most hum- 
bly suited at the feet of the late queen re- 
gent, freedom and liberty of conscience, 
with a godly reformation of abuses, which, 
by the malice of Satan and negligence 



Book 1U.) 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



207 



of men, are crept in, in the religion 
of God, and are maintained by such as 
take upon them the name of clergy. And 
albeit that our godly and most reasonable 
suit was then disdainfully rejected, where- 
of no small troubles have ensued, as your 
honours well know, yet seeing that the 
same necessity yet remaineth that then 
moved us ; and moreover, that God of his 
mercy has now put into your hands to 
take such order as God thereby may be 
glorified, this commonwealth quieted, and 
the policy thereof established. We cannot 
cease to crave of your honours the redress 
of such enormities as manifestly are, and of 
long time have been, committed by the 
place holders of the ministry, and others of 
the clergy within this realm. And, first, 
seeing that God of his great mercy, by the 
light of his word, has manifested to no 
small number of this realm, that the doc- 
trine of the Roman kirk received by the 
said clergy, and maintained through their 
tyranny by fire and sword, containeth in 
itself many pestiferous errors, which cannot 
but bring damnation to the souls of such 
as therewith shall be infected ; such as are 
the doctrine of transubstantiation ; of the 
adoration of Christ's body under the form 
of bread, as they term it; of the merits of 
works, and justification that they allege 
cometh thereby ; together with the doc- 
trine of the papistical indulgences, purga- 
tory, pilgrimage, and praying to saints de- 
parted, which all either repugn to the plain 
scriptures, or else have no ground of the 
doctrine of our master Jesus Christ, his 
prophets, nor apostles. 

Fir st y We humbly therefore crave of 
your honours, that such doctrine and idol- 
atry as by God's word are both condemned, 
so may they be abolished by act of this pre- 
sent parliament, and punishment appointed 
for the transgressors. 

Secondly, Seeing that the sacraments of 
Jesus Christ are most shamefully abused 
and profaned by that Roman harlot and 
her sworn vassals ; and also because that 
the true discipline of the ancient kirk 
is utterly now amongst that sect extin- 
guished : — for w r ho within the realm are 
more corrupt in life and manners than are 



they that are called th.e clergy, living in 
whoredom, adultery, deflowering virgins, 
corrupting matrons, and doing all abomina- 
tions, without fear of punishment ; — we 
humbly therefore desire your honours to 
find remedy against the one and the other. 

Thirdly, Because that man of sin most 
falsely doth claim to himself the titles of, 
" The vicar of Christ, the successor of 
Peter, the head of the kirk, that he can- 
not err, that all power is granted unto 
him," &c. ; by the which usurped autho- 
rity, he takes upon him the distribution 
and possession of the whole patrimony of 
the kirk, whereby the true ministers of 
the word of God long time have been alto- 
gether neglected, the godly learning de- 
spised, the schools not provided, and the 
poor not only defrauded of their portion, 
but also most tyrannously oppressed ; we 
likewise hereof desire remedy. 

And lest that your honours should 
doubt in any of the former premises, we 
offer ourselves evidently to prove, that in 
all the rabble of the clergy there is not one 
lawful minister, if God's word, the practice 
of the apostles, the sincerity of the primi- 
tive kirk, and their own ancient laws shall 
j udge of lawful election. We farther offer 
ourselves to prove them all thieves and 
murderers, yea, rebels and traitors to the 
lawful authority of emperors, kings and 
princes ; and, therefore, unworthy to be 
suffered in any reformed commonwealth. 
How T maliciously they have murdered our 
brethren, for no other cause, but for that 
they have offered unto us the light of God's 
word, your honours cannot be ignorant ; and 
in what hazard their tyranny has brought 
this whole realm, the ages after will con- 
sider. If ye look in them for any other 
fruit in times to come, than ye have seen 
in them whom we accuse, we are assured 
ye shall be deceived. Now has God, be- 
yond all expectation of man, made your- 
selves, who sometimes were suppliants 
with us for reformation, judges, as it were, 
in the cause of God ; at last, he has so 
subdued your enemies unto you, that by 
violence they are not able to suppress the 
verity, as heretofore they have done. We, 
therefore, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, 



208 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1660 



crave of your honours, that either they may 
be compelled to answer to our former ac- 
cusations, and unto such other things as 
we justly have to lay to then- charges, or 
else that — all affection laid aside — ye pro- 
nounce them such by censement [judg- 
ment] of this parliament, and cause them 
to be so reputed, as by us most justly they 
are accused : especially, that they may be 
decerned unworthy of honour, authority, 
charge, or cure within the kirk of God ; 
and so from henceforth never to join vote 
in parliament. Which if ye do not, then, 
in the fear of God, and by the assurance of 
his word, we forewarn you, that as ye leave 
a grievous yoke, and a burden intolerable 
upon the kirk of God within this realm, so 
shall they be thorns in your eyes, and 
pricks in your sides, whom after, w r hen 
ye w r ould, ye shall have no power to re- 
move. God the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ give you upright hearts, seeking his 
glory; and true understanding what this 
day he who has delivered you from bond- 
age, both spiritual and temporal, craveth of 
you by his servants : and your answer most 
humbly we require." 

This our supplication being read in 
audience of the whole assembly, divers 
men w r ere of divers judgments ; for as 
some there were that uprightly favoured 
the cause of God, so were there many 
that for worldly respects abhorred a per- 
fect reformation — for how many within 
Scotland that have the name of nobility, 
are not unjust possessors of the patrimony 
of the kirk — and yet were the barons and 
ministers called, and commandment given 
unto them, to draw, in plain and several 
heads, the sum of that doctrine which they 
would maintain, and would desire that pre- 



* There is reason to think that Knox had the 
chief hand in drawing up this summary of chris- 
tian doctrine, which was done in four days. 
Had it been the work of a numerous assembly 
or council, it would have taken as many months, 
and would not have been so well done. With 
the exception of the preface, it is to be found en- 
tire in the Statute Book, or acts of the Scots 
parliament, with which I have compared it, and 
have found about thirty verbal differences, not 
one of which affects the sense. 1 had begun 
to mark them on the margin of my copy with a 
view to take them in as various readings ; but 
most of them being mere typographical errors, 



sent parliament to establish, as wholesome, 
true, and only necessary to be believed and 
received within that realm. Which they 
willingly accepted, and within four days 
presented this confession as it followeth, 
without alteration of any one sentence : 

" The Confession of Faith professed and 
believed by the protestants within the 
realm of Scotland, published by them in 
parliament, and by the estates thereof 
ratified and approved, as wholesome and 
sound doctrine, grounded upon the in- 
fallible truth of God's word.* 

" Matthew xxiv. And this glad tidings of 
the kingdom shall be preached through 
the whole world, for a witness unto all 
nations, and then shall the end come." 

THE PREFACE. 

" The estates of Scotland, with the inha- 
bitants of the same, professing Christ 
Jesus his holy evangel, to their natural 
countrymen, and unto all other realms 
and nations, professing the same Lord 
Jesus with them, wish grace, mercy, and 
peace from God the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, with the Spirit of righteous 
judgment, for salutation. 
" Long have we thirsted, dear brethren, 
to have notified unto the world the sum of 
that doctrine which we profess, and for the 
which we have sustained infamy and danger. 
But such has been the rage of Satan against 
us, and against Christ Jesus his eternal 
verity lately born among us, that to this 
day no time has been granted unto us, to 
clear our consciences, as most gladly we 
would have done : for how we have been 
tossed a whole year bypast, the most part 
of Europe, as we suppose, does understand. 



or mistakes in copying, sometimes in the one and 
sometimes in the other, I have satisfied myself 
with correcting my copy where the error ap- 
peared to be in it, as I have done all along by 
comparing it with the London suppressed edi- 
tion. It is worthy of remark that the act of 
parliament has in the side margin, a profusion 
of scripture references, in proof of the doctrines 
laid down, not one of which is in the Glasgow 
MS. copy. David Buchanan has given them 
in his margin ; but the suppressed edition has 
them not, neither have any of the modern ones. 
—Ed. 



Book IILJ 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



209 



But seeing that of the infinite goodness of 
our God — who never suffereth his afflicted 
utterly to be confounded — above expecta- 
tion, we have obtained some rest and li- 
berty, we could not but set forth this brief 
and plain confession of such doctrine as is 
proponed unto us, and as we believe and 
profess, partly for satisfaction of our breth- 
ren, whose hearts we doubt not have been, 
and yet are wounded by the despiteful rail- 
ing of such as yet have not learned to 
speak well ; and partly for stopping of the 
mouths of impudent blasphemers, who 
boldly condemn that which they have 
neither heard nor understood : not that we 
judge that the cankered malice of such is 
able to be cured by this simple confession ; 
No, we know that the sweet savour of the 
evangel is, and shall be death to the sons of 
perdition. But we have chief respect to 
our weak and infirm brethren, to whom we 
would communicate the bottom of our 
hearts, lest that they be troubled and 
carried away by diversity of rumours which 
Satan sparseth [spreadeth] contrary to us, to 
the defacing of this our godly enterprise ; 
protesting, that if any man will note in this 
our confession any article or sentence re- 
pugning to God's holy word, that it would 
please him, of his gentleness, and for chris- 
tian charity's sake, to admonish us of the 
same in writ, and we of our honours and 
fidelity do promise unto him satisfaction 
from the mouth of God, that is, from his 
holy scriptures, or else reformation of that 
which he shall prove to be amiss. For God 
we take to record in our consciences, that 
from our hearts we abhor all sects of he- 
resy, and all teachers of erroneous doctrine ; 
and that with all humility we embrace the 
purity of Christ's evangel, which is the 
only food of our souls ; and, therefore, so 
precious unto us, that we are determined 
to suffer the extremity of worldly danger, 
rather than that we will suffer ourselves to 
be defrauded of the same ; for hereof we 
are most certainly persuaded, ' That who- 
soever denies Christ Jesus, or is ashamed 
of him, in presence of men, shall be denied 
before the Father, and before his holy 
angels ;' and, therefore, by the assistance of 
the mighty Spirit of the same Lord Jesus, 



we firmly purpose to abide to the end in 
the confession of this our faith. 

I. OF GOD. 

" We confess and acknowledge one only 
God, to whom only we must cleave, whom 
only we must worship, and in whom only 
we put our trust, who is eternal, infinite, 
unmeasurable, incomprehensible, omnipo- 
tent, invisible, one in substance, and yet 
distinct in three persons, the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost ; by whom we 
confess and believe all things in heaven 
and in earth, as well visible as invisible, to 
have been created, to be retained in their 
being, and to be ruled and guided by his 
inscrutable Providence, to such end as his 
eternal wisdom, goodness, and justice, has 
appointed them, to the manifestation of his 
ow n glory. 

II. OF THE CREATION OF MAN. 

" We confess and acknowledge this our 
God to have created man — to wit, our first 
father Adam — of w r hom also God formed 
the woman to his own image and simili- 
tude, to whom he gave wisdom, lordship, 
justice, free will and clear knowledge of 
himself; so that in the whole nature of 
man there could be noted no imperfection; 
from which honour and perfection man 
and woman both fell; the woman being 
deceived by the serpent, and man obeying 
the voice of the woman, both conspiring 
against the sovereign majesty of God, who 
in express words had before threatened 
death, if they presumed to eat of the for- 
bidden tree. 

III. OF ORIGINAL SIN. 

" By which transgression, commonly 
called original sin, was the image of God 
utterly defaced in man, and he and his 
posterity of nature became enemies to God, 
slaves to Satan, and servants to sin, inso- 
much that death everlasting has had, and 
shall, have power and dominion over all 
that has not been, are not, or shall not be 
regenerate from above, which regeneration 
is wrought by the power of the Holy 
Ghost working in the hearts of the elect 
of God an assured faith in the promises of 
2 D 



210 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



God, revealed to us in his word ; by which 
faith they apprehend Jesus Christ, with the 
graces and benefits promised in him. 

IV. OF THE REVELATION OF THE PROMISE. 

" For this we constantly believe, that 
God, after the fearful and horrible defection 
of man from his obedience, did seek Adam 
again, call upon him, rebuke his sin, con- 
vict him for his sin, and in the end made 
unto him a most joyful promise, to wit, 
f That the seed of the woman shall break 
down the serpent's head ;' that is, s should 
destroy the works of the Devil;' which 
promise, as it was repeated and made more 
clear from time to time, so was it embraced 
with joy, and most constantly retained of 
all the faithful from Adam to Noah, from 
Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to David, 
and so forth to the incarnation of Jesus 
Christ, who all — we mean the faithful 
fathers under the law — did see the joyful 
days of Christ Jesus, and did rejoice. 

V. THE CONTINUANCE, INCREASE, AND PRE- 
SERVATION OF THE KIRK. 

" We most constantly believe, that God 
preserved, instructed, multiplied, honoured, 
decorated, and from death called to life his 
kirk in all ages, from Adam, till the coming 
of Christ Jesus in the flesh : for Abraham 
he called from his father's country, him he 
instructed, his seed he multiplied, the same 
he marvellously preserved, and more mar- 
vellously delivered from the bondage [and 
tyranny, statute book] of Pharoah ; to them 
he gave his laws, constitutions, and cere- 
monies ; them he possessed in the land of 
Canaan; to them after judges, and after 
Saul, he gave David to be king ; to whom 
he made promise, ' That of the fruit of his 
loins should one sit for ever upon his regal 
seat.' To this same people from time to 
time he sent prophets to reduce them to 
the right way of their God, from the which 
oftentimes they declined by idolatry. And 
albeit [that, stat. b.] for their stubborn con- 
tempt of justice, he was compelled to give 
them into the hands of their enemies, as 
before was threatened by the mouth of 
Moses, insomuch that the whole city was 
destroyed, the temple burnt with fire, and 



the whole land left desolate the space of 
seventy years ; yet of mercy did he reduce 
them again to Jesusalem, where the city 
and temple were re-edified, and they, against 
all temptations and assaults of Satan, did 
abide till the Messias came, according to the 
promise. 

VI. OF THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST JESUS. 

" When the fulness of time came, God 
sent his Son, his eternal wisdom, the sub- 
stance of his own glory, into this world, 
who took the nature of manhood, of the 
substance of a woman, to wit, of a virgin, 
and that by the operation of the Holy 
Ghost ; and so was born the just seed of 
David ; the Angel of the great council of 
God; the very Messias promised, whom 
we acknowledge and confess ; Emanuel, 
very God and very man, two perfect natures 
united and joined in one person. By 
which our confession, we damn [condemn, 
stat. b.] the damnable and pestilent heresies 
of Arius, Marcion, Eutiches, Nestorius, 
and such others, as either [did, stat. b.] 
deny the eternity of his Godhead, or the 
verity of his human nature, or confound 
them, or yet divide them. 

VII. WHY IT BEHOVED THE MEDIATOR TO BE 
VERY GOD AND VERY MAN. 

" We acknowledge and confess, that this 
most wondrous conjunction betwixt the 
Godhead and manhood in Christ Jesus, did 
proceed from the eternal and immutable 
decree of God, whence also our salvation 
springeth and dependeth. 

VIII. ELECTION. 

" For that same eternal God, and Father, 
who, of mere mercy, elected us in Christ 
Jesus his Son, before the foundation of the 
world was laid, appointed him to be our 
Head, our Brother, our Pastor, and great 
Bishop of our souls. But, because that 
the enmity betwixt the justice of God and 
our sins, was such, that no flesh by itself, 
could, or might have attained unto God, it 
behoved that the Son of God should des- 
cend unto us, and take himself a body of 
our body, flesh of our flesh, and bone of 
our bone, and so became the perfect Media- 



Book III.} 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



211 



tor betwixt God and man ; giving 1 power to 
so many as believe in him, to l>e the sons 
of God, as he himself doth witness : • I 
pass up to my Father and your Father, to 
my God and unto your God ;' by which, 
most holy fraternity, whatsoever we have 
lost in Adam, is restored to us again. And 
for this cause are we not afraid to call God 
our Father, not so much iu that he has 
created us — which we have common with 
the reprobate — as for that he has given to 
us his only Son to be our brother, and given 
unto us grace to embrace him for our only 
Mediator, as before is said. It behoved, 
farther, the Messias and Redeemer to be 
very God and very man, because he was to 
lie under the punishment due for our trans- 
gressions, and to present himself in the 
presence of his Father's judgment, as in our 
person, to suffer for our transgression and 
inobedience, by death to overcome him 
that was author of death. But, because the 
only Godhead could not suffer death, 
neither [yet, stat. b.] could the only man- 
hood overcome the same; he joined both 
together in one person, that the imbecility 
of the one should suffer and be subject to 
death, which we had deserved, and the in- 
finite and invincible power of the other, to 
wit, of the Godhead, should triumph, and 
purchase unto us life, liberty, and perpetual 
victory. And so we confess, and most un- 
doubtedly believe. 

ix. Christ's death, passion, burial, &c. 

" That our Lord Jesus Christ offered 
himself a voluntary sacrifice unto his 
Father for us ; that he suffered contradic- 
tion of sinners ; that he was wounded and 
plagued for our transgressions ; that he 
being the clean and innocent Lamb of God, 
was damned in the presence of an earthly 
judge, that w T e might be absolved before 
the tribunal seat of our God : that he suf- 
fered not only the cruel death of the cross 
— which was accursed by the sentence of 
God — but also, that he suffered for a season 
the wrath of his Father, which sinners had 
deserved. But yet we avow, that he re- 
mained the only well-beloved and blessed 
Son of his Father, even in the midst of his 
anguish and torment, w hich he suffered in 



body and soul, to make the full satisfaction 
for the sins of his people. 'After the which, 
we confess and avow, that there remains no 
other sacrifice for sins ; which if any affirm^ 
we nothing doubt to avow, that they are 
blasphemers against Christ's death, and 
the everlasting purgation and satisfaction 
purchased unto us by the same. 

X. RESURRECTION. 

" We undoubtedly believe, that inso- 
much as it was impossible that the dolours 
of death should retain in bondage the 
Author of Life, that our Lord Jesus Christ 
crucified, died, and buried, who descended 
into hell, did rise again for our justification, 
and destroying him who was author of 
death, brought life again to us that were 
subject to death, and to the bondage of the 
same. We know that his resurrection was 
confirmed by the testimony of his very 
enemies : by the resurrection of the dead, 
whose sepulchres did open, and they did 
arise and appeared to many within the city 
of Jerusalem. It was also confirmed by 
the testimony of angels, and by the senses 
and judgments of his apostles and others, 
who had conversation, and did eat and 
drink with him after his resurrection. 

XI. ASCENSION. 

" We nothing doubt, but that the self 
same body which was born of the virgin, 
was crucified, dead, and buried, and which 
did rise again, did ascend into the heaven 
for the accomplishment of all things : 
where, in our names, and for our comfort, 
he hath resumed all power in heaven and 
earth ; where he sitteth at the right hand 
of the Father, inaugurate in his kingdom, 
advocate and only mediator for us; which 
glory, honour, and prerogative, he alone 
amongst the brethren shall possess, till that 
all his enemies be made his footstool, as 
that we undoubtedly believe they shall be 
in the final judgment, to the execution 
whereof, we certainly believe, that the 
same, our Lord Jesus, shall visibly and ap- 
parently return as that he was seen ascend. 
And then w r e firmly believe, that the time 
of refreshing and restitution of all things 
shall come, insomuch that those that from 



212 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



the beginning have suffered violence, in- 
jury, and wrong, for righteousness' sake, 
shall inherit that blessed immortality pro- 
mised from the beginning; but contrary- 
wise, the stubborn, cruel, inobedient op- 
pressors, filthy persons, adulterers, and all 
sorts of unfaithful men, shall be cast into 
the dungeon of utter darkness, where their 
worm shall not die, neither yet their fire 
be extinguished ; the remembrance of the 
which day, and of the judgment to be exe- 
cuted in the same, is not only to us a bri- 
dle whereby our carnal lusts are restrained, 
but also such inestimable comfort, that 
neither may the threatening of worldly 
princes, neither yet the fear of temporal 
death and present danger move us to re- 
nounce and forsake that blessed society, 
which we the members have with our head 
and only mediator Christ Jesus, whom we 
confess and avow to be the Messias pro- 
mised, the only head of the church, our 
just lawgiver, our only high priest, advo- 
cate, and mediator. In which honours and 
offices, if a man or angel presume to in- 
trude themselves, we utterly detest and ab- 
hor them, as blasphemous to our sovereign 
and supreme governor Christ Jesus. 1 ' 

XII. FAITH IN THE HOLY GHOST. 

" This our faith, and the assurance of 
the same, proceeds not from flesh and blood, 
that is to say, from no natural powers with- 
in us, but is the inspiration of the Holy 
Ghost, whom we confess God equal with 
the Father and with the Son ; who sancti- 
fieth us, and bringeth us into all verity, by 
his own operation, without whom we should 
remain for ever enemies to God, and igno- 
rant of his Son Christ Jesus. For of na- 
ture we are so dead, so perverse and blind, 
that neither can we feel when we are 
pricked, see the light when it shines, nor 
assent to the will of God when it is reveal- 
ed, only [unless, s. b.] the spirit of the Lord 
Jesus quickeneth that which is dead, re- 
moveth the darkness from our minds, and 
boweth our stubborn hearts to the obe- 
dience of his blessed will : and so as we 
confess that God the Father created us 
when we were not; as his Son, our Lord 
Jesus redeemed us when we were enemies 



to him : so also we confess that the Holy 
Ghost does sanctify and regenerate us, 
without all respect to any merit proceeding 
from us, be it before or be it after our re- 
generation. To speak this one thing yet in 
more plain words, as we willingly spoil 
ourselves of all honour and glory of our 
own creation and redemption ; so do we 
also of our regeneration and sanctification : 
for of ourselves we are not sufficient to 
think one good thought ; but he who has 
begun the good work in us, is only he that 
continueth us in the same, to the praise 
and glory of his undeserved grace. 

XIII. THE CAUSE OF GOOD WORKS. 

" So that the cause of good works, we 
confess to be, not our free will, but the Spirit 
of the Lord Jesus, who dwelling in our 
hearts by true faith, brings forth such good 
works as God hath prepared for us to walk 
in : for this we most boldly affirm, that 
blasphemy it is to say, that Christ Jesus 
abides in the heart of such as in whom 
there is no spirit of sanctification. And 
therefore we fear not to affirm, that mur- 
derers, oppressors, cruel persecutors, adul- 
terers, whoremongers, filthy persons, idola- 
tors, drunkards, thieves, and all workers of 
iniquity, have neither true faith, neither 
any portion of the spirit of sanctification, 
which proceedeth from the Lord Jesus, so 
long as they obstinately continue in their 
wickedness : for how soon that ever the 
spirit of the Lord Jesus — which God's 
elect children receive by true faith — takes 
possession in the heart of any man, so 
soon does he regenerate and renew the 
same man ; so that he begins to hate that 
which before he loved, and begins to love 
that which before he hated; and from 
thence comes that continual battle which 
is betwixt the flesh and the spirit in God's 
children, while the flesh and natural man 
— according to their owu corruption — lusts 
for things pleasing and delectable to it- 
self, grudges in adversity, is lifted up in 
prosperity, and at every moment is prone 
and ready to offend the majesty of God. 
But the Spirit of God, which giveth wit- 
nessing to our spirit, that we are the sons 
of God, makes us to resist the devil, to ab- 



Book III. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



213 



hor filthy pleasures, to groan in God's pre- 
sence for deliverance from this bondage of 
corruption ; and finally, to triumph orer 
sin, that it reign not in our mortal bodies. 
This battle has not the carnal man, being- 
destitute of God's Spirit ; but do follow 
and obey sin with greediness, and without 
repentance, even as the devil and their cor- 
rupt lusts do prick them : but the sons of 
God — as before is said — do fight against 
sin, do sob and mourn, when they perceive 
themselves tempted to iniquity; and if 
they fall, they rise again with earnest and 
unfeigned repentance. And these things 
they do not by their own power, but the 
power of the Lord Jesus — Avithout whom 
they were able to do nothing — worketh in 
them all that is good. 

XIV. WHAT WORKS ARE REPUTED GOOD BE- 
FORE GOD. 

" We confess and acknowledge, that God 
has given to man his holy law, in which 
not only are forbidden all such works which 
displease and offend his godly majesty; but 
also are commanded all such as please him, 
and as he hath promised to reward. And 
these works be of two sorts ; the one are 
done to the honour of God, the other to 
the profit of our neighbours : and both 
have the revealed will of God for their as- 
surance. To have one God, to worship and 
honour him, to call upon him in all our 
troubles, to reverence his holy name, to 
hear his word, to believe the same, to com- 
municate with his holy sacraments, are the 
works of the first table. To honour father, 
mother, princes, rulers, and superior powers, 
to love them, to support them, yea, to obey 
their charges — no repugning to the com- 
mandment of God — to save the lives of in- 
nocents, to repress tyranny, to defend the 
oppressed, to keep our bodies clean and 
holy, to live in sobriety and temperance, to 
deal justly with all men, both in word and 
deed ; and finally, to repress all appetite of 
our neighbour's hurt, are the good works 
of the second table, which are most pleasing 
and acceptable unto God, as these works 
that are commanded by himself. The con- 
trary whereof is sin most odious, which 
always displeases him and provokes him to 



anger ; as, not to call upon him alone 
when we have need ; not 'to hear his word 
with reverence ; to contemn and despise it ; 
to have or to worship idols, to maintain 
and defend idolatry; lightly to esteem the 
reverend name of God ; to profane, abuse, 
or contemn the sacraments of Christ Jesus ; 
to disobey or resist any that God has placed 
in authority, while they pass not over the 
bounds of their office, to murder, to con- 
sent thereto, to bear hatred, or suffer inno- 
cent blood to be shed, if we may gainstand 
it ; and finally, the transgressing any other 
commandment in the first and second table, 
we confess and affirm to be sin, by the 
which God's hot displeasure is kindled 
against the proud and unthankful world. 
So that good works we affirm to be those 
only that are done in faith at God's com- 
mandment, who in his law has expressed 
what be the things that please him. And 
evil works, we affirm, not only those that 
are expressly done against God's command- 
ment, but those also that, in matters of re- 
ligion and worshipping of God, have no 
assurance but the invention and opinion of 
man, which God from the beginning has 
ever rejected; as by the prophet Isaiah, 
and by our master Christ Jesus, we are 
taught in these words, ( In vain do they 
worship me, teaching the doctrine being 
precepts of men.' 

XV. THE PERFECTION OF THE LAW, AND Dl- 
PERFECTION OF MAN. 

" The law of God, we confess and ac- 
knowledge most just, most equal, most 
holy, and most perfect, commanding those 
things, which being wrought in perfection, 
were able to give life, and to bring man to 
eternal felicity : but our nature is so cor- 
rupted, so weak and imperfect, that we 
are never able to fulfil the works of the 
law in perfection ; yea, ' If we say we 
have no sin — even after we are regenerat- 
ed — we deceive ourselves, and the verity 
of God is not in us.' And, therefore, it 
behoved us to apprehend Christ Jesus, with 
his justice and satisfaction, who is the end 
and accomplishment of the law, to all that 
believe, by whom we are set at this liberty, 
that the curse and malediction of the law 



214. 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



[of God, s. b.] fall not upon us, albeit we fulfil 
not the same in all points. For God the 
Father beholding us in the body of his 
Son Christ Jesus, accepteth our imperfect 
obedience as it were perfect, and covereth 
our works, which are defiled with many 
spots, with the justice of his Son. We do 
not mean that we are set so at liberty, that 
we owe no obedience to the law, for that be- 
fore we have plainly confessed, but this we 
affirm, that no man in earth — Christ Jesus 
only excepted — hath given, giveth, or shall 
give in work that obedience to the law 
which the law requireth ; but when we 
have done all things, we must fall down 
and unfeignedly confess, * That we are 
unprofitable servants :' and therefore, who- 
soever boast themselves of the merits of 
their own works, or put their trust in the 
works of supererogation, they boast them- 
selves of that which is not, and put their 
trust in damnable idolatry. 

XVI. OF THE KIRK. 

As we believe in one God, Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, so do we most ear- 
nestly believe that from the beginning 
there has been, now is, and to the end of 
the world shall be a church, that is to say, 
a company and multitude of men chosen of 
God, who rightly worship and embrace 
him, by true faith in Christ Jesus, who is 
the only head of the same kirk, which also is 
the body and spouse of Christ Jesus ; which 
kirk is catholic, that is, universal, because 
it contains the elect of all ages, all realms, 
nations, and tongues, be they of the Jews, 
or be they of the Gentiles, who have com- 
munion and society with God the Father, 
and with his Son Christ Jesus, through 
the sanctification of his Holy Spirit ; and 
therefore it is called communion, not of 
profane persons, but of saints, who are 
citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, have 
the fruition of the most inestimable bene- 



* I doubt the propriety of including the chil- 
dren of believers in a definition of the invi- 
sible church. Those who belong to that spi- 
ritual body can never be separated from it, be- 
cause they cannot be separated from its head. 
But many children of believing parents make it 
evident when they grow up, that they are not 



fits, to wit, of one God, One Lord Jesus, 
one faith, and of one baptism, without the 
which [out of which] kirk, there is neither 
life, nor eternal felicity : and therefore we 
utterly abhor that blasphemy of those that 
affirm, that men that live according to equity 
and justice, shall be saved, what religion 
soever they have professed. For as with- 
out Christ Jesus there is neither life nor 
salvation, so shall there none be partici- 
pant thereof but such as the Father has 
given unto his Son Christ Jesus, and those 
in time come to him, avow his doctrine, 
and believe in him, we comprehend the 
children with the faithful parents. * This 
kirk is invisible, known only to God, who 
alone knoweth whom he hath chosen, and 
comprehends as well — as said is — the elect 
that be departed, commonly called the 
kirk triumphant, as those that yet live, 
and fight against sin and Satan, as shall 
live hereafter.' 

XVII. THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

" The elect departed are in peace, and 
rest from their labours ; not that they sleep 
and come to a certain oblivion, as some 
fantastic heads do affirm, but that they are 
delivered from all fear, all torment, and all 
temptation, to which we and all God's 
elect are subject in this life ; and therefore 
do bear the name of the kirk militant. As 
contrary always, the reprobate and unfaith- 
ful departed, have anguish, torment, and 
pain, that cannot be expressed : so that 
neither are the one nor the other in such 
sleep that they feel not joy or torment, as 
the parable of Christ Jesus in the sixteenth 
of Luke, his words to the thief, and these 
words of the souls crying under the altar, 
* O Lord, thou that art righteous and just, 
how long shalt thou not revenge our blood 
upon them that dwell upon the earth,' 
doth plainly testify. 



vitally united to Christ, and of course do not 
belong to the church invisible. It is to the 
church visible in one sense or another, that chil- 
dren are reckoned to belong ; and from which 
they ought to be excluded, when, on coming of 
age to understand what is meant by confessing 
Christ, they refuse to do it.— Ed. 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



215 



XVIII. OF THE NOTES BY THE WHICH THE 
TRUE KIRK IS DISCERNED FROM THE FALSE, 
AND WHO SHALL BE JUDGE OF THE DOC- 
TRLVE. 

" Because that Satan from the beginning 
hath laboured to deck his pestilent syna- 
gogue with the title of the kirk of God, and 
hath inflamed the hearts of cruel murder- 
ers to persecute, trouble, and molest the true 
kirk and members thereof, as Cain did 
Abel ; Ishmael, Isaac ; Esau, Jacob ; and the 
whole priesthood of the Jews, Jesus Christ 
himself, and his apostles after him ; it is a 
tiling most requisite, that the true kirk be 
discerned from the filthy synagogue, by 
clear and perfect notes, lest we, being de- 
ceived, receive and embrace to our own 
condemnation the one for the other. The 
notes, signs, and assured tokens whereby 
the immaculate spouse of Christ Jesus is 
known from the horrible harlot the kirk 
malignant, we affirm, are neither antiquity, 
title usurped, lineal descent, place appoint- 
ed, nor multitude of men approving an 
error ; for Cain in age and title was prefer- 
red to Abel and Seth. Jerusalem had pre- 
rogative above all places of the earth, where 
also were the priests lineally descended 
from Aaron, and greater multitude followed 
the Scribes, Pharisees, and priests, than 
unfeignedly believed and approved Christ 
Jesus and his doctrine ; and yet, as we sup- 
pose, no man of whole [sound, stat. b.) judg- 
ment will grant that any of the forenamed 
were the kirk of God. The notes, there- 
fore, of the true kirk of God, we believe, 
confess, and avow, to be, first, the true 
preaching of the word of God ; in the which 
God hath revealed himself to us, as the 
writings of the prophets and apostles do de- 
clare. Secondly, The right administration 
of the sacraments of Christ Jesus, which 
must be annexed to the word and promise 
of God, to seal and confirm the same in our 
hearts. Lastly, Ecclesiastical discipline up- 
rightly ministered, as God's word prescribed, 
whereby vice is repressed, and virtue 
nourished. Wheresoever then these former 
notes are seen, and of any time continue — 
be the number never so few above two or 
three — there, but [without] all doubt, is the 
true kirk of Christ, who according to his 



promise is in the midst of them ; not of that 
universal — of which we have before spoken 
—but particular, such as was in Corinthus, 
Galatia, Ephesus, and other places, in which 
the ministry was planted by Paul, and 
were of himself named the kirks of God. 
And such kirks, we, the inhabitants of 
the realm of Scotland, professors of Christ 
Jesus, confess us to have in our cities, 
towns, and places reformed : for the doc- 
trine taught in our kirks is contained in the 
written word of God, to wit, in the books 
of the New and Old Testaments ; in those 
books, we mean, which of ancient have 
been reputed canonical, in the which, we 
affirm that all things necessary to be be- 
lieved for the salvation of mankind, is 
sufficiently expressed. The interpretation 
whereof, we confess, neither appertained 
unto any private or public person ; neither 
yet to any kirk for any preeminence or 
prerogative personal or local, which one 
hath above another, but appertained to the 
Spirit of God, by the which also the scrip- 
ture was written. When controversy then 
happeneth for the right understanding of 
any place or sentence of scripture, or the 
reformation of any abuse within the kirk of 
God, we ought not so much to look what 
men before us have said or done, as unto 
that which the Holy Ghost uniformly 
speaketh within the body of the scriptures, 
and unto that which Christ Jesus himself 
did, and commanded to be done. For this 
is a thing universally granted, that the 
Spirit of God, which is the spirit of unity, 
is in nothing contrarious to himself. If 
then the interpretation, determination, or 
sentence of any doctors, kirk, or council, re- 
pugn to the plain word of God, written in 
any other place of scripture, it is a thing 
most certain that their's is not the true 
understanding and meaning of the Holy 
Ghost, supposing that councils, realms, and 
nations have approved and received the 
same. For we dare not receive and admit 
any interpretation, which directly repugn- 
eth to any principal point of our faith, to 
any other plain text of scripture, or yet to 
the rule of charity. 

XIX. THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE. 

* As we believe and confess the scrip- 



216 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



tures of God sufficient to instruct and make 
the man of God perfect, so do we affirm 
and avow the authority of the same to be 
of God, and neither to depend on men nor 
angels. We affirm, therefore, that such as 
allege the scriptures to have no authority, 
but that which is received from the kirk, 
to be blasphemous against God, and injuri- 
ous to the true kirk, which always heareth 
and obeyeth the voice of her own Spouse 
and Pastor, but taketh not upon her to be 
mistress over the same. 

XX. OF THE GENERAL COUNCILS, OF THEIR 
POWER, AUTHORITY, AND CAUSE OF THEIR 
CONVENTION. 

" As we not rashly condemn that which 
godly men assembled together in general 
councils, lawfully gathered, have approved 
unto us : so without just examination dare 
we not receive whatsoever is obtruded unto 
men, under the name of general councils ; 
for plain it is, that as they were men, so 
have some of them manifestly erred, and 
that in matters of great weight and import- 
ance. So far then as the council proveth 
the determination and commandment that 
it giveth by the plain word of God, so far 
do we reverence and embrace the same ; 
but if men, under the name of a council, 
pretend to forge unto us new articles of our 
faith, or to make constitutions repugning to 
the word of God, then utterly we must re- 
fuse the same, as the doctrine of devils, 
which draweth our souls from the voice of 
our only God, to follow the doctrines and 
constitutions of men. The cause then why 
general councils convened, was neither to 
make any perpetual law, which God before 
had not made, neither yet to forge new 
articles of our belief, neither to give the 
word of God authority, much less to make 
that to be his word, or yet the true inter- 
pretation of the same, which was not before 
by his holy will expressed in his word : but 
the cause of councils— we mean of such as 
merited the name of councils — was partly 
for confutation of heresies, and for giving 
public confession of their faith to the pos- 
terities following, which both they did by 
the authority of God's written word, and 
not by any opinion or prerogative that they 



could not err, by reason of their general as- 
sembly; and this we judge to have been 
the chief cause of general councils. The 
other was for good policy and order to be 
constituted and observed in the kirk, in 
which, as in the house of God, it be- 
cometh all things to be done decently, and 
in order. Not that we think that one 
policy, and one order in ceremonies can be 
appointed for all ages, times, and places ; 
for as ceremonies — such as men have de- 
vised — are but temporal, so may and ought 
they to be changed, when they rather 
foster superstition, than that they edify the 
kirk using the same. 

XXI. OF THE SACRAMENTS. 

" As the fathers under the law, besides 
the verity of the sacrifices, had two chief 
sacraments, to wit, circumcision and the 
passover, the despisers and contemners 
whereof were not reputed for God's people : 
so we acknowledge and confess, that we 
now, in time of the evangel, have two sa- 
craments only, instituted by the Lord 
Jesus, and commanded to be used by all 
those that will be reputed members of his 
body, to wit, baptism, and the supper, or 
table of the Lord Jesus, called, ' The 
communion of his body and blood.' And 
these sacraments — as well of the Old as 
of the New Testament — were instituted 
of God, not only to make a visible dif- 
ference betwixt his people, and those that 
were without his league ; but also to exer- 
cise the faith of his children ; and by par- 
ticipation of the same sacraments, to seal 
in their hearts the assurance of his pro- 
mise, and of that most blessed conjunc- 
tion, union, and society, which the elect 
have with their head. Christ Jesus. And 
thus we utterly condemn the vanity at 
those, that affirm sacraments to be no- 
thing else but naked and bare signs. No. 
we assuredly believe, that by baptism we 
are ingrafted into Jesus Christ, to be made 
partakers of his justice, by the which our 
sins are covered and remitted.* And also, 



* Here the doctrine of baptismal regeneration 
is plainly stated ; and the reformers seem to 
have gone to this extreme to avoid the scandal of 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



217 



that in the supper, rightly used, Christ 
Jesus is so joined with us, that he be- 
cometh the very nourishment and food of 
our souls. Not that we imagine any tran- 
substantiation of bread into Christ's natural 
body, and of wine into his natural blood — 
as the papists have perniciously taught, and 
damnably believed — but this union and 
communion which we have with the body 
and blood of Christ Jesus in the right use 
of the sacraments, is wrought by operation 
of the Holy Ghost, who by true faith carri- 
eth us above all things that are visible, 
carnal, and earthly, and maketh us to feed 
upon the body and blood of Christ Jesus, 
which was once broken and shed for us, 
which now is in the heaven, and appeareth 
in the presence of his Father for us. And 
yet, notwithstanding the far distance of 
place, which is betwixt his body now glo- 
rified in the heaven, and us now mortal in 
the earth, yet we most assuredly believe, 
that the bread that we break is the com- 
munion of Christ's body, and the cup which 
we bless, is the communion of his blood. 
So that we confess, and undoubtedly be- 
lieve, that the faithful, in the right use of 
the Lord's table, so do eat the body, and 
drink the blood of the Lord Jesus, that he 
remaineth in them, and they in him : yea, 
that they are so made flesh of his flesh, and 
bones of his bones, that as the eternal God- 
head hath given to the flesh of Christ Jesus 
— which of the one condition and nature was 
mortal and corruptible — life and immortal- 
ity; so doth Christ Jesus' flesh and blood 
eaten and drunken by us, give to us the 
same prerogatives ; which albeit we con- 
fess, are neither given unto us at that only 
time, neither yet by the proper power and 
virtue of the sacraments only ; yet we af- 



holding the sacraments to be naked and bare 
signs. They had long been held in such super- 
stitious and idolatrous veneration, that the re- 
formers could not shake themselves loose from 
the prevailing sentiment, which must have been 
early and deeply impressed on their minds, and 
therefore they could not look on these ordinances 
in their scriptural simplicity : for what are they 
but signs, after all that has been said about them ? 
They derive all their value from that which is 
signified by them ; and the more naked and bare 
of every thing else the better, provided they be 
observed simply as Christ commanded. This 



firm, that the faithful in the right use of 
the Lord's table hath such conjunction with 
Christ Jesus, as the natural man cannot 
comprehend : yea, and farther we affirm, 
that albeit the faithful oppressed by negli- 
gence, and manly [human] infirmity, doth 
not profit so much as they would at the 
very instant action of the supper, yet shall 
it after bring forth fruit, as lively seed 
sown in good ground ; for the Holy Spirit, 
which can never be divided from the right 
institution of the Lord Jesus, will not frus- 
trate the faithful of the fruit of that mysti- 
cal action. But all this we say cometh by 
true faith, which apprehendeth Christ 
Jesus, who only maketh his sacraments 
effectual unto us ; and, therefore, whoso- 
ever slandereth us, as that we affirmed or 
believed sacraments to be only naked and 
bare signs, do injury unto us, and speak 
against a manifest truth. But this liberally 
and frankly Ave must confess, that we make 
a distinction betwixt Christ Jesus in his 
natural substance, and betwixt the elements 
in the sacramental signs ; so that we will 
neither worship the signs, in place of that 
which is signified by them, neither yet do 
we despise and interpret them as unprofit- 
able and vain, but do use them with all 
reverence, examining ourselves diligently 
before that so we do, because we are as- 
sured by the mouth of the apostle, ' That 
such as eat of that bread, and drink of that 
cup unworthily, are guilty of the body and 
blood of the Lord Jesus.' 

XXII. OF THE RIGHT ADMINISTRATION OF THE 
SACRAMENTS. 

" That sacraments be rightly ministered, 
we judge two things requisite: the one, 
that they be ministered by lawful ministers. 



article is improved in the Westminster cate- 
chism. It does not say, that by baptism we ore 
ingrafted into Christ, as it is here ; but baptism 
doth signify and seal our ingrafting into Christ. 
The account of the Lord's Supper, which fol- 
lows in the same article, is extremely perplexed 
and wordy, which shows that the writer was 
labouring to express something that he did not 
distinctly understand. On the doctrinal articles 
at the beginning of the Confession, he is clear 
and concise, because he had a distinct apprehend 
sion of what he was writing about. — Ed. 

2 E 



218 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



whom we affirm to be only they that are 
appointed to the preaching- of the word, or 
into whose mouths God hath put some ser- 
mon of exhortation, they being- men law- 
fully chosen thereto by some kirk. The 
other, that they be ministered in such ele- 
ments, and in such sort as God hath ap- 
pointed; else we affirm, that they cease to 
be rig-ht sacraments of Christ Jesus. And, 
therefore, it is, that we fly the society with 
the papistical kirk, in participation of their 
sacraments ; first, bscause their ministers 
are no ministers of Jesus Christ, yea, which 
is more horrible, they suffer women, whom 
the Holy Ghost will not suffer to teach in 
the congregation, to baptize. And, secondly, 
because they have so adulterated, both the 
one sacrament and the other, with their own 
inventions, that no part of Christ's action 
abideth in the original purity, for oil, salt, 
spittle, and such like in baptism, are but 
men's inventions ; adoration, veneration, 
bearing- through streets and towns, and 
keeping of bread in boxes, are profanation 
of Christ's sacraments, and no use of the 
same. For Christ Jesus said, 1 Take and 
eat, &c. Do ye this in remembrance of me.' 
By which words and charge he sanctified 
bread and wine to be the sacrament of his 
body and blood ; to the end, that one should 
be eaten, and that all should drink of the 
other, and not that they should be kept to 
be worshipped and honoured as God, as 
the blind papists have done heretofore, who 
also have committed sacrilege, stealing from 
the people one part of the sacrament, 
to wit, the blessed cup. Moreover, that 
the sacraments be rightly used, it is re- 
quired, that the end and cause why the sa- 
craments were instituted, be understood and 
observed, as well of the minister as the re- 
ceivers. For if the opinion be changed in 
the receiver, the right use ceaseth ; which 
is most evident by the rejection of the sa- 
crifices — as also if the teacher teach false 
doctrine — which were odious and abomin- 
able unto God, albeit they were his own 
ordinances, because that wicked men used 
them to another end than God hath ordain- 
ed. The same affirm we of the sacraments 
in the papistical kirk, in which we affirm 
the whole action of the Lord Jesus to be 



adulterated, as well in the external form, as 
in the end and opinion. What Christ Jesus 
did, and commanded to be done, is evident 
by the three evangelists, who speak of the 
sacrament, and by St Paul. What the 
priest doth at his altar, we need not to 
rehearse. The end and cause of Christ's 
institution, and why the selfsame should 
be used, is expressed in these words, ' Do 
ye this in remembrance of me. As oft as 
ye shall eat of this bread, and drink of this 
cup, ye shall show forth — that is, extol, 
preach and magnify — the Lord's death till 
he come.' But to what end, and in what 
opinion the priests say their masses, let the 
words of the same, their own doctors and 
writings witness, to wit, that they, as medi- 
ators betwixt Christ and his kirk, do offer 
unto God the Father, a sacrifice propitia- 
tory for the sins of the quick and the dead. 
Which doctrine, as blasphemous to Christ 
Jesus, and making derogation to the suffi- 
ciency of his only sacrifice, once offered for 
purgation of all those that shall be sancti- 
fied, we utterly abhor, detest, and renounce. 

XXIII. TO WHOM SACRAMENTS APPERTAIN. 

" We confess and acknowledge, that 
baptism appertaineth as well to the infants 
of the faithful, as unto those that be of 
age and discretion : and so we condemn the 
error of [the, s. c] Anabaptists, who deny 
baptism to appertain to children, before that 
they have faith and understanding : but the 
supper of the Lord, we confess to apper- 
tain only to such as have been of the 
household of faith, can try and examine 
themselves, as well in their faith, as in 
their duty towards their neighbours. Such 
as eat at that holy table without faith, or 
being at dissension and division with their 
brethren, do eat unworthily : and there- 
fore it is, that in our kirks our ministers 
take public and particular examination of 
the knowledge and conversation of such 
as are to be admitted to the table of the 
Lord Jesus. 

XXIV. OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE. 

" We confess and acknowledge empires, 
kingdoms, dominions, and cities, to be dis- 
tinct and ordained by God, the powers 



Book 111.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



219 



and authorities in the same — be it of em- j 
perors in their empires, of kings in their | 
realms, dukes and princes in their domi- j 
nions, or of other magistrates in free cities 
— to be God's holy ordinance, ordained for 
manifestation of his own glory, and for the 
singular profit and commodity of mankind. 
So that whosoever goes about to take 
away, or to confound the holy state of 
civil policies, now long established, we af- 
firm the same men not only to be enemies 
to mankind, but also wickedly to fight 
against God's expressed will. We farther 
confess and acknowledge, that such per- 
sons as are placed in authority, are to be 
loved, honoured, feared, and held in most 
reverend estimation ; because they are the 
lieutenants of God, in whose session God 
himself doth sit and judge, yea, even the 
judges and princes themselves, to whom 
by God is given the sword, to the praise 
and defence of good men, and to revenge 
and punish all open malefactors. To kings, 
moreover princes, rulers, and magistrates, 
we affirm, that chiefly and most principally 
the reformation and purgation of religion 
appertains ; so that not only they are ap- 
pointed for civil policy, but also for main- 
tenance of the true religion, and for sup- 
pressing of idolatry and superstition what- 
soever, as in David, Jehoshaphat, Ezekiel, 
Joshua, and others highly commended for 
their zeal in the cause may be espied.* And 
therefore we confess and avow, that such as 
resist the supreme powers — doing that 
thing which appertains to his charge — do re- 
sist God's ordinance, and therefore cannot be 
guiltless. And^farther, we affirm, that who- 
soever deny unto them their aid, counsel, 



* The principle here maintained, was the 
fruitful source of much evil to the church. If 
such be the duty of kings in virtue of their 
office, we must have persons divinely inspired 
to fill it, or persons to whom inspired prophets 
are sent for their direction, as the kings here 
mentioned had ; otherwise they will commit 
great mistakes in attempting to reform or set 
forward the true religion. The true religion 
must he that which they believe to be so. The 
belief of error does not make it truth, but kings, 
like other men, must act upon their own con- 
victions, not upon the convictions of their sub- 
jects, though the latter may hold the truth, and 
the former may be in error. It would be a 



I and comfort, while the princes and rulers 
| vigilantly travail in the executing of their 
[ office, that the same men deny their help, 
support, and counsel to God, who by the 
presence of his lieutenant craveth it of 
them." 

XXV. THE GIFTS FREELY GIVEN TO THE KIRK. 

" Albeit that the word of God truly 
preached, the sacraments rightly minister- 
ed, and discipline executed according to 
the word of God, be the certain and infal- 
lible signs of the true kirk ; yet do we not 
so mean, that every particular person joined 
with such a company, be an elect member 
of Christ Jesus ; for we acknowledge and 
confess, that darnel, cockle, and chaff, may 
be sown, grow, and in great abundance lie 
in the midst of the wheat ; that is, the re- 
probate may be joined in the society of 
the elect, and may externally use with 
them the benefits of the word and sacra- 
ments ; but such being but temporal profes- 
sors in mouth but not in heart, do fall back 
and continue not to the end : and therefore 
have they no fruit of Christ's death, re- 
surrection, nor ascension. But such as with 
heart unfeignedly believe, and with mouth 
boldly confess the Lord Jesus — as before 
we have said — shall most assuredly receive 
these gifts ; first, In this life, remission of 
sins, and that by faith only in Christ's 
blood, insomuch, that albeit sin remain 
and continually abide in these our mor- 
tal bodies, yet it is not imputed unto us, 
but is remitted and covered with Christ's 
justice. Secondly, In the general judg- 
ment, there shall be given to every man 
and woman resurrection of the flesh. For 



monstrous hardship upon a good king to be 
obliged to set forward and establish what he 
conscientiously believed to be error or heresy. 
I know well it is pleaded, that the duty of such 
is to establish religion, not according to what 
they or their subjects think, but according to 
the word of God; but it just comes round to 
the same thing, for it must be according to some 
one's understanding of the word of God : and il 
the king be responsible to his Maker, as all men 
are, he must come to a conscientious understand- 
ing of the word for himself. That is enough for 
any man, and it is just as competent to the 
peasant as to the prince.— Ed. 



220 



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[a. d. 1560 



the sea shall give her dead, the earth those 
that therein be inclosed ; yea, the Eternal, 
our God, shall stretch out his hand upon the 
dust, and the dead shall arise incorruptible, 
and that in the substance of the same flesh 
that every man now bears, to receive, ac- 
cording to their works, glory or punish- 
ment ; for such as now delight in vanity, 
cruelty, filthiness, superstition, or idolatry, 
shall be adjudged to the fire inextinguisha- 
ble, in the which they shall be tormented 
for ever, as well in their own bodies, as in 
their souls, which now they give to serve 
the devil in all abomination. But such as 
continue in well doing to the end, boldly 
professing the Lord Jesus, to whose glori- 
fied body all his elect shall be like, when 
he shall appear again to judgment, and shall 
render up the kingdom to God his Father, 
who then shall be, and ever shall remain, 
all in all things, God blessed for ever. To 
whom, with the Son, and with the Holy 
Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and 
ever. Amen.'" 

" Arise, O Lord, and let thy enemies be 
confounded ; let them flee from thy pre- 
sence that hate thy godly name ; give thy 
servants strength to speak thy word in 
boldness, and let all nations attain to thy 
true knowledge." 

These acts and articles were read in face 
of parliament, and ratified by the three 
estates of this realm, at Edinburgh, the 
17th day of July, the year of God 1560 
years. 

This our confession was publicly read, 
first in audience of the lords of the articles, 
and after in audience of the whole parlia- 
ment, where were present, not only such 
as professed Christ Jesus, but also a great 
number of the adversaries of our religion, 
such as the forenamed bishops, and some 
others of the temporal estate, who were 
commanded in God's name to object, if 
they could, any thing against that doctrine. 



* These three noblemen were more candid 
than the bulk of the majority in parliament. 
They inherited their Christianity, as they did 
their titles, from their ancestors; and they saw 
no reason why they should make a change in 
the one more than in the other. A great many 
more felt in the same way, as appeared by 



Some of our ministers were present, stand- 
ing upon their feet, ready to have answer- 
ed, in case any would have defended the 
papistry, and impugned our affirmatives : 
but while that no objection was made, 
there was a day appointed to voting on that 
and other heads. Our confession was read, 
every article by itself over again, as they 
were written in order, and the votes of 
every man were required accordingly. Of 
the temporal estate only voted in the con- 
trary, the earl of Athol, the lords Sommer- 
ville and Borthwick ; and yet for their dis- 
senting they produced no better reason, but, 
" We will believe as our forefathers be- 
lieved."* The bishops — papistical we mean 
— spake nothing. The rest of the whole 
three estates, by their public votes, affirmed 
the doctrine ; and many, the rather because 
that the bishops would nor durst say no- 
thing in the contrary ; for this was the vote 
of the earl of Marshal, " It is long since I 
have had some favour unto the truth, and 
since I had a suspicion of the papistical re- 
ligion ; but, I praise God, this day has 
fully resolved me in the one and in the 
other. For seeing that my lords bishops, 
who for their learning can, and for that 
zeal they should bear to the verity, would, 
as I suppose, gainsay any thing that direct- 
ly repugns to the verity of God ; seeing, I 
say, my lords bishops here present speak 
nothing in the contrary of the doctrine 
proponed, I cannot but hold it to be the 
very truth of God, and the contrary to be 
deceivable doctrine. And therefore, in so 
far as in me lieth, I approve the one and 
damn the other ; and do farther ask of God, 
that not only I, but also all my posterity, 
may enjoy the comfort of the doctrine that 
this day our ears have heard. And yet 
more, I must vote, as it were, by way of 
protestation, that if any persons ecclesias- 
tical shall after this oppone themselves to 
this our confession, that they have no place 



subsequent conduct, but they had not the ho- 
nesty to confess it. They consented that a sys- 
tem of sound divinity should become the law of 
the land ; but it must have heen understood by 
comparatively few of them, and cordially em- 
braced by perhaps fewer still. — Ed. 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



221 



nor credit, considering that they having 
long advisement, and full knowledge of this 
our confession, none is now found in law- 
ful, free, and quiet parliament to oppone 
themselves to that which we profess : and 
therefore, if any of this generation pretend 
to do it after this, I protest he he reputed 
rather one that loveth his own commodity 
and the glory of the Avorld, than the truth 
of God and the salvation of men's souls." 

After the voting and ratification of this 
our confession, by the whole body of the 
parliament, there were also pronounced two 
acts, the one against the mass and the 
abuse of the sacraments, and the other 
against the supremacy of the pope. The 
tenor whereof follows : 

THE ACT AGAINST THE MASS. 

" In the parliament held at Edinburgh, 
the tenth day of July, the year of God 
1560 years, the said parliament being con- 
tinued to the first of August next there- 
after following, with continuation of days, 
upon the 2-ith day of the said month of 
August, the three estates then being pre- 
sent : the which day, forsomuch as Al- 
mighty God, by his most true and blessed 
word, has declared the reverence and ho- 
nour that should be given to him, and, by 
his Son Jesus Christ, has declared the true 
use of the sacraments, willing the same to 
be used according to his will and word ; by 
the which it is notorious and perfectly 
known, that the sacraments of baptism and 
of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, have 
been in all times bygone corrupted by the 
papistical kirk, and by their ministers ; and 
presently, notwithstanding the reformation 
already made according to God's word, yet 
nottheless there are some of the same pope's 
kirk, that stubbornly persevere in their 
wicked idolatry, saying mass and bap- 
tizing according to the papist kirk, pro- 
faning therethrough the sacraments fore- 
said, in quiet and in secret places, regard- 
ing therethrough neither God nor his 
word. 

" Therefore it is statute and ordained in 
this present parliament, that no manner of 
person or persons, at any time coming, ad- 
minister any of the sacraments secretly, or 
any other manner of way, but they that 



are admitted and have power to that effect; 
nor say mass, nor yet hear mass, nor be 
present thereat, under the pain of confisca- 
tion of all their goods, and punishing of 
their bodies at the discretion of the magis- 
trates within whose jurisdiction such per- 
sons happen to be apprehended, for the 
first fault ; banishing* of the realm, for the 
second fault ; and justifying to the death, 
for the third fault. And ordains all sheriffs, 
Stewarts, bailies, and their deputes, pro- 
vosts and bailies of burghs, and other 
judges whatsomever within this realm, to 
take diligent suit and inquisition within 
their bounds, where any such usurped mi- 
nistry is used ; mass saying, or they that 
be present at the doing thereof, ratifying 
and approving the same, and to take and 
apprehend them, to the effect that the 
pains above written may be executed upon 
them." 

Extraction de libro parliamenti, per me 
Jacobum Mackill de Rankellour Nether, 
clericum rotulorum. 

Sic subscribitur, 

" Jacobus M'Gjll." 
the act fob abolishing the jurisdiction 
of the pope. 

" In the parliament held at Edinburgh, 
the tenth day of July, the year of God 
1560 years, and thereafter continued to the 
first day of August next thereafter follow- 
ing, with continuation of days, upon the 
twenty-fourth day of the said month of 
August, the three estates then being pre- 
sent, understanding that the jurisdiction and 
authority of the bishop of Rome, called the 
pope, used in this realm in times bypast, has 
been very hurtsome and prejudicial to our so- 
vereign's authority, and commonweal of this 
realm : therefore has statute and ordained, 
that the bishop of Rome have no jurisdic- 
tion nor authority in this realm in times 
coming, and that none of our said sove- 
reign's subjects suit or desire, in any time 
thereafter, title or right, by the said bishop 
of Rome or his sect, to any thing within 
this realm, under the pains of baratry, that 
is to say, proscription, banishment ; and 
never to bruik honour, office, nor dignity, 
within this realm : and the contraveners 
hereof, to be called before the justice or 



222 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



his deputes, or before the lords of the ses- 
sion, and punished therefore conform to 
the laws of this realm. And the furnishers 
of them with finance of money, and pur- 
chasers of their titles of right, or maintain- 
ed or defenders of them, shall incur the 
same pains. And that no bishop, nor other 
prelate of this realm, use any jurisdiction 
in times coming, by the said bishop of 
Rome's authority, under the pains fore- 
said." 

Extractum de libro parliamenti, per me, 
Sfc. 

Et subscribitur, ut supra. 

These and other things orderly done, in 
lawful and free parliament, we directed to 
France, to our sovereigns, Sir James San- 
dilands, lord of St John, with the acts of 
the said parliament, that by them they 
might be ratified, according to the promise 
of their highness' commissioners to us, as 
by the contract of peace most evidently 
may appear. But how the said lord of St 
John was entreated we list not to rehearse ; 
but always [however] no ratification brought 
he unto us : but that we little regarded, or 
yet do regard ; for all that we did was 
rather to show our dutiful obedience, than 
to beg of them any strength to our reli- 
gion, which from God has full power, and 
needeth not the suffrage of man, but in so 
far as man has need to believe it, if that 
ever he shall have participation of the life 
everlasting. * But somewhat must we an- 
swer to such as since have whispered, that 
it was but a pretended parliament and 
privy convention, and no lawful parliament. 
Their reasons are, the king and queen were 
in France, there was neither sceptre, sword, 
nor crown borne, &c. and some principal 
lords were absent. 

We answer, that we rather wish the pa- 
pists to be quiet, than too curiously to tra- 
vail unto that head ; for it may be, that 
while they think to hurt us, they take [give] 
the queen and her authority a great blow, 
and yet amend themselves nothing. For 
in whose default, we pray you, was the 



* The excellent sentiment here expressed, had 
it been followed up, would have kept the re- 
foi tners from many mistakes. — Ed. 



queen absent from this realm ? We think 
they will not be so shameless as that they 
will blame the protestants thereof. Her 
person was absent, and that to no small 
grief of our hearts ; but were not the es- 
tates of the realm assembled in her name ? 
Yea, had they not her full power and com- 
mission, yea, the commission and com- 
mandment of her head the king of France, 
to convocate that parliament, and to do all 
things that may be done in lawful parlia- 
ment, even as if our sovereigns had been 
there in proper persons. If they will limi- 
tate the power of the princes to the places 
only where their bodily presence is, it will 
be thought strange ; for so shall kings not 
only be compelled to content them with 
one realm, but also with one city; for the 
bodily presence of kings can no more be in 
divers cities at one instant, than that they 
can be in divers realms. Hitherto we have 
understood, that wheresoever the council- 
lors of the king, with his power and com- 
mission, are assembled to do any thing at 
his commandment, that there is the king's 
sufficient presence and authority, whereso- 
ever his own body be living at freedom and 
liberty ; which, if the papists do deny, we 
will find fault with them, and with the 
princes that they have abused, which more 
will annoy them than any thing that we 
can lose by the insufficiency of that parlia- 
ment ; which nottheless we are bold to 
affirm, to have been more lawful and more 
free than any parliament they are able to 
produce this hundred years before it, or 
yet any that has ensued since it was ; for 
in it the votes of men were free, and given 
of conscience ; in others they were bought, 
or given at the devotion of the prince. All 
things in it concluded are able to abide the 
trial, and not be consumed at the proof of 
the fire ; of others the godly may justly 
call in doubt things determined. 

To the sword and sceptre, nor yet the 
absence of some lords, we answer nothing : 
for our adversaries knew well enough, that 
the one is rather a pomp and glorious vain 
ceremony, than a substantial point of ne- 
cessity, required to a lawful parliament; 
and the absence of some prejudges not the 
powers of them that are present, providing 



Book III/ 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



223 



that due advertisement be made unto them. 
But now we return to our history. 

The parliament dissolved, consultation 
was had, how the kirk might be establish- 
ed in a good and godly policy, which by the 
papists was altogether defaced. Commis- 
sion and charge was given to Mr John 
Winram, sub-prior of St Andrews, Mr John 
Spotiswood, Mr John Douglas, rector of St 
Andrews, Mr John Row, and John Knox,* 
to draw in a volume the policy and disci- 
pline of the kirk, as well as they had done 
the doctrine, which they did, and presented 
it to the nobility, who did peruse it many 
days. Some approved, and svilled the same 
to have been set forth as a law ; others, per- 
ceiving their carnal liberty and worldly 
commodity somewhat to be impaired there- 
by, grudged, insomuch that the name of 
the book of discipline became odious unto 
them. Every thing that repugned to their 
corrupt affections, was termed in their 
mockage," Devout imaginations." The cause 
we have before declared; some were licen- 
tious, some had greedily gripped the pos- 
sessions of the kirk, and others thought 
they would not lack their part of Christ's 
coat ; yea, and that before that ever he was 
hanged, as by the preachers they were often 
rebuked. The chief great man that had 
professed Christ Jesus, and refused to sub- 
scribe the book of discipline, was the lord 
Erskine ; and no wonder, for besides that 
he has a very Jezebel to his wife, if the 
poor, the schools, and the ministry of the 
kirk had their own, his kitchen would 
want two parts and more, of that which he 
now unjustly possesses.-}- Assuredly some 
of us have wondered how men that pro- 
fess godliness could, of so long continuance, 
hear the threatenings of God against thieves, 



• Knox is associated with men of less note 
than himself, but here, as elsewhere, he writes 
his own name last; and while he gives them all 
their title of Mr, he is plain John Knox. This 
of itself is an evidence of his being the author, if 
any additional evidence were required. It is 
what, indeed, any man might give to a book 
which he wished to pass under another name 
than his own ; but in the present case, no man 
could have a motive for doing such a thing. — 
Ed. 

f This was the thing that attached many of 
the nobles to the cause of the Reformation. 
There were godly men among them ; but a 



and against their houses, and knowing them- 
selves guilty of such things, as were openly 
rebuked, and that they never had remorse 
of conscience, neither yet intended to re- 
store any thing of that, which long they had 
stolen and reft. There were none within 
the realm more unmerciful to the poor mi- 
nisters then were they that had the great- 
est rents of the kirks. But in that we have 
perceived the old proverb to be true ; " No- 
thing can suffice a wretch;" and again, 
" The belly has no ears." Yet the same 
book of discipline was subscribed by a 
great part of the nobility, to wit, the duke's 
grace, the earl of Arran, the earls of Argyle, 
Glencairn, Marshall, Menteith, Morton, 
Rothes, lord James, now earl of Murray, lord 
Yester, Boyd, Ochiltree, master of Maxwell, 
thereafter lord Harris, lord Lindsay elder, 
and the master, now lord [Lindsay] ; barons 
Drumlanrig, Lochinvar, Garliss, Barganie, 
Mr Alexander Gordon, bishop of Galloway, 
Alexander Campbell, dean of Murray, with 
a great number more, subscribed and ap- 
proved the said book of discipline, in the 
tolbooth of Edinburgh, the 27th day of 
January, 1580 years, by their approbation, 
in these wovds : 

"We which have subscribed these pre- 
sents, having advised with the articles here- 
in specified, and as is above mentioned, 
from the beginning of this book, think the 
same good, and conform to God's word in 
all points, conform to the notes and addi- 
tions thereto eiked [added] ; and promised 
to set the same forward, at the uttermost of 
our powers, providing that the bishops, 
abbots, priors, and other prelates and bene- 
ficed men, which else have joined them- 
selves to us, bruik the revenues of their 
benefices during their lifetimes, they sus- 



warm kitchen had more charms for most of 
them than either the covenant or the confession 
of faith. But I wonder it never occurred to 
Knox, that the church property was accursed, 
having been devoted to the support of idolatry. 
It had been better that the nobles had got it all, 
than that the reformed church should have been 
polluted by it. Resides, it had been given to 
the church of Rome, by kings, queens, and 
others, as the price of procuring peace to their 
souls, by deliverance from purgatory. This was 
work which the reformed church never profes- 
sed to perform, and therefore they had no right 
to the reward. — Ed. 



224 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



taining and upholding- the ministry and mi- 
nisters, as is herein specified, for preaching- 
of the word, and ministrating of the sacra- 
ments." 

What hy the contents of the whole book, 
and how that this promise was illuded from 
time to time, we will after hear. 

Short after the said parliament, were sent 
from the council ambassadors to England, 
the earls of Morton and Glencairn, together 
with William Maitland of Lethington, 
younger. The chief point of their commis- 
sion was earnestly to crave the constant as- 
sistance of the queen's majesty of England, 
against all foreign invasion, and to propone 
the earl of Arran — who then was in no 
small estimation with us — to the queen of 
England in marriage. 

That same time was the castle of Sempil 
besieged and taken, because the lord there- 
of disobeyed the laws and ordinances of the 
council in many things, and especially in 
that, that he would maintain the idolatry 
of the mass, and also that he beset the way 
to the earl of Arran, with a great gather- 
ing-, as he was riding- with his accustomed 
company. The papists were proud, for 
they looked for a new army from France at 
the next spring, and thereof was there no 
small appearance, if God had not otherwise 
provided ; for France utterly refused the 
confirmation of the peace contracted at 
Leith, and would ratify no part of our par- 
liament, and dismissing the lord St John, 
without any resolute answer, began to 
gather new bands of throat-cutters, and to 
make great preparations for ships. They 
farther sent before them certain practisers 
— amongst whom the lord Seyton, who 
had departed with the French out of Leith 
was one — to raise up new troubles within 
this realm. And all this came partly of the 
malice of the house of Guise, who had 
avowed to revenge the displeasure of their 
sister both upon England and Scotland, and 
partly by the instigation of proud Beaton, 
falsely called bishop of Glasgow, of Durie, 
abbot of Dunfermline, Saul Seyton, and 
Mr John Sinclair, dean of Restalrig, with 
such others of the French faction, who had 
openly spoken that they had refused all 
portion of Scotland, unless that it were 



under the government of a Frenchman. 
" Recompense them, O Lord, as thou 
knowest most expedient for thy own glory, 
and for the perpetual shame of all traitors 
to their commonwealth." 

The certain knowledge of all these things 
came to our ears, whereat many were afraid ; 
for divers suspected that England would 
not be so forward in times to come, con- 
sidering that their former expenses were so 
great. The principal comfort remained 
with the preachers ; for they assured us in 
God's name, that God should perform in all 
perfection that work in our hands, the be- 
ginning whereof he had so mightily main- 
tained, because it was not ours, but his own; 
and, therefore, exhorted us, that we should 
constantly proceed to reform all abuses, and 
to plant the ministry of the kirk, as by 
God's word we might justify it, and then 
commit the success of all to our God, in 
whose power the disposition of kingdoms 
stands. And so we began to do, for troubles 
appearing-, made us give ear to the admoni- 
tions of God's servants. And while that 
we had scarcely begun again to implore the 
help of our God, and to show some signs of 
our obedience to his messengers and holy 
word, lo, the potent hand of our God from 
above sent unto us a wonderful and most joy- 
ful deliverance : for unhappy Francis, hus- 
band to our sovereign, suddenly perished of 
a rotten ear. But because the death of that 
child was not only the cause of joy to us in 
Scotland, but also by it were the faithful 
in France delivered, as it were, from the 
present death ; we think expedient to en- 
treat the same somewhat more largely. 

These cruel and conjured enemies of God 
and of all godliness, the duke of Guise, the 
cardinal of Lorrain, and their faction, who 
then at their own appetites played the ty- 
rants in France, had determined the de- 
struction of all that professed the true 
knowledge of Jesus Christ within that 
realm. What tyranny lately before they 
had used at Amboys, the history of France 
doth witness. Now, in Orleans, in the 
month of November, convened the king-, 
unhappy Francis, the queen our sovereign 
and the queen mother, the duke of Guise, 
with all his faction, the king of Navarre, 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



225 



and the prince, his brother, so that great 
was the confluence of the nobility, but 
greater was the assembly of the murderers 
— for there was not a hang-man in all France 
who was not there. The prisons were 
full of the true servants of God : the king 
of Navarre, and the prince his brother, were 
constituted prisoners. The sheriff of Or- 
leans, a man fearing God, was taken, and 
so were many others of the town. Briefly, 
there were none that professed God or god- 
liness within that town, that looked not for 
the extremity ; for the walls and gates 
were night and day kept with the garrisons 
of the Guisans, miserable men were daily 
brought in to suffer judgment, but none was 
suffered to depart forth, but at the devotion 
of the tyrants. 

And so they proceeded till the tenth or 
twelfth of December, when that they 
thought time to put their bloody counsel in 
execution, and for that purpose conclusion 
M r as taken, that the king should depart from 
the town, and lie at a certain place ; which 
was done to this intent, that there should 
be no suit made to the king for safety of 
any man's life, whom they thought worthy 
of death. And so was the king's house in 
Orleans broken up, his beds, coffers, and 
tapestry sent away, his own boots put on, 
and he sitting at the mass, immediately 
thereafter to have departed, and so their 
tyranny to have begun. When all things, 
we say, were in this readiness to shed 
the blood of innocents, the Eternal, our 
God, who ever watches for the preserva- 
tion of his own, began to work, and sud- 
denly did put his own work in execution ; 
for as the said king sat at mass, he was sud- 
denly struck with an apostume, in that deaf 
ear that never would hear the truth of God, 
and so was he carried to a void house, laid 
upon a pallet of a bed, until such time as a 
canopy was set up unto him, where he lay 
till the 15th day of December, 1560 years, 
when his glory perished, and the pride of 
his stubborn heart evanished in smoke ; 
and so was the snare broken, the tyrants 
disappointed of their cruelty; they that 
were appointed to death, were raised, as it 
were, out of their graves ; and we, who by 
our foolishness had made ourselves slaves 



to strangers, were restored again to free- 
dom and liberty of a free realm. 

" O that we had hearts deeply to con- 
sider what are thy wondrous works, O 
Lord, that Ave might praise thee in the 
midst of this most obstinate and wicked 
generation, and leave the memorial of the 
same to our posterity, which, alas, we fear, 
shall forget these thy inestimable benefits." 
The godly in France, upon this sudden 
death, set forth these in verses, an admoni- 
tion to kings." 

AD HUJUS TEMPORIS MONARCHAS PROTREPTICON CARMEN. 

Consiliis Christum oppugnans, et fraudibus ingens, 

Regum ille terror Carolus : 
Ipsis ridiculus pueris, furiosus, et excors, 

Totus repente corruit. 
Tuque Henrice malis dum consultoribus uteris 

Si lis piorum sanguinem : 
Ipse tuo vecors, inopina, csede peremtus 

Terra imbuisti sanguine. 
Henrici deinceps, sectans vestigia patris 

Franciscus infselix puer, 
Clamantem Christum surda dum negligit aure 

Aure putrefacta corruit. 
Versuti, fatui, surdi, hsec spectacula, reges, 

Vos sapere vel mori jubent. 

The meaning whereof is that follows ; 

King Charles, that tyrant terrible, 

Withstanding Christ with wit and craft, 
As mocking stock most miserable, 

Ended at once raging and daft. 
Then Henry through evil company, 

Thirsting the blood of godly men, 
With his own blood shed suddenly 

Was made to wait the end ye ken. 
Lest Francis that unhappy child, 

His father's footsteps following plain, 
To Christ crying, deaf ears did yield, 

A rotten ear then was his bane. 
O crafty, deaf, and foolish kings, 

These fearful judgments gone before you, 
Biddeth you be wiser in your reigns; 

Or shameful death will soon devour you. 

The death of this king made great al- 
teration in France, England, and Scotland. 
France was erected in some esperance, that 
the tyranny of the Guisans should no 
longer reign above them, because that God 
at unawares had broken the staff where- 
upon they leaned ; but, alas, they were de- 
ceived : for the simplicity of some was so 
abused, that against the laws of the realm, 
to the queen mother was committed the 
regimen, which lifted up as well the duke 
of Guise, as the cruel cardinal for a sea- 
son. 

The queen of England, and the council, 

2 F 



226 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. v. 1560 



remitted our ambassadors with answer, 
" That she would not marry hastily, and, 
therefore, willed the council of Scotland, 
and the earl of Arran foresaid, not to de- 
pend upon any hope thereof." What mo- 
tives she had, we omit. 

The pride of the papists of Scotland 
began to be abated, and some that ever 
had shown themselves enemies unto us, 
began to think, and plainly to speak — 
amongst whom the old sheriff of Ayr was 
one — that they perceived God to fight for 
us. The earl of Arran himself did more 
patiently abide the repulse of the queen of 
England, because that he was not alto- 
gether without hope that the queen of 
Scotland bore some favour unto him ; and 
so he wrote unto her, and sent for credit a 
ring, which the said queen our sovereign 
knew well enough. The letter and ring 
were both presented to the queen, and of 
her received. Answer was returned to the 
said earl, after the which he made no 
farther pursuit in that matter : and yet not- 
theless, he bare it heavily in heart, and more 
heavily than many would have wished. 

The certainty of the death foresaid was 
signified unto us both by sea and land. By 
sea received John Knox — who then had 
great intelligence both with the kirk, and 
some of the court of France — letters, that 
the -king was mortally sick, and could not 
well escape the death. Which letters re- 
ceived that same day at afternoon, he pas- 
sed to the duke's grace, to his own lodgings 
at the Kirk of Field, with w r hom he found 
the lord James in conference together: 
— the earl of Arran was in Jedburgh — to 
whom he opened such news as he had re- 
ceived, and willed them to be of good com- 
fort ; for, said he, the adversary has never 
yet abused me : — it was the same gentle- 
man that gave us first knowledge of the 
slaughter of Henry the king of France — 
and showed unto them the letter, but would 
not express the man's name. While they 
were reasoning in divers purposes; and he 
upon the one part comforting them, and 
they upon the other comforting him — for he 
was in no small heaviness, by reason of the 
late death of his dear bed-fellow Margery 
Bowes : — while, we say, they three w r ere 



familiarly communing together, there came 
a messenger from the lord Gray forth of 
Berwick, with letters, assuring him of the 
death of the king of France. Which di- 
vulged and noised abroad, a general conven- 
tion of the whole nobility was appointed to 
be held at Edinburgh the fifth day of Janu- 
ary following, in the which the book of 
discipline was perused newly over again, 
for some pretended ignorance, by reason 
they had not heard it. 

In that assembly was Mr Alexander An- 
derson, sub-principal of Aberdeen, a man 
more subtle and crafty than either learned 
or godly, called, who refused to dispute of 
his faith, abusing a place of Tertullian to 
cloak his ignorance. It was answered unto 
him, that Tertullian should not prejudge the 
authority of the Holy Ghost, who by the 
mouth of Peter commands us to give rea- 
son of our faith to every one that requires 
the same of us. It was farther answered, 
that we neither required him nor yet any 
man to dispute in any point concerning our 
faith, which was grounded upon God's 
word, and fully expressed within his holy 
Scriptures, for all that we believed without 
controversy. But we required of him, as 
of the rest of the papists, that they would 
suffer their doctrine, constitutions, and ce- 
remonies, to come to trial ; and principally, 
that the mass, and the opinion thereof, by 
them taught unto the people, might be laid 
to the square-rule of God's word, and unto 
the right institution of Jesus Christ, that 
they might understand whether that their 
preachers offended or not, in that, that they 
affirmed, " The action of the mass to be ex- 
pressly repugning unto the last supper of 
the Lord Jesus ; the sayer of it to commit 
horrible blasphemy, in usurping upon him 
the office of Christ ; the hearers to commit 
damnable idolatry, and the opinion of it con- 
ceived to be derogation, and as it were dis- 
annulling of Christ's death." While the said 
Mr Alexander denied that the priest took 
upon him Christ's office, to offer for sin, as 
it was alleged, a mass book was produced, 
and in the beginning of the canon were 
these words read, " Suscipe sancta trinitas 
hanc oblationem, quam ego indignus pecca- 
tor, offero tibi vivo Deo et vero, pro peccatis 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



227 



meis, pro peccatis totius ecclesise vivorum 
et raortuorum," &c* " Now," said the rea- 
soner, " if to offer for the sins of the whole 
kirk, was not the office of Christ Jesus, yea 
that office that to him only might, and may 
appertain, let the scripture judge. And if 
a vile knave, whom ye call the priest, 
proudly takes the same upon him, let your 
own book witness." The said Mr Alex- 
ander answered, " Christ offered the propi- 
tiatory, and that none could do but he ; but 
we offer the remembrance." Whereunto it 
was answered, " We thank God that ye 
have denied a sacrifice propitiatory to be in 
the mass ; and yet we offer to prove, that 
in more than one hundred places of your 
papistical doctrines, this proposition is 
affirmed, * The mass is a sacrifice propitia- 
tory.' But, to the second part, where ye 
allege that ye offer Christ in remembrance ; 
we ask, first, unto whom ye do offer him ? 
Next, by what authority are ye assured of 
well-doing ? In God the Father there falls 
no oblivion : and if ye will yet shift and say, 
that ye offer it not, as if God were forgetful, 
but as willing to apply Christ's merits unto 
his kirk ; we demand of you, what power 
and commandment have ye so for to do ? 
We know that our Master, Christ Jesus, 
commanded his apostles to do that which 
he did * in remembrance of him but plain 
it is, that * Christ took bread, gave thanks, 
brake bread, and gave it to his disciples, 
saying, take ye, eat ye, this is my body 
which was broken for you ; do this in re- 
membrance of me,' &c. Here we find a 
commandment, to take, to eat, to take and 
to drink ; but to offer Christ's body either 
for remembrance or application, we find 
not : and, therefore, we say, to take upon 
you an office which is not given unto you, 
is unjust usurpation, and no lawful power." 
The said Mr Alexander being more than 
astonished, would have shifted ; but then 
the lords willed him to answer directly. 
Whereto he answered, " That he was better 
seen in philosophy, than in theology." 
Then was commanded Mr John Leslie — 



* That is, Holy Trinity, accept this offering, 
which I, unworthy sinner, offer to thee, the living 
and true God, for my sins, for the sins of the 
whole church of the quick and the dead. 



who then was parson of Une, and now lord 
abbot of Lindores, and after made bishop of 
Ross — to answer to the former arguments ; 
and he with gravity began to answer, " If 
our Master have nothing to say to it, I have 
nothing ; for I know nothing but the canon 
law: and the greatest reason that ever I 
could find there, is nolumns et volumus ; and 
yet we understand that now he is the only 
patron of the mass. But it is no marvel, 
for he understood that he is a priest's gett ; 
and, therefore, we should not wonder, 
albeit that the old trewane [faithful] verse 
be true, patrem sequitur sua proles." The 
nobility hearing that neither the one nor 
the other would answer directly, said, " We 
have been miserably deceived heretofore; 
for if the mass may not obtain remission of 
sins to the quick and the dead, wherefore 
were all the abbeys so richly doted [endow- 
ed] with our temporal lands ?" 

Thus much we thought good to insert 
here, because that some papists are not 
ashamed now to affirm, that they with 
their reasons could never be heard, but that 
all that we did, we did it by mere force ; 
when that the whole realm knows, that we 
ever required them to speak their judg- 
ments freely, not only promising unto them 
protection and defence, but also that we 
should subscribe with them, if they by God's 
scriptures could confute us, and by the same 
word establish their assertions. " But who 
can correct the leasings of such as in all 
things show themselves the sons of the father 
of all lies. Preserve us, O Lord, from that 
perverse and malicious generation." Amen. 

At this same assembly was the lord 
James appointed to go to France to the 
queen our sovereign, and a parliament was 
appointed to begin the 20th of May next fol- 
lowing ; for at that time was the return of 
the said lord James looked for. And so 
was that convention dissolved, without any 
other thing of importance concluded. The 
said lord James prepared himself for his 
journey; — for albeit he past in the public 
affairs, he sustained the charges and his own 
expenses ; and yet there never passed from 
this realm in the company of one man so 
many, and so honest, through England to 
France — before he departed, he was fore- 



228 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



warned, as well of the danger of France, as 
or the queen's craft — not that we then 
suspected her nature, but that we under- 
stood the malice of her friends; — he was 
plainly promised, that if ever he conde- 
scended that she should have mass publicly 
or privately within the realm of Scotland, 
that then betrayed he the cause of God, 
and exponed the religion even to the ut- 
termost danger that he could do. That 
she should have mass publicly, he affirmed 
that he should never consent : but to have 
it secretly in her chamber, who could stop 
her. The danger was shown ; and so he 
departed. The election of the superin- 
tendents hereafter follows in this manner: 
" The form and order of the election of 
the superintendents, which may serve 
also in election of all other ministers. 
At Edinburgh, the 9th of March, 1560 
years, John Knox being minister. 
" First, was made a sermon, in the which 
these heads were intreated. First, The 
necessity of ministers and superintendents. 
2. The crimes and vices that might unable 
them. 3. The virtues required in them. 
And, last. Whether such as by public con- 
sent of the kirk were called to such office, 
might refuse the same." The sermon 
finished, it was declared by the same minis- 
ter, maker thereof, that the lords of secret 
council had given charge and power to the 
kirks of Lothian, to choose Mr John Spot- 
isvvood superintendent ; and that sufficient 
warning was made by public edict to the 
kirks of Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Stirling, 
Tranent, Haddington, and Dunbar, as also 
to earls, lords, barons, gentlemen, and others 
having, or who might claim to have vote in 
election, to be present that day, at that 
same hour : and, therefore, inquisition was 
made, who were present, and who were 
absent. After was called the said Mr 
John, who answering the minister, demand- 
ed, if any man knew any crime or offence 
to the said Mr John, that might unable 
him to be called to that office ? And this 
he demanded thrice. Secondly, Question 
was moved to the whole multitude, if there 
was any other whom they would put in 
election w r ith the said Mr John. The 
people were a^ked, if they would have 



the said Mr John superintendent ? If they 
would honour and obey him as Christ's 
minister, and comfort and assist him in 
every thing pertaining to his charge ?" 
They answered, " We will; and we do 
promise unto him such obedience as be- 
cometh the sheep to give unto their pastor, 
so long as he remains faithful in his office," 
The answers of the people, and their con- 
sents received, these questions were pro- 
poned unto him that was to be elected 

Ques. " Seeing that ye hear the thirst and 
desire of this people, do ye not think your- 
self bound in conscience before God to sup- 
port them that so earnestly call for your 
comfort, and for the fruit of your labours ?" 
Ans. " If any thing were in me able to 
satisfy their desire, I acknowledge myself 
bound to obey God calling by them." Ques, 
" Do ye seek to be promoted to this office 
and charge, for any respect of worldly com- 
modity, riches, or glory ?" Ans. " God 
knows the contrary." Ques. " Believe ye 
not that the doctrine of the prophets and 
apostles, contained in the books of the Old 
and New Testaments, is the only true and 
most absolute foundation of the universal 
kirk of Christ Jesus, insomuch that in the 
same scriptures are contained all things ne- 
cessary to be believed for the salvation of 
mankind ?" Ans, " I verily believe the 
same, and do abhor and utterly refuse all 
doctrine alleged necessary to salvation, that 
is not expressedly contained in the same." 
Ques. " Is not Christ Jesus man of man, 
according to the flesh, to wit, the Son of 
David, the Seed of Abraham, conceived by 
the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary 
his mother, the only Head and Mediator of 
his kirk ?" Ans. " He is, and without him 
there is neither salvation to man, nor life to 
angel." Ques. " Is not the same Lord Jesus 
[the, o. c], only true God, the Eternal Son of 
the Eternal Father, in whom all that shall 
be saved were elected before the foundation 
of the world was laid ?" Ans. " I confess 
and acknowledge him in the unity of his 
Godhead, to be God above all things, bless- 
ed for ever." Ques. " Shall not they 
whom God in his eternal council has elect- 
ed, be called to the knowledge of his Son, 
our Lord Jesus ; and shall not they who of 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



229 



purpose are elected in this life, be justified ; 
and is not justification and free remission 
of sins obtained in this life by free grace ? 
Shall not this glory of the sons of God fol- 
low in the general resurrection, when the 
Son of God shall appear in his glorious 
majesty?" Ans. " I acknowledge this 
to be the doctrine of the apostles, and the 
most singular comfort of God's children," 
Ques. " Will ye not contain yourself in all 
doctrine within the bounds of this founda- 
tion? Will ye not study to promote the 
same, as well by your life as by your doc- 
trine ? Will ye not, according to the graces 
and utterance that God shall grant unto 
you, profess, instruct, and maintain the pu- 
rity of the doctrine contained in the sacred 
word of God ? And, to the uttermost of 
your power, will ye not gainstand and con- 
vince the gainsay ers and teachers of men's 
inventions ?" Ans. " That I do promise in 
the presence of God, and of his congrega- 
tion here assembled." Ques, " Know ye 
not that the excellency of this office, to the 
which God has called you, requires that 
your conversation and behaviour be such, 
as that ye may be irreprehensible ; yea, 
even in the eyes of the ungodly ?" Ans. 
" I unfeignedly acknowledge, and humbly 
desire the kirk of God to pray with me, 
that my life be not scandalous to the glo- 
rious evangel of Jesus Christ." Ques. 
" Because ye are a man compassed with 
infirmities, will ye not charitably, and with 
lowliness of spirit, receive admonition of 
your brethren : and if ye shall happen to 
slide, or offend in any point, will ye not be 
subject to the discipline of the kirk as the 
rest of your brethren ?" — The answer of 
the superintendent, or minister to be elect- 
ed : "I acknowledge myself to be a man 
subject to infirmity, and one that has need 
of correction and admonition ; and there- 
fore I most willingly submit and subject 
myself to the wholesome discipline of the 
kirk ; yea, to the discipline of the same 
kirk by the which I am now called to this 
office and charge ; and here in God's pre- 
sence and yours do promise obedience to 
all admonitions, secretly or publicly given, 
unto the which, if I be found inobedient, 
1 confess myself most worthy to be eject- 



ed not only from this honour, but also from 
the society of the faithful, in case of my 
stubbornness : for the vocation of God to 
bear charge within his kirk, maketh not men 
tyrants nor lords, but appointeth them ser- 
vants, watchmen, and pastors of the flock." 

This ended, question must be asked again 
of the multitude : — Ques. " Require ye 
any farther of this your superintendent?" If 
no man answer, let the minister proceed. 
££ Will ye not acknowledge this your brother 
for the minister of Christ Jesus ? Will ye 
not reverence the word of God that pro- 
ceeds from his mouth ? Will ye not receive 
of him the sermon of exhortation with pa- 
tience, not refusing the wholesome medi- 
cine of your souls, although it be bitter 
and unpleasing to the flesh ? Will ye not, 
finally, maintain and comfort him in his 
ministry, against all such as wickedly would 
rebel against God and his holy ordinance?" 
The people answereth : " We will, as we 
will answer to the Lord Jesus, who has com- 
manded his ministers to be held in reverence 
as his ambassadors, and as men that care- 
fully watch for the salvation of our souls." 

Let the nobility also be urged with this : 
— " Ye have heard the duty and profession 
of this your brother, by your consents ap- 
pointed to this charge ; as also the duty 
and obedience which God requireth of us 
towards him here in his ministry ; but be- 
cause that neither of both are able to per- 
form any thing without the especial grace 
of our God in Christ Jesus, who has pro- 
mised to be with us present, even to the 
consummation of the world, with unfeign- 
ed hearts, let us crave of him his benedic- 
tion and assistance in this work begun, to 
his glory, and for the comfort of his kirk." 

THE PRAYER. 

" O Lord, to whom all power is given 
in heaven and on earth, thou that art the 
Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, who 
hast not only so loved thy kirk, that for the 
redemption and purgation of the same thou 
hast humbled thyself to the death of the 
cross, and thereupon hast shed thy most in- 
nocent blood, to prepare to thyself a spouse 
without spot, but also to retain this thy 
most excellent benefit in memory, hast ap- 
pointed in thy kirk teachers, pastors, and 



230 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



apostles, to instruct, comfort, and admonish 
the same. Look upon us mercifully, O 
Lord, thou that only art king, teacher, and 
high priest to thy own flock ; and send 
unto this our brother, whom in thy name 
we have charged with the chief care of thy 
kirk within the bounds of Lothian, such 
portion of thy Holy Spirit, as thereby he 
may rightly divide thy word to the instruc- 
tion of thy flock, and to the confutation of 
pernicious errors and damnable supersti- 
tions. Give unto him, good Lord, a mouth 
and wisdom, whereby the enemies of thy 
truth may be confounded, the wolves ex- 
pelled and driven from thy fold, thy sheep 
may be fed in the wholesome pastures of 
thy most holy word, the blind and ignorant 
may be illuminated with thy true know- 
ledge ; finally, that the dregs of supersti- 
tion and idolatry- which yet rest within 
this realm, being purged and removed, we 
may all not only have occasion to glorify 
thee our only Lord and Saviour, but also 
daily to grow in godliness and obedience of 
thy most holy will, to the destruction of 
the body of sin, and to the restitution of 
that image to the which we were once 
created, and to the which, after our fall 
and defection, we are renewed by partici- 
pation of thy Holy Spirit, which by true 
faith in thee we do profess as the blessed 
of thy Father, of whom the perpetual in- 
crease of thy graces we crave, as by thee 
our Lord and King, and only Bishop, Ave 
are taught to pray, saying, ' Our Father 
that art in heaven,' " &c. 

The prayer ended, the rest of the minis- 
ters, if any be, and elders of that kirk pre- 
sent, in sign of their consent, shall take the 
elected by the hand, and then the chief mi- 
nister shall give the benediction as follows : 

" God, the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who has commanded his evangel to 
be preached to the comfort of his elect, and 
has called thee to the office of a watchman 
over his people, multiply his graces with 
thee, illuminate thee with his Holy Spirit, 
comfort and strengthen thee in all virtue, 
govern and guide thy ministry to the praise 
of his holy name, to the propagation of 
Christ's kingdom, to the comfort of his 
kirk, and finally, to the plain discharge and 



assurance of thy own conscience in the day 
of the Lord Jesus ; to whom, with the Fa- 
ther, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, 
praise, and glory, now and ever. So be it." 

THE LAST EXHORTATION TO THE ELECTED. 

" Take heed to thyself and unto the flock 
committed to thy charge ; feed the same 
carefully 5 not as it were of compulsion, but 
of very love, which thou bearest feu the 
Lord Jesus : walk in simplicity and pure- 
ness of life, as it becometh the true servant 
and ambassador of the Lord Jesus. Usurp 
not dominion nor tyrannical empire over 
thy brethren. Be not discouraged in adver- 
sity, but lay before thyself the example of 
prophets, apostles, and of the Lord Jesus, 
; who in their ministry sustained contradic- 
j tion, contempt, persecution, and death : 
! Fear not to rebuke the world of sin, ius- 
I tice, and judgment. If any thing succeed 
'. prosperously in thy vocation, be not puffed 
! up with pride ; neither yet flatter thyself 
' as that the good success proceeded from 
| thy virtue, industry, or care : but let ever 
I that sentence of the apostle remain in thy 
heart, 1 What hast thou which thou hast 
j not received ? If thou hast received, why 
gloriest thou ?' Comfort the afflicted, sup- 
\ port the poor, and exhort others to sup- 
| port them. Be not solicitous for things of 
this life, but be fervent in prayer to God 
: for increase of his Holy Spirit. And finally, 
; behave thyself in this holy vocation, with 
: such sobriety, as God may be glorified in 
j thy ministry ; and so shalt thou shortly ob- 
j tain the victory, and shall receive the crown 
l promised when the Lord Jesus shall appear 
in his glory, whose Omnipotent Spirit as- 
j sist thee and us unto the end. Amen." 
Then sing the 23d psalm. 

" The order of the election of elders and 
deacons in the privy kirk of Edin- 
burgh, in the beginning, when as yet 
there was no public face of a kirk, nor 
open assemblies, but secret and privy 
conventions in houses, or in the fields.* 
" Before that there was any public face 
of a true religion within this realm it pleased 



* This, and the prayer, and two paragraphs 
which follow, are wanting in the suppressed 
edition.— Ed. 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



231 



God of his great mercy to illuminate the 
hearts of many private persons, so that 
they did perceive and understand the abuses 
that were in the papistical church, and 
thereupon withdrew themselves from par- 
ticipation of their idolatry. And because 
the Spirit of God will never suffer his own 
to be idle and void of all religion, men be- 
gan to exercise themselves in reading of 
the Scriptures secretly within their own 
houses ; and variety of persons could not 
be kept in good obedience and honest fame, 
without overseers, elders, and deacons ; and 
so began that small flock to put themselves 
in such order as if Christ Jesus had plainly 
triumphed in the midst of them by the 
power of his evangel. And they did elect 
some to occupy the supreme place of ex- 
hortation and reading, some to be elders 
and helpers unto them for the oversight of 
the flock ; and some to be deacons for the 
collection of alms, to be distributed to the 
poor of their own body. Of this small be- 
ginning is that order which now God of 
his great mercy has given unto us publicly 
within this realm. Of the principal of them 
that were known to be men of good con- 
versation and honest fame in the privy 
kirk, were chosen elders and deacons to 
rule with the minister in the public kirk ; 
which burden they patiently sustained a 
year and more : and then, because they 
could not — without neglecting of their own 
private houses — longer wait upon the pub- 
lic charge, they desired that they might be 
relieved, and that others might be burdened 
in their room, which was thought a peti- 
tion reasonable of the whole kirk ; and 
therefore it was granted unto them, that 
they should nominate and give up in elec- 
tion such personages as they in their con- 
sciences thought most apt and able to serve 
in that charge, providing that they should 
nominate double more persons than were 
sufficient to serve in that charge, to the 
end that the whole congregation might 
have their free vote in their election. And 
this order has been ever observed since that 
time in the kirk of Edinburgh, that is, that 
the old session before their departure, no- 
minate twenty-four in election for elders, 
of whom twelve are to be chosen, and thir- 



ty-two for deacons, of whom sixteen are to 
be elected ; which persons are publicly pro- 
claimed in the audience of the whole kirk, 
upon a Sunday before noon, after sermon ; 
with admonition to the kirk, that if any 
man know any notorious crime or cause 
that might unable any of these persons to 
enter in such vocation, that they should 
notify the same unto the session the next 
Thursday : or if any know any persons 
more able for that charge, they should no- 
i tify the same unto the session, to the end 
j that no man either present or absent — be- 
ing one of the kirk — should complain that 
he was spoiled of his liberty in election. 
The Sunday following before noon, in the 
end of the sermon, the whole communi- 
cants are commanded to be present af- 
ternoon, to give their votes as they will 
answer before God, to such as they esteem 
most able to bear the charge of the kirk 
with the ministers. The votes of all being 
received, the scrolls of all are delivered to 
any of the ministers, who keeps the same 
secret from the sight of all men till the 
next Thursday ; and then in the session he 
produces them, that the votes may be count- 
ed, where the maniest votes, without respect 
of persons, have the first place in the elder- 
ship, and so proceeding till the number of 
twelve be complete ; so that if a poor man 
exceeds the rich man in votes, he precedes 
him in place, and it is called the first, se- 
cond, and third elder, even as the votes an- 
swer. And this same is observed in the 
election of deacons. 

The Friday after that judgment is taken 
what persons are elected for elders and 
deacons to serve for that year, the minister 
after his sermon, reads the same names 
publicly, and gives commandment openly, 
that such persons be present the next Sun- 
day at sermon beforenoon, in the place to 
be appointed for them, to accept that charge 
that God by plurality of votes had laid 
upon them. Who being convened, the mi- 
nister after sermon reads the names pub- 
licly, the absents — if any be — are noted, 
and those who are present are admonished 
to consider the dignity of that vocation 
whereunto God has called them ; the duty 
that they owe to the people ; the danger 



232 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



that lies upon them if they be found negli- 
gent in their vocation : and finally, the 
duty of the people towards the persons 
elected. Which being done, this prayer is 
read. 

THE PRAYER IN THE ELECTION OF THE 
ELDERS. 

" O eternal and everlasting God, Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who of thy in- 
finite goodness and mercy has chosen to 
thyself a kirk of the lost seed of Adam, 
which thou hast ever ruled by the inspira- 
tion of thy Holy Spirit ; and yet notthe- 
less, hast always used the ministry of men, 
as well in preaching of thy word, and admi- 
nistration of thy sacraments, as in guiding 
of thy flock, and providing for the poor 
within the same, as in the law, prophets, 
and in thy glorious evangel we have wit- 
nesses : which order, O Lord, thou of thy 
mercy has now restored unto us again after 
that the public face of the kirk has been 
deformed by the tyranny of that Roman 
antichrist. Grant unto us, O heavenly Fa- 
ther, hearts thankful for the benefits which 
we have received, and give unto these our 
brethren, elected unto these charges within 
thy kirk, such abundance of thy Holy 
Spirit, that they may be found vigilant and 
faithful in that vocation whereunto thou of 
thy mercy hath called them. And albeit, 
O Lord, these small beginnings are con- 
temned of the proud world, yet, O Lord, 
do thou, for thy own mercy's sake, bless 
the same, in such sort that thy godly name 
may be glorified, superstition and idolatry 
may be rooted out, and virtue may be plant- 
ed, not only in this generation, but also in 
the posterity to come. Amen. Grant us 
this, merciful Father, for Christ Jesus thy 
Son's sake, in whose name we call unto 
thee, as he has taught us, saying, ' Our 
Father,'" &c. And so after the rehearsal 
of the belief, after the which shall be sung 
this portion of the 103d psalm, ver. 19, 
" The heavens high are," and so forth to 
the end of that psalm. After the which 
shall this short admonition be given to the 
elected. 

" Magnify God, who has of his mercy 
called you to rule within his kirk. Be 
thankful in your vocation. Show your- 



selves zealous to promote verity. Fear not 
the faces of the wicked, but rebuke their 
wickedness. Be merciful to the poor, and 
support them to the uttermost of your 
power ; and so shall ye receive the bene- 
diction of God, present and everlasting. 
God save the king's majesty, and give unto 
him the spirit of sanctification in his young 
age : bless his regent, and such as assist 
him in upright counsel, and either fruit- 
fully convert, or suddenly confound the 
enemies of true religion, and of this afflict- 
ed commonwealth. Amen." 

As the servants of God uprightly travail- 
ed to have vice punished, and virtue plant- 
ed, so did the devil ever stir up some in the 
contrary of both. There was a law made 
against fornicators and adulterers, that the 
one and the other should be carted through 
the towns, and so banished, till their re- 
pentance were offered and received. And 
albeit this was not the severity of God's 
law, especially against adulterers, yet was 
it a great bridle to malefactors, whereat the 
wicked did wonderfully storm. It chanced 
that one Sanderson, a flesher, was depre- 
hended to have put away his lawful wife — 
under colour that he was lawfully parted 
after the manner of the papistical religion 
—and had taken to him another in his 
house. The complaint and slander propon- 
ed to the kirk, and trial taken that he was 
not married with the second woman, neither 
that he was able to prove that he was di- 
vorced by any order of law from the first, 
he was committed into the hand of the ma- 
gistrates, who, according to the laws, com- 
manded him to be carted ; but the rascal 
multitude, inflamed by some ungodly crafts- 
men, made insurrection, broke the cart, 
boasted [threatened] the officers, and took 
away the malefactor. This was the begin- 
ning of farther evils, as we will after hear. 

In this meantime, while lord James, we 
say, was in France, there came an ambassa- 
dor from France, suborned, no doubt, with 
all craft that might trouble the estate 
of religion. His demands were, first, 
" That the league betwixt us and England 
should be broken." Secondly, " That the 
ancient league betwixt France and Scot- 
land should be renewed." And, thirdly, 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



233 



" That the bishops and kirkmen should be 
reponed in their former places, and be suf- 
fered to intromit with their livings." The 
council delayed answer till the parliament 
appointed in May. In the meantime the 
papists of Scotland practised with him. 
The earls of Huntly, Athol, Bothwell, and 
others, intended to have taken Edinburgh 
before the said parliament. The whole 
bishops assembled, and held council at 
Stirling. Some whispering there was, that 
the duke and the bishop of St Andrews 
were over familiar ; and some feared that 
the authority of the queen should have 
been usurped, by reason of her absence, 
and that the duke was second person, for 
thereat had some of his preassit [essayed] 
immediately after the death of the king of 
France. The protestants thereof adver- 



tised, prevented them, and came to Edin- 
burgh. The earl of Arran stood constant 
with his brethren. There were some that 
painfully and carefully travailed that no- 
thing prejudicial to the queen's authority, 
should be done in absence of the lord James, 
to whom the queen has recompensed evil 
for good service. Mr James M'Gill in that 
point did both stoutly and truly; for John 
Knox and he were then fallen in familia- 
rity, in which they yet continue — this 20th 
of October, 1567 — by reason the said Mr 
James had embraced the religion, and pro- 
fessed it publicly. 

The papists and the bishops, disappointed 
of their principal purpose and enterprise, 
did yet make broil for trouble : for the 
rascal multitude were stirred up to make a 
Robin Hood,* which enormity was of many 



* Robin Hood, though an English story, had 
become very popular in Scotland ; and the act- 
ing of it was found to have such a seditious ten- 
dency, that it was suppressed by statute. Dr 
Jameson gives the following account of it from 
Arnot's History of Edinburgh : 

" The celebration of games by the populace, 
in honour of their deities and heroes, is of the 
greatest antiquity, and formed the principal part 
of the pagan religion. The Floralia of Rome 
seems to have been continued with our fore- 
fathers, after the introduction of Christianity, 
under the title of May Games. The custom ob- 
served at this day in England, of dancing about 
May Poles, and of carrying through the streets 
of London pyramids of plate adorned with gar- 
lands, undoubtedly originated from the same 
pagan institution. As the memory of the origi- 
nal heroes of those games had been long lost, it 
was extremely natural to substitute a recent 
favourite, in room of an obsolete heathen deity. 
Robin Hood, a bold popular outlaw of the 
twelfth century, by his personal courage, his 
dexterous management of the bow, and by dis- 
playing a species of humanity and generosity in 
supplying the necessities of the poor with the 
spoils he had robbed from the wealthy, became 
the darling of the populace. His achievements 
have been celebrated in innumerable songs and 
stories. As for the game which has been insti- 
tuted in his honour, it is not so easy to describe 
what it was, rs how strongly it was the object 
of popular attachment. 

" The game of Robin Hood was celebrated in 
the month of May. The populace assembled 
previous to the celebration of this festival, and 
chose some respectable member of the corpora- 
tion to officiate in the character of Robin Hood, 
and another in that of Little John, his squire. 
Upon the day appointed, which was a Sunday 
or holiday, the people assembled in military 
array, and went to some adjacent field, where, 
either as actors or spectators, the whole inhabi- 
tants of the respective towns were convened. 



In this field they probably amused themselves 
with a representation of Rabin Hood's pi edatory 
exploits, or of his encounters with the officers of 
justice. A learned prelate preaching before 
Edward VI. observes, that he once came to a 
town upon a holiday, and gave information on 
the evening before of his design to preach. But 
next day when he came to church, he found the 
door locked. He tarried half an hour ere the 
key could be found ; and, instead of a willing 
audience, some one told him, 4 This is a busy 
day with us ; we cannot hear you. It is Robin 
Hood's day. The parish are gone abroad to 
gather for Robin Hood. I pray you let [t. e. 
hinder] them not.' '1 was fain, says the bishop, 
' to give place to Robin Hood. I thought my 
rochet should have been regarded, though I were 
not ; but it would not serve; it was fair to give 
place to Robin Hood's men.' — Latimer's Ser- 
mons,]). 78. A. D. 1550. 

" As numerous meetings for disorderly mirth 
are apt to engender tumult, when the minds of 
the people came to be agitated with religious 
controversy, it was found necessary to repress 
the game of Robin Hood by public statute. 
Acts Mar. 1555. c. 61. The populace were by 
no means willing to relinquish their favourite 
amusement. Year after year the magistrates of 
Edinburgh were obliged to exert their autho- 
rity in repressing this game, often ineffectually. 
In the year 1561, the mob were so enraged at 
being disappointed in making a Robin Hood, 
that they rose in mutiny, seized on the city 
gates, committed robberies on strangers ; and 
one of the ringleaders being condemned by the 
magistrates to be hanged, the mob forced open 
the jail, set at liberty the criminal and all the 
prisoners, and broke in pieces the gibbet erected 
at the cross for the execution of the malefactor. 
They next assaulted the magistrates, who were 
sitting in the council chamber, and who fled to 
the tolbooth for shelter, where the mob at- 
tacked them, battering the doors, and pour- 
ing stones through the windows. Applica*. 

2 G 



234 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. lf;60 



years left and damned by statute and act of 
parliament ; yet would they not be forbid- 
den, but would disobey and trouble the 
town, especially upon the night : whereat 
the bailies offended, took from them some 
swords and an ensign, which was occasion 
that they the same night made a mutiny, 
kept the ports of the town, and intended to 
have pursued some men within their own 
houses ; but that, upon restitution of their 
swords, was stayed. But yet they ceased 
not to molest, as well the inhabitants of 
Edinburgh as divers countrymen, taking 
from them money, and threatening some 
with farther injuries: wherewith the ma- 
gistrates of the town, highly offended, took 
more diligent heed to such as resorted to the 
town, and apprehended one of the principal 
of that misorder, named Kyllon, a cordiner, 
whom they put to an assize ; and being 
convicted — for he could not be absolved, for 
he was the chief man that spoiled John 
Mowbray of ten crowns of the son — they 
thought to have executed judgment upon 
him, and erected a gibbet beneath the cross. 
But — Avhether it came by paction with the 
provost and some other, or by instigation 
of the craftsmen, who ever have been bent 
overmuch to maintain such vanity and 
riotousness, we fully know not — suddenly 
there did rise a tumult, the tolbooth was 
broken up, and not only the said Kyllon 
was violently taken forth, but also all other 
malefactors were set at freedom, the gibbet 
was pulled down, and despitefully broken. 
And thereafter, as the provost, and some of 
the council assembled to the clerk's cham- 
ber for consultation, the whole rascal mul- 
titude banded together, with some known 
and honest craftsmen, and intended inva- 



tion was made to the deacons of the cor- 
poration to appease the tumult. Remaining, 
however, unconcerned spectators, they made 
this answer, ' They will be magistrates alone, 
let them rule the multitude alone.' They were 
kept in confinement till they made proclamation 
be published, offering indemnity to the rioters 
on laying down their arms. Still, however, as 
late as the year 1592, we find the General As- 
sembly complaining of the profanation of the 
Sabbath by making of Robin Hood plays. Book 
of the Universal Kirk, p. 414. Hist. Edin. 
pp. 77 — 79. 

Pr J. adds, " There seems to have been suffi- 



sion of the said chamber ; which perceived, 
the provost, and such as were in his com- 
pany, passed to the tolbooth, suspecting 
nothing that they would be so enraged as 
to make new pursuit, after that they had 
obtained their intent : but they were sud- 
denly deceived ; for from the Castle-hill 
they came with violence, and with stones, 
guns, and such other weapons as they had, 
began to assault the said tolbooth, ran at 
the door of it, while, partly by stones 
cast from above, and partly by a pistol shot 
by Robert Norwall — which hurt one 
Tweedie — they were repulsed from the 
door. But yet ceased they not to cast and 
shoot in at the windows, threatening death 
to all that were within. And, in very 
deed, the malice of the craftsmen, who 
were suspected to be the occasion of that 
tumult, bore no goodwill to divers of them 
that were with the provost. 

The arguments that the craftsmen were 
the cause of that uproar, besides their first 
misorder that they had used before, in 
taking Sanderson from the execution of 
punishment, are two. The former, Archi- 
bald Dewar, Patrick Changie, with other 
six deacons of the crafts, came to John 
Knox, and willed him to solicit the provost 
and the town to delay the execution. 
Who did answer, " That he had so often 
solicited in their favours, that his own con- 
science accused him, that they used his 
labours for no other end, but to be a patron 
to their impiety j for he had before made 
intercession for William Harlaw, James 
Frissell, and others that were convicted of 
the former tumult." They proudly an- 
swered, " That if it was not stayed, both 
he and the bailies should repent it." 



cient reason for the exercise of civil authority 
in the suppression of this game. It is natural 
enough to suppose, that villains, taking advan- 
tage of the gathering for Robin-Hood, , (that is, 
collecting money for the expense of dresses, &e. ) 
would at times carry the matter so far as to 
imitate this celebrated character in the very 
mode of gathering. This we find was actually 
done. Knox accordingly gives the following 
more particular account of the conduct of the 
rascal multitude, who were stirred up to make 
a Robin Hood." Then he gives the passage as 
in the text. — Ed. 



Book II I.j 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



235 



Whereunto he answered, " That he would 
not hurt his conscience for any fear of 
man :" and so they departed ; and the tu- 
mult immediately thereafter did arise. The 
second argument is, the tumult continued 
from two hours afternoon, till after eight 
at night. The craftsmen were required to 
assemble themselves together for deliver- 
ance of their provost and bailies, but they 
passed to their four hours' penny,* and in 
their jesting, said, " They will be magistrates 
alone, let them rule the multitude alone." 
And so, contrary the oath that they had 
made, they denied their assistance, counsel, 
and comfort to their provost and bailies, 
which are arguments very probable, that 
the said tumult rose by their procurement. 
The end hereof was, that the provost and 
bailies were compelled to give their hand- 
writes, that they should never pursue any 
of them that were at that tumult, for any 
crime that was done in that behalf, and 
this was proclaimed at the Market Cross, 
after nine hours at night ; and so that 
trouble quieted. But the nobility avowed, 
that they should not spare it ; and so a 
great number of that faction were absent 
from the town, till the arrival of the queen- 
The whole multitude were holden excom- 
municate, and were admitted to no partici- 
pation of the sacraments, until such time 
as they satisfied the magistrates, and made 
humble suit unto the kirk.f 

Of the death of the queen regent, we 
have before spoken, but of her burial was 
nothing heard. And it may appear that 
such matters are unworthy of remem- 
brance : but if all things shall rightly be 



* Our ancestors dined at 12, or at the latest 
1 o'clock, which is still the dinner hour in some 
parts of the country. The slight refreshment 
taken between dinner and supper, was called 
" four hours," from the hour commonly observ- 
ed. It is now superseded by tea at a later hour, 
corresponding with the later dinner. The an- 
cient " four hours " consisted of beer, and some- 
times stronger liquor. From Knox's words in 
the text, Jamieson infers, that it had its origin 
in the tavern. He quotes a passage from a cu- 
rious poem of the 17th century, which shows 
that our ancestors, whom we believe to have 
been very poor, were not ignorant of good living 
in their own way. It describes the means taken 
by a client to keep his lawyer in good humour 
while a plea was depending. 



weighed, we shall perceive God's just 
judgments, how secret that ever they be. 

Before, we heard of the barbarous in- 
humanity that was used at Leith by the 
French, who exponed the naked carcases 
of the slain, as it were in a spectacle, de- 
spiting God. We heard, that the queen 
regent rejoiced at the sight, but her joy 
was suddenly turned into sorrow, as we 
have heard. The question was moved of 
her burial. The preachers boldly gainstood 
" That any superstitious rites should be 
used within that realm, which God of his 
great mercy had begun to purge," and so 
conclusion was taken, that the burial should 
be deferred till farther advisement ; and so 
was she lapped [inclosed] in a cope [coffin] 
of lead, and kept in the castle, from the 
ninth of June, unto the nineteenth 
of October, when she by pioneers w.is 
carried to a ship, and so carried to France. 
What pomp was used there, we neither 
heard, nor yet regard. But in it we see, 
that she who was delighted that others lay 
without burial, got neither so soon, as she 
herself — if she had been of the council in 
her life — would have required it, neither 
so honourably in this realm, as sometime 
she looked for. It may chance be a prog- 
nostication that the Guisan blood cannot 
have long rest within this realm. 

The papists, a little before parliament, re- 
sorted in divers bands to the town, and be- 
gan to brag, as though they would have de- 
faced £ the protestants : which thing per- 
ceived, the brethren assembled together and 
went in such companies, and yet in peace- 
able manner, that the bishops and their 



Thus Aulus hath for ten years' space extended 
The plea ; and furthermore, I have expended 
Vast sums, to wit. for washing, lodging, diet,— 
For morning drinks, four hours, half gills at noon, 
To fit their stomachs for the fork and spoon ; — 
For rolls, for nctckets, roundabouts, sour cakes, 
For Chesh're cheese, fresh butter, cookies, bakes, 
For panches, saucers, sheepheads, cheats, plack pyes. 

Within my own recollection, naclcel, in Ayr- 
shire, was the name for a halfpenny roll. — Ed. 

\ It seems strange that such a " rascal multi- 
tude" should have had any thing to do with the 
communion of the church. — Ed. 

| Perhaps deforced or borne down, or put 
them out of countenance. 



236 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1561 



bands forsook the causeway. The brethren 
understanding what the papists meant, con- 
vened in council in the tolbooth of Edin- 
burgh, the 27th of May, 1561; and after 
consultation, concluded, that a supplication 
should be presented to the lords of secret 
council, and unto the whole assembly, that 
then was convened, in tire which should 
these subsequent heads be required, and a 
law to pass thereupon. 

First, " That idolatry, and all monuments 
thereof, should be suppressed throughout 
the whole realm ; that the sayers, hearers, 
maintainers, and users of the mass, should 
be punished according to the act of parlia- 
ment, as said is. 

Secondly, " That special and certain pro- 
vision be made for the sustentation of the 
superintendents, ministers, exhorters, and 
readers ; that superintendents and ministers 
should be planted where none were ; that 
punishment should be appointed for such 
as disobeyed or contemned the superin- 
tendents in their function. 

Thirdly, " That punishment may be ap- 
pointed for the abusers of the sacraments, 
and for the contemners of the same. 

Fourthly, " That no letters of session be 
given to answer or pay to any person their 
tiends, without special provision, that the 
parishioners retain so much in their own 
hands, as is appointed for the ministry ; 
and that all such as are else given be called 
in, and discharged; and likewise that she- 
riffs give precepts to that effect. 

Fifthly, " That neither the lords of ses- 
sion, nor any other judges, proceed upon 
such precepts or warnings, passed at the 
instance of them that of late have obtained 
feus of vicarages, and parsons' manses, and 
kirk-yards ; and that six acres — if so much 
there be — of the glebe be always reserved 
to the minister, according to the appoint- 
ment, of the book of discipline ; and that 
every minister may have letters thereupon. 

Sixthly, " That no letters of session, nor 
any others take place, until the stipends 
contained in the book of discipline, for sus- 
tentation of the ministers, be first consigned 
in the hands, at the least, of the principal of 
the parishioners. 

Seventhly, " That punishment be appoint- 



ed against such as purchase, bring home, 
or execute within this realm, the pope's 
bulls." 

THE TENOR OF THE SUPPLICATION WAS THIS : 

" Please your honours, and the wisdom 
of such as are presently convened with you 
in council, to understand, that by many 
arguments we perceive, what the pestilent 
generation of that Roman antichrist within 
this realm pretends, to wit, that they would 
of new erect their idolatry, take upon them 
to empire above our conscience ; and so to 
command us, the true subjects of this 
realm, and such as God of his mercy has — 
i under our sovereign — subjected unto us, in 
all things to obey their appetites. Honesty 
craveth, and conscience moveth us, to make 
the very secrets of our hearts patent to 
your honours in that behalf, which is this, 
" That before that ever these tyrants and 
dumb dogs empire above us, and above 
such as God has subjected unto us, that we, 
the barons and gentlemen professing Christ 
Jesus within this realm, have fully deter- 
mined to hazard lives, [life, s. c] and whatso- 
ever we have received of our God in tempo- 
ral things." We most humbly therefore be- 
seech your honours, that such order may 
be taken, that we have no occasion to take 
again the sword of just defence into our 
hands, which we have willingly — after that 
God has given victory, both to your 
honours and us— -resigned over into your 
hands ; to the end, that God's evangel may 
be publicly, within this realm, preached ; 
the true preachers thereof reasonably sus- 
tained, idolatry suppressed, and the com- 
mitters thereof punished, according to the 
laws of God and man. In doing whereof, 
your honours shall find us, not only obe- 
dient unto you, in all things lawful, but 
also ready at all times to bring under order 
and obedience, such as w r ould rebel against 
your just authority, which, in absence of 
our sovereign, we acknowledge to be in 
your hands, beseeching your honours, with 
upright judgment and indifferency, to look 
upon these our few articles, and, by these 
our brethren, to signify unto us such an- 
swer again, as may declare your honours 
worthy of that place, whereunto God- 
after some dangers sustained — in his 



Book III. J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



237 



mercy hath called you. And let these 
enemies of God assure themselves, that if 
your honours put not order unto them, 
that we shall shortly take such order, that 
they shall neither be able to do what they 
list, neither yet to live upon the sweat of 
the brows of such, as are no debtors unto 
them. Let your honours conceive nothing 
of us, but all humble obedience in God. 
But let the papists be yet once again as- 
sured, that their pride and idolatry, we will 
not suffer. — Direct from the assembly of 
the kirk, the 18th of May, 1561. And 
sent by these brethren, the masrer of Lind- 
say, the laird of Lochinvar, the laird of 
Phemihirst, the laird of Whittenham, 
Thomas Menzies, provost of Aberdeen, and 
George Lewell, burgess of Dundee." — Upon 
the which request and articles, the lords 
and council foresaid made an act and ordi- 
nance, answering to every one of the fore- 
said articles, and commanded letters to be 
answered thereupon, which divers of the 
ministers raised, as in the books of secret 
council is yet to be found. 

And thus got Satan the second fall, after 
that he had begun to trouble the estate of 
the religion, once established by law. His 
first assault was by the rascal multitude, 
opponing themselves to the punishment of 
vice : the second was, by the bishops and 
their bands, in the which he thought utter- 
ly to have triumphed ; and yet he in the 
end prospered worse than ye have heard. 
For in this meantime, returned from France 
the lord James, who, beside his great ex- 
penses, and the loss of a box, wherein 
was his secret pose [private purse], escaped 
a desperate danger in Paris : for at his re- 
turning from our sovereign — who then lay 
with the cardinal of Lorraine in Rheims — 
understood of the papists in Paris, they had 
conspired some treasonable act against him ; 
for they intended either to have beset his 
house by night, or else to have assaulted 
him and his company, as they walked upon 
the streets; whereof the said lord James 
being advertised by the Ringrave, by rea- 
son of the old familiarity that was betwixt 
them in Scotland, he took purpose sudden- 
ly and in good order to depart from Paris, 
as that he did, the second day after that 



he arrived there ; and yet could not he de- 
part so secretly, but the papists had their 
privy ambushes. For upon the Change- 
bridge, they had prepared a procession, 
which met the said lord and his company 
in the teeth ; and knowing that they would 
not do the accustomed reverence unto 
them and their idols, they thought there- 
upon to have picked a quarrel ; and so as 
one part passed by, without moving of hats 
to any thing that was there, they had sub- 
orned some to cry, " Hugonots," and to cast 
stones ; but God disappointed their enter- 
prise : for the said Fangrave, with other 
gentlemen, being with the lord James, re- 
buked the foolish multitude, and over-rode 
some of the foremost ; and so the rest were 
dispersed, and he and his company safely 
escaped, and thereafter came with expedi- 
tion to Edinburgh, while that yet the 
lords and assembly were together, to the 
great comfort of many godly hearts, and 
to no little astonishment of the wicked : 
for, from the queen our sovereign he 
brought letters to the lords, praying them 
to entertain quietness, and to suffer no- 
thing to be attempted against the contract 
of peace which was made at Leith, till her 
own home-coming, and to suffer the reli- 
gion publicly established to go forward, 
&c. Whereupon the said lords gave an- 
swer to the French ambassador, a nega- 
tive to every one of his petitions. 

And, first, " That France had not de- 
served at their hands, that either they or 
their posterity, should enter again with 
them in any league or confederacy, offensive 
or defensive, seeing that so traitorously 
and cruelly, they had persecuted them, 
their realm and liberties, under pretence of 
amity and marriage. 

Secondly, " That besides their con- 
science, they could not take such a worldly 
scheme, as without offence committed, to 
break that league, which in God's name 
they had made with them, whom he had 
made instruments to set Scotland at free- 
dom from the tyranny of the French, at 
least from the Guisans and their faction. 

And, last, " That such as they called 
bishops and kirkmen, they knew neither 
for pastors of the kirk, neither yet for any 



238 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[A. D. 1561 



just possessors of the patrimony thereof : 
but did understand them perfectly to be 
wolves, thieves, murderers, and idle-bellies, 
and therefore, as Scotland had forsaken 
the pope and papistry, so could they not 
be debtors to his forsworn vassals." 

With these answers departed the said 
ambassador. And the lords of secret coun- 
cil made an act, that all places and monu- 
ments of idolatry should be destroyed. 
And for that purpose were directed to the 
west, the earl of Arran, having' joined with 
him the earls of Argyle and Glencairn, to- 
gether with the protestants of the west, 
who burnt Paisley — the bishop of St 
Andrews, who was abbot thereof, narrowly 
escaped — cast down Failford, Kilwinning-, 
and a part of Corsraguell. The lord James 
was appointed to the north, where he made 
such reformation, as nothing- contented the 
earl of Huntly, and yet seemed he to ap- 
prove all things. And thus God so potent- 
ly wrought with us, so long as we depend- 
ed upon him, that all the world might see 
his potent hand to maintain us, and to 
fight against our enemies,- yea, most to 
confound them, when that they promised 
to themselves victory without resistance. 
" O that we could rightly consider the 
wondrous work of the Lord our God." 

In the treaty of peace contracted at 
Leith, there were contained certain heads 
that required the ratification of both the 
queens. The queen of England, according 
to her promise, subscription, and seal, with- 
out any delay performed the same, and 
sent it to our sovereign, by her appointed 
officers. But our sovereign — whether be- 
cause her own crafty nature moved her 
thereto, or that her uncle's chief counsel- 
lors so would, we know not — with many 
dilators frustrated the expectation of the 
queen of England, as by the copy of a let- 
ter sent from the ambassador of England, 
to his sovereign, we may understand. 

AT PARIS, THE 23d OF JUNE, 1561. 

" The 18th of this present June, I sent 
Sommer to the queen of Scots for audience, 
who appointed me to come to her the same 
day after dinner, which 1 did. To her I 
did remember your majesty's hearty com- 
mendations, and declared unto her your 



majesty's like gladsomeness of her re- 
covery of her late sickness, whose want 
of health, as it was grievous unto your 
majesty, so did you congratulate and great- 
ly rejoice of the great terms of health she 
was presently in. After these offices, I 
put her in remembrance again, what had 
passed from the beginning, in the matter 
of your majesty's demand of her ratifica- 
tion, according to the purport of the said 
treaty, as well by me at the first, as after- 
wards by my lord of Bedford at his being 
here, and also followed since by me again 
in audience, and by my letter to her being 
in Lorraine: adding hereto your majesty's 
farther commandment, and recharge to me 
again, presently to renew the same demand, 
as before had been done." 

ANSWER. 

" The said queen made answer, Monsieur 
1' Ambassador, I thank the queen, my good- 
sister, for this gentle visitation and congra- 
tulation of this my recovery ; and though 
I be not in perfect health, yet I find myself 
in very good [health, s. c] in the coming-to. 
And for answer to your demand," said she, 
" of my ratification, I do remember all 
those things that ye have recited unto me ; 
and I would that the queen my good-sister 
should think that I do respect the resolute 
answer in this matter, and performing 
thereof until such time as I may have the 
advice of the nobles and estates of my own 
realm, which 1 trust shall not be long a- 
doing, for I intend to make my voyage 
thither shortly. And though this matter," 
said she, " doth touch me principally, yet 
doth it also touch the nobles and estates of 
my realm too; and therefore it shall be 
meet that I use their advices therein : here- 
tofore they have seemed to be grieved that 
I should do any thing without them, and 
now they would be more offended if I 
should proceed in this matter of myself 
without their advices. I do intend," said 
she," to send Monsieur d'Oysel to the 
queen your mistress, my good-sister, who 
shall declare that unto her from me, that I 
trust shall satisfy her ; by whom 1 will 
give her to understand of my journey into 
Scotland. I mean to embark at Calais. ThV 
king has lent me certain galleys and ships 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



239 



to convoy me home, and I intend to re- 
quire of my good-sister those favours that 
princes use to do in such cases. And 
though the terms wherein heretofore we 
have been, have been somewhat hard, [ever 
till that she may show her evil will,] * yet I 
trust that from henceforth we shall accord 
together as cousins and good neighbours. 
I mean to retire," said she, " all the French- 
men forth of Scotland who have given 
jealousy to the queen my sister, and mis- 
contentment to my subjects ; so that I will 
leave nothing- undone to satisfy all parties, 
trusting- the queen my good-sister will do 
the like, and that from henceforth none of 
my disobedient subjects — if there be any 
such — shall find aid or support at her 
hands." 

I answered, " That I was not desirous to 
fall in the discourse how those hard terms 
first began, nor by what means they were 
nourished, because therein I must charge 
some party with injury and peril offered to 
the queen my mistress, which was the very 
ground of these matters : but I was well 
assured that there could be no better occa- 
sion offered to put the former unkindness 
in forgetfulness, than by ratifying the trea- 
ties of peace, for that should repay all in- 
juries past; and, Madam," said I, "where it 
pleaseth you to suspend the ratification 
until you have the advice of the nobility 
and states of your realm, the queen my 
mistress doth nothing doubt of their con- 
formity in this matter, because the treaty 
was made by their consents." 

The queen answered, " Yea, by some of 
them, but not by all. It will appear, when 
I come amongst them, whether they be of 
the same mind that you say they were then 
of, or no ; but of this I assure you, Mon- 
sieur 1' Ambassador," said she, " I, for my 
part, am very desirous to have the perfect 
and the assured amity of the queen, my 
good-sister, and will use all the means I 
can to give her occasion to think that I 
mean it indeed." 

I answered, " Madam, the queen my mis- 



tress, ye may be assured, will use the like 
towards you, to move you to be of the same 
opinion towards her." 

"Then," said she, " I trust the queen your 
mistress will not support nor encourage 
any of my subjects to continue in their 
disobedience, nor to take upon them things 
that appertain not to subjects. [This we 
must answer to her, it appertaineth to 
subjects to worship God as he has com- 
manded, and to suppress idolatry, by whom- 
soever it be erected or maintained.] You 
know," said she, " there is much ado in 
my realm about matters of religion ; and 
though there be a greater number of a 
contrary religion unto me than I would 
there were, yet there is no reason that sub- 
jects should give a law to their sovereign, 
and specially in matters of religion, which 
I fear," said she, " my subjects shall take in 
hand." [" Answer for the part of Scotland, 
and if so they had done, they had escaped 
God's indignation, which hath been felt, 
and still hangeth over this realm, for the 
idolatry and utter abominations committed 
in the same, which shall not cease till that 
it be suppressed]."f 

I answered, " Madam, your realm is in 
no other case at this day, than all other 
realms of Christendom are; the proof 
whereof ye see verified in this realm : and 
you see what great difficulty it is to give 
order in this matter, though the king and 
all his council be very desirous thereunto. 
Religion is of the greatest force that may 
be. You have been long out of your realm, 
so as the contrary religion to yours hath 
won the upperhand, and the greatest part 
of your realm. Your mother M as a wo- 
man of great experience, of deep dissimu- 
lation, and kept that realm in quietness, till 
she began to strain men's consciences ; and 
as you think it unmeet to be constrained 
by your subjects, so it may like you to 
consider, the matter is as intolerable to 
them to be constrained by you in matters 
of conscience ; for the duty to God cannot 
be given to any other without offence to 



* The inclosed words are iu the margin in 
the suppressed edition. — Ed. 



f This bracket seems to be a note by Knox 
on the ambassador's report.— Ed. 



210 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a, d. 1561 



his Majesty." " Why," said she, "God doth 
command subjects to be obedient to their 
princes, and commanded princes to read his 
law, and govern thereby themselves and 
the people committed to their charges." An- 
swer, " Yea, Madam," said I, " in those thing's 
that be not against his commandments." 
" Well," said she, " I will be plain with you : 
the religion that I profess, I take it to be 
most acceptable to God; and, indeed, nei- 
ther do I know nor desire to know any 
other. Constancy doth become all people 
well, but none better than princes, and such 
as have rule over realms, and specially in 
matters of religion. — [The Turk is as con- 
stant in his Alcoran, as the pope and his 
sects are in his Constitutions.]* — I have 
been brought up," said she, " in this reli- 
gion, and who might credit me in any 
thing if I should show myself light in this 
case : and though I be young and not well 
learned, yet have 1 heard this matter oft 
disputed by my uncle my lord cardinal, 
with some that thought they could say 
somewhat in the matter ; and I found there- 
in no great reason to change my opinion." — 
[Neither did Caiaphas, when Christ Jesus 
did reason in his presence ; but what was 
the cardinal compelled to confess at Poy- 
sie ?]f 

" Madam," said I, " if you judge well in 
that matter, you must be conversant in the 
scriptures, which are the touchstone to try 
the right from the wrong. Peradventure, 
yon are so partially affected to your uncle's 
argument, that you could not indifferently 
consider the other party : yet this I assure 
you, Madam," said I, " your uncle my lord 
cardinal, in conference with me about these 
matters, hath confessed, that there be great 
errors and abuses come into the kirk, and 
great disorders in the ministers and clergy, 
insomuch that he wished that there might 
be a reformation of the one and of the 
other." " I have oftentimes heard him say 
the like," said she.— Then I said, « Well, I 
trust God will inspire you all that be 
princes, that there may be some good order 



* Note by the author inclosed [ J — Ed. 
The same.— J[d. 



taken in this matter, so as there may be 
one unity in religion throughout all Chris- 
tendom." 

" God grant," said she ; " but for my part 
ye may perceive I am none of those that 
will change their religion every year ; and, 
as I told you in the beginning, I mean to 
constrain none of my subjects, but would 
wish they were all as I am ; and I trust 
they should have no support to constrain 
me. I will send Monsieur d'Oysel," said 
she, " to you before he go, to know whether 
ye will any thing into England. I pray 
you, so order yourself in this matter, be- 
twixt the queen my good-sister and me, 
that there may be perfect and assured 
amity betwixt us; for I know," said she, 
" that ministers may do much good and 
harm." 

I told her that " I would faithfully and 
truly make declaration of all that she had 
said unto me, unto your majesty ; and 
trusted that she would so satisfy your ma- 
jesty by Monsieur d'Oysel in all things, as 
I should hereafter have no more occasion 
to treat with her of any things but of the 
increase of amity." She said, " There should 
be no want thereof on her behalf." 

" This is the effect of the queen of Scot- 
land's answer to your majesty's demand of 
her said ratification, and of my said nego- 
tiation with her at this time." 

These advertisements somewhat exas- 
perated the queen of England, and not al- 
together without cause; for the arms of 
England were before usurped by our so- 
vereign, and by her husband Francis, and 
Elizabeth, queen of England, was of the 
Guisans reputed little better than a bastard. 
It was appointed that this title should be 
renounced ; but hereof had our proud and 
vain queen no pleasure, and especially after 
that her husband was dead ; for, thought 
she, the to-look [expected junction] of Eng- 
land shall allure many wooers to me. The 
Guisans and the papists of both the realms 
did not a little animate her in that pursuit, 
the effect whereof will sooner appear than 
the godly of England would desire : and 
yet is she that now reigneth over them 
neither good protestant nor yet resolute 
papist, let the world judge which is the 



Book IILJ 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



211 



third.* Queen Elizabeth, we say, offended 
with the former answers, wrote unto the 
nobility and estates of Scotland, in form as 
folio we th : 

THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND'S LETTER TO THE 
ESTATES OF SCOTLAND. 

" Right trusty and right entirely be- 
loved cousins, we greet you. We doubt 
not, but as our meaning is, and hath been 
always since our reign, in the sight of Al- 
mighty God, straight and direct towards 
the advancement of his honour and truth 
in religion, and consequently to procure 
peace and maintain concord betwixt both 
these realms of England and Scotland ; so 
also our outward acts have well declared 
the same to the world, and especially to 
you, being our neighbours, who have tast- 
ed and proved of these our friendship and 
earnest goodwill, more than we think any 
of your ancestors have ever received, from 
hence ; yea, more than a good number of 
yourselves could well hope of us, all for- 
mer examples being well weighed and con- 
sidered. And this we have to rejoice of, 
and so may ye be glad, that where, in the 
beginning of the troubles in that country, 
and. of our succours meant for you, the 
jealousy, or rather the malice of divers, 
both in that realm and in other countries, 
was such, both to deprive us in yielding ; 
and you in requiring our aid, that we were 
noted to have meant the surprise of that 
realm, by depriving of your sovereign the 
queen of her crown, and you, or the great- 
est part of you, to have intended by our 
succour the like ; and either to prefer some 
other to the crown, or else to make of that 
monarchy a commonwealth ; matters very 
slanderous and false. But the end and de- 
termination, yea, the whole course and 
process of the action on both our parts have 
manifested, both to the slanderers, and unto 
all others, that nothing was more meant 
and prosecuted, than to establish your so- 
vereign the queen, our cousin and sister, in 
her estate and crown, the possession where- 



* This is a very just view of Elizabeth's cha- 
racter, and we cannot be surprised that such a 
sentiment should not be suffered to be published 
during her life. — Ed. 



of was in the hands of strangers. And, al- 
though no words could 4hen well satisfy 
the malicious, yet our deeds do now de- 
clare, that no other thing was sought, but 
the restitution of that realm to the ancient 
liberty, and, as it were, to redeem it from 
captivity. Of these our purposes and 
deeds, there remaineth, among other argu- 
ments, good testimony, by a solemn treaty 
and accord made the last year at Edin- 
burgh, by commissioners sent both from 
us, and from your queen, with full autho- 
rity in writing, under both our hands, and 
the great seals of both our realms, in such 
manner as other princes, our progenitors, 
have always used. By which treaty and 
accord, either of us have fully accorded 
with either, to keep good peace and amity 
betwixt ourselves, our countries, and sub- 
jects. And in the same also a good accord 
is made, not only of certain quarrels hap- 
pened betwixt us, but also of some differ- 
ences betwixt the ministers of the late 
French king, your sovereign's husband, and 
you the estates of the realm, for the altera- 
tion of laws and customs of that country 
attempted by them. Upon which accord 
there made and concluded, hath hitherto 
followed, as you know, surety to your 
sovereign's estate, quietness to yourselves, 
and a better peace betwixt both the realms, 
than ever was heard of in any time past. 
Nevertheless, how it happeneth we know 
not [we can, for she in her conceit tliink- 
eth herself queen of both,] t that your so- 
vereign either not knowing in this part her 
own felicity, or else dangerously seduced 
by perverse counsel, whereof we would be 
most sorry ; being of late at sundry times 
required by us, according to her band re- 
maining with us, signed with her own 
hand, and sealed with the great seal of that 
realm, and allowed by you, being the 
estates of the same, to ratify her said 
treaty, in like manner as we by writing 
have done, and are ready to declare it to 
her, yet she maketh such dilatory answers 



f The parenthesis is evidently a note by the 
author. — Ed. 

2 H 



242 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1561 



thereunto, as what we shall judge thereof, 
we perceive by her answer, that it is meet 
to require of you : for, although she has 
always answered since the death of her 
husband, that in this matter she would first 
understand the minds of certain of you, 
before she would make answer. And so 
having now of long time suspended our ex- 
pectation, in the end, notwithstanding that 
she hath had conference both by messen- 
gers, and by some of yourselves, being with 
her, yet she still delayeth it, alleging to 
our ambassador in France — who said that 
this treaty was made by your consents — it 
was not by consent of you all ; and so 
would have us to forbear, until she return 
to that her country. And now seeing this 
her answer depends, as it should seem, by 
her words, upon your opinions, we cannot 
but plainly let you all understand, that this 
manner of answer, without some more 
fruit, cannot long content us. We have 
meaned well to our sister your queen in 
time of offence given to us by her. We 
did plainly, without dissimulation, charge 
her in her own doubtful estate: while 
strangers possessed her realm, we stayed it 
from danger. And now, having promised 
to keep good peace with her, and you her 
subjects, we have hitherto observed it ; and 
shall be sorry if either she or you shall 
give us contrary cause. In a matter so 
profitable to both the realms, we think it 
strange that your queen hath no better 
advice : and, therefore, we do require you 
all, being the states of that realm, upon 
whom the burden rests, to consider this 
matter deeply, and to make us answer, 
whereunto we may trust. And if you shall 
think meet, she shall thus leave the peace 
imperfect, by breaking of her solemn pro- 
mise, contrary to the order of all princes, 
we shall be well content to accept your 
answer, and shall be as careless to see 
the peace kept, as ye shall give us cause ; 
and doubt not, by the grace of God, but 
whosoever of you shall first incline there- 
to, shall soonest repent. You must be 
content with our plain writing. And on 
the other side, if you continue all in one 
mind^ to have the peace inviolably kept, 
and shall so by your advice procure the 



queen to ratify it, we also plainly promise 
you, that we will also continue our good 
disposition to keep the same in such good 
terms as now it is : and in so doing, the 
honour of Almighty God shall be duly 
sought and promoted in both the realms, 
the queen your sovereign shall enjoy her 
estate with surety, and yourselves possess 
that which you have with tranquillity, to 
the increase of your families and posteri- 
ties, which by the frequent wars hereto- 
fore your ancestors never had long in one 
estate. To conclude, we require you to ad- 
vertise us of what mind ye be, especially if 
you all continue in that mind, that ye mean 
to have the peace betwixt both the realms 
perpetually kept : and if ye shall forbear 
any long time to advertise us, ye shall give 
to us some occasion of doubt, whereof more 
hurt may grow than good. From," &c. 

These letters received and perused, al- 
beit the estates could not be convened, yet 
did the council, and some others also in 
particular, return answer with reasonable 
diligence. The tenor of our letters was 
this : 

" Please your majesty, that with judg- 
ment we have advised your majesty's let- 
ters : and albeit the whole estates could 
not be suddenly assembled, yet we thought 
expedient to signify somewhat of our 
minds unto your majesty. Far be it from 
us, that either we take upon us, that in- 
famy before the world, or grudge of con- 
science before our God, that we should 
lightly esteem the observation of that 
peace lately contracted betwixt these two 
realms. By what motives our sovereign 
delayed the ratification thereof, we cannot 
tell : but of us — of us, we say, Madam, 
who have in God's presence protested 
fidelity in our promise — her grace has none. 
Your majesty cannot be ignorant, that in 
this realm there are many enemies; and, 
farther, that our sovereign has counsellors, 
whose judgments she in all such cases pre- 
fers to ours. Our allegiance bindeth us, 
not only reverently to speak and write of 
our sovereign, but also to judge and think : 
and yet your majesty may be well assured, 
that in us shall be noted no blame, if that 
peace be not ratified to your majesty's con- 



Book III.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



243 



tentraent : for God is witness, that our 
chief care in this earth, next the glory of 
our God, is, that constant peace may re- 
main betwixt these two realms, whereof 
your majesty and realm shall have sure ex- 
perience, so long as our counsel and votes 
may stay the contrary. The benefit that 
we have received is so recent, that we can- 
not suddenly bury it in forgetfulness. We 
would desire your majesty rather to be 
persuaded of us, that we to our powers will 
study to leave it in remembrance to our pos- 
terity. And thus, with lawful and humble 
commendation of service, we commit your 
majesty to the protection of the Omnipotent. 
Of Edinburgh the 16th of July, 1561." 

There were some that answered some of 
the ministers of England somewhat more 
sharply, and willed them not to accuse nor 
threaten so sharply, till that they were able 
to convict such as had promised fidelity of 
some evident crime, which, although they 
were able to lay to the charge of some, yet 



* The suppressed edition has a sentence more, 
as follows: " And now because that divers 
times heretofore we have made mention of the 
said book, we have thought expedient to insert 
the whole in this part of our history, to the end 
that the posterities to come may judge as well 
what the worldlings refused, as what policy the 
godly ministers required : that they (if God 
grant unto them occasion and liberty,) may ei- 
ther establish a more perfect, or else imitate 
that which avariciousness would not suffer this 



respect would be had to such as long had 
declared themselves constant procurers of 
quietness and peace. 

The sudden arrival of the queen made 
great alteration even in the council, as after 
we will hear. In this meantime, the papists 
i by surmising, troubled what they might, 
their posts, letters, and complaints were 
from day to day direct, some to the pope, 
some to the cardinal of Lorraine, and some 
to our queen. The principal of these 
couriers were, Mr Stephen Wilson, Mr John 
Leslie, called Nolumus and Volumus, Mr 
James Thornton, and others, such as lived, 
and still live, by the traffic of that Roman 
harlot. 

The preachers vehemently exhorted us 
to establish the book of discipline, by an 
act and public law ; affirming, that if they 
suffered things to hang in suspense, when 
God had given unto them sufficient power 
in their hands, they should after sob for it, 
but should not gfet it.* 



corrupt generation to approve." Then follow 
the preface and four heads of discipline, and at 
the fifth, the volume terminates in the middle 
of a sentence. The Glasgow MS. copy has 
none of this, but closes the third book as above. 
David Buchanan makes an apology for not in- 
serting the Book of Discipline, from its being so 
often printed, and of course so well known. As 
the case is otherwise now, it shall be inserted in 
the Appendix. — Ed. 



THE HISTORY 

OF 

THE REFORMATION OF RELIGION 

WITHIN 

THE REALM OF SCOTLAND. 



THE FOURTH BOOK. 



OF THE PROGRESS AND CONTINUANCE OF TRUE RELIGION WITHIN SCOTLAND. 



In the former books, gentle reader, thou 
mayest clearly see how potently God hath 
performed, in these our last and wicked 
days, as well as in the ages that have pass- 
ed before us, the promises that are made 
to the servants of God by the prophet 
Isaiah, in these words : " They that wait 
upon the Lord shall renew their strength, 
they shall lift up the wings as the eagles ; 
they shall run, and not be wearied; 
they [shall] walk, and not faint." This 
promise, we say, such as Satan has not 
utterly blinded, may see performed in us, 
the professors of Christ Jesus, within this 
realm of Scotland, with no less evidence, 
than it was in any age that ever passed be- 
fore us : For what was our force ? What 
was our number ? Yea, what wisdom or 
worldly policy was in us, to have brought 
to a good end so great an enterprise ? Our 
very enemies can bear witness. And yet 
in how great purity God did establish 
amongst us his true religion, as well in 
doctrine as in ceremonies ; to what confu- 
sion and fear were idolaters, adulterers, 
and all public transgressors of God's com- 
mandments within, short time brought the 
public order of the kirk, yet, by the mercy 
of God, preserved, and the punishments 
executed against malefactors, can testify 
uato the world. For as touching the doc- 



trine taught by our ministers, and touch- 
ing the administration of the sacraments 
used in our kirks, we are bold to affirm, 
that there is no realm this day upon the 
face of the earth that hath them in greater 
purity ; yea — we must speak the truth 
whomsoever we offend — there is none, no 
realm, we mean, that hath them in the 
like purity : for all others, how sincere 
that ever the doctrine be, which by some is 
taught, retain in their kirks, and in the 
ministers thereof, some footsteps of anti- 
christ and dregs of papistry ; but we — all 
praise to God alone—have nothing within 
our kirks that ever flowed from that man 
of sin. And this we acknowledge to be 
the strength given to us of God, because 
we esteemed not ourselves wise in our 
own eyes, but understanding our own wis- 
dom to be but mere foolishness, before the 
Lord our God, laid it aside, and followed 
only that which we found approved by 
himself. In this point could never our 
enemies cause us to faint ; for om* first pe- 
tition was, " That the reverend face of the 
primitive and apostolic kirk should be re- 
duced again to the eyes and knowledge of 
men." And in that point, we say, our 
God hath strengthened us till that the 
work was finished, as that the world may 
see. And as concerning the suppressing of 



246 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1561 



vice, yea, and the abolishing- of all such 
things as might nourish impiety within 
this realm, the acts and statutes of the 
principal towns reformed will yet testify. 
For what adulterer, what fornicator, what 
known massmonger, or pestilent papist, 
durst have been seen in public, within any 
reformed town within this realm, before 
that the queen arrived ? And this victory to 
his word, and terror to all filthy livers, did 
our God work by such as yet live and re- 
main witnesses, whether they will or not, 
of the foresaid works of God. We say, 
our God suffered none of those whom he 
first called to the battle, to perish or to fall, 
till that he made them victors of their ene- 
mies. For even as God suffered none of 
those whom he called from Egypt to pe- 
rish in the Red Sea, how fearful that ever 
the danger appeared ; so suffered he none 
of us to be oppressed, nor yet to be taken 
from this life, till that more Pharoahs than 
one were drowned, and we set at freedom, 
without all danger of our enemies ; to let 
both us and our posterity understand, that 
such as follow the conducting of God can- 
not perish, albeit they walked in the very 
shadow of death. 

But from whence, alas ! cometh this mi- 
serable dispersion of God's people within 
this realm, this day, in May 1566 ? * And 
what is the cause that now the just are com- 
pelled to keep silence ? — good men are ba- 
nished, murderers, and such as are known 
unworthy of the common society — if just 
laws were put in due execution — bear the 
whole regimen and sway within this realm ? 
We answer, Because that suddenly the 
most part of us declined from the purity 
of God's word, and began to follow the 
world; and so again shook hands with 
the devil and with idolatry, as in this 
fourth book we will hear. For while that 
papists were so confounded, that none 
within the realm durst more avow the 
hearing and saying of mass, than the 
thieves of Liddesdale durst avow their 
stouth [theft] in the presence of an upright 



judge, there were protestants found, that 
ashamed not at tables, and other open 
places, to ask, " Why may not the queen 
have her mass, and the form of her reli- 
gion ? What can that hurt us or our reli- 
gion ?" And from these two, " Why," and 
" What," at length sprang out this affirma- 
tive, " The queen's mass and her priest will 
we maintain: this hand and this rapier 
shall fight in their defence." 

The inconveniences were shown, both 
by tongue and by pen ; but the advertisers 
were judged to be men of unquiet spirits; 
[and] their credit was defaced at the hands 
of such as before were not ashamed to 
have used their counsel in matters of 
greater importance than to have refused 
the mass. But then my lord, my master, 
may not be thus used ; he has that honour 
to be the queen's brother, and therefore 
we will that all men shall understand that 
he must tender her as his sister ; and who- 
soever shall counsel him to displease her, 
or the least that pertains unto her, shall 
not find him their friend; yea, they are 
worthy to be hanged that would so counsel 
him, &c. 

These and the like reasons took such 
deep root in flesh and blood, that the truth 
of God was almost forgot ; and from this 
fountain, to wit, that flesh and blood was, 
and yet alas ! is preferred to God, and to 
his messengers rebuking vice and vanity, 
hath all our misery proceeded. For as be- 
fore, so even yet, although the ministers 
be sent to beg, the guard and the men of 
war must be served. Though the blood 
of the ministers be spilt, it is the queen's 
servant that did it. Although masses be 
multiplied in all quarters of the realm, who 
can stop the queen's subjects to live in the 
queen's religion ? Although innocent men 
be imprisoned, it is the queen's pleasure, 
she is offended at such men. Although 
under pretence of justice, innocents be mur- 
dered, the lords shall weep, but the queen's 
mind must be satisfied. Nobles of the 
realm, barons and counsellors are banished, 



* This seems to refer to the disturbances that se lf, were obliged to leave Edinburgh, and dis- 
took place after the murder of Rizzio, when | perse themselves over the country. — Ed. 
both judges and ministers, including Knox him- I 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



247 



their estates disponed, and their lives most 
unjustly pursued. The queen has lost her 
trusty servant Davie, [for] he was dear 
unto her; and, therefore, for her honour's 
sake, she must show rigour to revenge his 
death. And yet, farther, albeit that some 
knew that she has plainly purposed to 
wreck the religion within this realm ; that 
to that Roman antichrist she has made her 
promise ; and that from him she hath taken 
money to uphold his pomp within this 
realm, yet will they let the people under- 
stand that the queen will establish religion, 
and provide all thing's orderly, if she were 
once delivered. 

If such dealing-, which is common amongst 
protestants, be not to prefer flesh and blood 
to God, to his truth, to justice, to religion, 
and unto the liberty of this oppressed realm, 
let the world judge. The plagues have 
been, and in some part are present, that 
were before threatened, the rest approach ; 
and yet who from the heart crieth, " 1 
have offended, the Lord knows ? In thee 
only is the trust of the oppressed; for 
vain is the help of man." But now return 
we to our history. 

The nineteenth day of. August, 1581 
years, between seven and eight hours be- 
fore noon, arrived Mary queen of Scotland, 
then widow, with two galleys forth of 
France. In her company, besides her gen- 
tlewomen called the Marys,* were her three 
uncles, the duke d'Omal, the grand prior, 
the marquis d'Albufe. There accompanied 
her also, d'Anville, son to the constable of 
France, with other gentlemen of inferior 
condition, besides servants and officers. 
The very face of the heavens, the time of 
her arrival, did manifestly speak what com- 
fort was brought unto this country with 
her, to wit, sorrow, darkness, dolour, and 
all impiety ; for in the memory of man, that 
day of the year, was never seen a more do- 
lorous face of the heaven, than was at her 
arrival, which two days after did so con- 
tinue. For besides the surface weitt [water] 
and corruption of the air, the mist was so 



* Mary Seaton, Mary Beaton, Mary Car- 
michael, and Mary Hamilton, according to an 
old song. — Ed. 



thick and dark, that scarce might any man 
espy another the length of two pair of 
butts : the sun was not seen to shine two 
days before nor two days after. That fore- 
warning gave God unto us, but alas, the 
most part were blind. 

At the sound of the cannons which the 
galleys shot, the multitude being advertis- 
ed, happy was he and she that first might 
have the presence of the queen. The pro- 
testants were not the slowest, and there- 
until they were not to be blamed. Because 
the palace of Holyroodhouse was not tho- 
roughly put in order — for her coming was 
more sudden than many looked for — she 
remained in Leith till towards the evening, 
and then repaired thither. In the way be- 
twixt Leith and the abbey, met her the 
rebels the crafts, of whom we spake before, 
to wit, those that had violated the autho- 
rity of the magistrates, and had besieged 
the provost. But, because she was suffi- 
ciently instructed, that all that they did 
was done in despite of the religion, they 
were easily pardoned. 

Fires of joy were set forth at night, and 
a company of most honest men with instru- 
ments of music, and with musicians, gave 
their salutations at her chamber-window. 
The melody, as she alleged, liked her well, 
and she willed the same to be continued 
some nights after with great diligence. 
The lords repaired unto her from all quar- 
ters ; and so was nothing understood but 
mirth and quietness till the next Sunday, 
which was the 24th of August, when pre- 
paration began to be made for that idol the 
mass to be said in the chapel. Which per- 
ceived, the hearts of all the godly began to 
bolden ; and men began openly to speak, 
" Shall that idol be suffered again to take 
place within this realm ? It shall not." The 
lord Lindsay — then but master — with the 
gentlemen of Fife, and others, plainly cried 
in the close,f " The idolater priest should 
die the death," according to God's law. 
One that carried in the candle was evil 
afraid ; but then began flesh and blood to 
show the self. There durst no papist, nei- 



Close, outer court of the palace.— Ed. 



218 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. i). 1561 



ther yet any that came out of France, whis- 
per: but the lord James — the man whom 
all the godly did most reverence — took upon 
him to keep the chapel door. His best ex- 
cuse was, that he would stop all Scotsmen 
to enter into the mass ; but it was, and is 
sufficiently known, that the door was kept 
that none should have entrance to trouble 
the priest ; who after the mass was com- 
mitted to the protection of lord John of 
Coldingham, and lord Robert of Holyrood- 
house, who then were both protestants, 
and had communicated at the table of the 
lord. Betwixt them two was the priest 
convoyed to his chamber ; and so the godly 
departed with grief of heart, and at after- 
noon repaired to the abbey in great com- 
panies, and gave plain signification, that 
they could not abide, that the land which 
God by his power had purged from idola- 
try, should in their eyes be polluted again. 
Which understood, there began complaint 
upon complaint. The old dontibours,* and 
others that long had served in the court, 
and had no remission of sins, but by virtue 
of the mass, cried, " They would to France 
without delay, they could not live without 
the mass ; the same affirmed the queen's 
uncles." And would to God that that mein- 
zie, f together with the mass, had taken 
good night at the realm for ever; for so 
had Scotland been rid of an unprofitable 
burden of devouring strangers, and of the 
malediction of God that has stricken, and 
yet will strike, for idolatry. 

The council assembled, disputation was 
had of the next remedy ; politic heads were 
sent unto the gentlemen with these and 
the like persuasions : " Why, alas, will ye 
chase our sovereign from us ? She will in- 
continent return unto her galleys, and 
what then shall all realms say of us ? May 
we not suffer her a little while ? We doubt 
not but she shall leave it. If we were not 
assured that she might be won, we should 
be as great enemies to her mass as ye 
should be. Her uncles will depart, and then 
shall we rule all at our pleasure. Would 



not we be as sorry to hurt the religion as 
any of you would be ?" With these and 
the like persuasions, we say, was the fer- 
vency of the brethren quenched, and an 
act was framed. The tenor whereof fol- 
lows : 

APUD EDINBURGH, 25. AUGUSTI, 1561. 

" Forasmuch as the queen's majesty has 
understood the great inconvenience that 
may come, through the division presently 
standing in this realm, for the difference in 
matters of religion, that her majesty is 
most desirous to see it pacified by a good 
order, to the honour of God and tranquil- 
lity of her realm, and means to take the 
same by advice of her estates, so soon as 
conveniently may be, and that her majes- 
ty's godly resolution therein may be great- 
ly hindered, in case any tumult or sedition 
be raised amongst the lieges, if any altera- 
tion or novation be pressed at or attempted 
before that the order may be established. 
Therefore, for eschewing of the said incon- 
venience, her majesty ordains letters to be 
directed to charge all and sundry her lieges, 
by open proclamation at the market-cross 
of Edinburgh, and other places needful, 
that they and every one of them contain 
themselves in quietness, keep peace and 
civil society amongst themselves; and in 
the meantime, until the estates of the 
realm may be assembled, and that her ma- 
jesty have taken a final order by their ad- 
vice and public consent, which her majesty 
hopes shall be to the contentment of the 
whole, that none of them take upon hand 
privately or openly to make any alteration 
or innovation of the state of religion, or 
attempt any thing against the same, which 
her majesty found publicly and universally 
standing at her majesty's arrival in this 
her realm under the pain of death. With 
certification, that if any subject of the 
realm, shall come in the contrary hereof, 
he shall be esteemed and holden a seditious 
person and raiser of tumult, and the said 
pain shall be executed upon him with all 
rigour, to the example of others. Attour 



* Dr Jameson is not certain of the meaning of 
this word. They were part of the queen's at- 



tendants, not of the most respectable sort. — Ed. 
\ The whole company of them. — Ed. 



Boom IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND, 



249 



[farther], her majesty, with the advice of 
the lords of secret council, commands and 
charges all her lieges, that none of them 
take upon hand to molest or trouble any of 
her domestic servants, or persons what- 
somever, come forth of France,in her grace's 
company at this time, in word, deed, or 
countenance, for any cause whatsomever, 
either within her palace or without, or 
make any division or invasion upon any of 
them, under whatsoever colour or pretence, 
under the said pain of death. Albeit her 
majesty is sufficiently persuaded, that her 
good and loving subjects would do the 
same, for the reverence they bear to her 
person and authority, notwithstanding no 
such commandment were published." 

This act and proclamation penned, and 
put in form by such as before professed 
Christ Jesus — for in the counsel then had 
papists neither power nor vote — it was 
publicly proclaimed at the market-cross of 
Edinburgh upon Monday the day foresaid. 
No man reclaimed, nor made repugnance 
to it, except the earl of Arran only ; who, 
in open audience of the herald and people, 
protested, " That he dissented that any 
protection or defence should be made to 
the queen's domestics, or to any that came 
from France, to offend God's majesty, and 
to violate the laws of the realm more than 
to any other subject : for God's law had pro- 
nounced death to the idolater, and the laws 
of the realm had appointed punishment for 
sayers and hearers of mass ; which," said 
he, " I here protest, is universally observ- 
ed ; and that none be exempted, until such 
time as a law as publicly made and as con- 
sonant to the law of God have disannulled 
the former." And thereupon he took do- 
cuments, as the tenor of this his protesta- 
tion does witness. 

" In so far as by this proclamation it is 
understood to the kirk of God, and mem- 
bers thereof, that the queen's grace is 
minded that the true religion and worship- 
ping else [already] established, proceed for- 
ward, that it may daily increase ; unto the 
parliament, that order then may be taken 
for extirpation of all idolatry within this 
realm. We render most hearty thanks to 
the Lord our God for her grace's good 



mind, earnestly praying that it may be in- 
creased in her highness, td the honour and 
glory of his name, and weal of his kirk 
within this realm. And as touching the 
molestation of her highness' servants, we 
suppose that none dare be so bold as once 
to move their finger at them, in doing of 
their lawful business : and as for us, we 
have learned at our master Christ's schooL 
* To keep peace with all men.' And, there- 
fore, for our part Ave will promise that obe- 
dience to her majesty — as is our duty — 
that none of her servants shall be molest- 
ed, troubled, or once touched, by the kirk, 
or any member thereof, in doing their law- 
ful affairs. But since that God has said, 
' That the idolater shall die the death;' we 
protest solemnly, in the presence of God, 
and in the ears of the whole people who 
hear this proclamation, and specially in 
presence of you lion herald, and the rest of 
your colleagues, &c. makers of this procla- 
mation, that if any of her servants shall 
commit idolatry, specially say mass, partici- 
pate therewith, or take the defence there- 
of — which we were loth should be in her 
grace's company — in that case, that this 
proclamation be not extended to them in 
that behalf, nor be a safeguard nor girth 
[protection] to them in that behalf, no more 
than if they commit slaughter or murder, 
seeing the one is much more abominable 
and odious in the sight of God, than is 
the other. But that it may be lawful to 
inflict upon them the pains contained in 
God's word against idolaters, wherever they 
may be apprehended, but [without] favour. 
And this our protestation we desire you to 
notify unto her, and give her the copy hereof, 
lest her highness should suspect an uproar, 
if we should all come and present the same. 
At Edinburgh the day and year foresaid." 

This boldness did somewhat exasperate 
the queen, and such as favoured her in that 
point. As the lords— then called of the 
congregation — repaired to the town, at the 
first coming they show themselves won- 
drously offended, that the mass was permit- 
ted : so that every man as he came accused 
them that were before him. But after 
they had remained a certain space, they 
were as quiet as were the former : which 
2 I 



250 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1661 



thing- perceived, a zealous and godly man, 
Robert Campbell, of Kingancleugh, said 
unto the lord Ochiltree, " My lord, now ye 
are come, and almost the last of all the rest ; 
and I perceive, by your anger, that the fire- 
edge is not yet off you : but I fear, that 
after the holy water of the court be sprink- 
led upon you, that ye shall become as 
temperate here as the rest : for I have been 
here now five days, and at the first I heard 
every man say, ' Let us hang the priest :' 
but after that they had been twice or thrice 
in the abbey, all that fervency passed. I 
think there is some enchantment, whereby 
men are bewitched." And in very deed so 
it came to pass: for the queen's flattering 
words, on the one part, ever still crying, 
" Conscience, conscience : it is a sore thing 
to constrain the conscience," and the subtle 
persuasions of her supports — we mean even 
of those that were judged most fervent with 
us — upon the other part, blinded all men, 
and put them in opinion she will be con- 
tent to hear the preaching ; and so no doubt 
but she may be won. And thus of all it 
was concluded, to suffer her for a time. 

The next Sunday, John Knox inveighing 
against idolatry, showed what terrible 
plagues God had taken upon realms and 
nations for the same ; and added, " That 
one mass — there were no more suffered at 
the first — was more fearful unto him, 
than if ten thousand armed enemies were 
landed in any part of the realm, of pur- 
pose to suppress the holy religion. For," 
said he, " in our God there is strength to re- 
sist and confound multitudes, if we unfeign- 
edly depend upon him; whereof heretofore 
we have had experience ; but when we join 
hands with idolatry, it is no doubt but that 
both God's amible [friendly] presence and 
comfortable defence will leave us ; and what 
shall then become of us ? Alas, I fear that 
experience shall teach us, to the grief of 
many." At these words the guiders of the 
court mocked, and plainly spake, " That 
such fear was no point of their faith ; it was 
beside his text, and was a very untimely 



' It was well that Knox's prudence was 
greater than his confidence in his own princi- 
ples, else murder would have been committed, 
and the reproach of it would have attached to 



admonition." But we heard the same John 
Knox, in the audience of these same men, 
recite the same words again in the midst 
of troubles ; and in the audience of many, 
asked God mercy, that he was not more 
vehement and upright in the suppressing 
that idol in the beginning. " For," said 
he, " albeit that I spake that which of- 
fended some — which this day they see and 
feel to be true — yet did I not that which I 
might have done ; for God hath not only 
given unto me knowledge, and tongue to 
make the impiety of that idol known unto 
the realm, but he hath given me credit with 
many, who would have put in execution 
God's judgments, if I would only have con- 
sented thereto:* but so careful was I," 
said he, "of that common tranquillity, and so 
loath was I to have offended those of whom 
I had conceived a good opinion, that in 
secret conference with earnest and zealous 
men, I travailed rather to mitigate, yea, to 
slacken, that fervency that God had kind- 
led in others, than to animate and encou- 
rage them to put their hands to the Lord's 
work ; whereunto I unfeignedly acknow- 
ledge myself to have done most wickedly, 
and from the bottom of my heart do ask of 
my God grace and pardon, for that I did 
not what in me lay, to have suppressed that 
idol in the beginning." These and other 
words did many hear him speak in public 
place, in the month of December, 15G5, 
when such as at the queen's arrival only 
maintained the mass, were exiled the 
realm, summoned upon treason, and de- 
creet of forefaulters intended against them. 
But to return from whence we have di- 
gressed. 

Whether it was by counsel of others, or 
the queen's own desire, we know not ; but 
the queen spake with John Knox, and had 
long reasoning with him, none being pre- 
sent, except the lord James — two gentle- 
men stood in the other end of the house. 
The sum of their reasoning was this. The 
queen accused him, that he had raised a 
part of her subjects against her mother, 



his name for ever. He believed that idolaters 
ought to be put to death ; but, happily, he did 
not reduce the principle to practice. — Ed. 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



251 



and against herself ; that he had written a 
book against her just authority — she meant 
the Treatise against the Regimen of Women 
— which she had, and should cause the 
most learned in Europe to write against 
it ; that he was the cause of great sedi- 
tion, and great slaughter in England ; and 
that it was said to her, that all that he did 
was by necromancy. 

To the which the said John answered, 
"Madam, it may please your majesty, pa- 
tiently to hear my simple answers. And, 
first," said he, "if to teach the truth of God 
in sincerity, if to rebuke idolatry, and to will 
a people to worship God according to his 
word, be to raise subjects against their 
princes, then cannot I be excused ; for it 
has pleased God of his mercy to make me 
one, among many, to disclose unto this 
realm the vanity of the papistical religion, 
and the deceit, pride, and tyranny of that 
Roman antichrist. But, madam, if the 
true knowledge of God, and his right wor- 
shipping be the chief causes, which most 
move men from their heart to obey their 
just princes — as it is most certain that 
they are — wherein can I be reprehended ? 
I think, and am surely persuaded, that 
your grace has had, and presently has as 
unfeigned obedience, of such as profess 
Christ Jesus within this realm, as ever your 
father, or other progenitors had of those 
that were called bishops. And touching that 
book, which seems so highly to offend your 
majesty, it is most certain, that I wrote it, 
and am content that all the learned of the 
world judge of it. I hear that an English- 
man hath written against it, but I have not 
read him ; if he hath sufficiently improved 
my reasons, and established his contrary 
propositions, with as evident testimonies, 
as I have done mine, I shall not be obsti- 
nate, but shall confess my error and igno- 
rance ; but to this hour I have thought, 
and yet think myself alone to be more 
able to sustain the things affirmed in that 
my work, than any ten in Europe shall be 
able to confute it." 

" You think," said she, " that I have no 
just authority ?" " Please your majesty," 
said he, " that learned men in all ages 
have had their judgments free, and most 



commonly disagreeing from the common 
judgment of the world;' such also have 
they published, both with pen and tongue, 
notwithstanding they themselves have 
lived, in the common society with others, 
and have borne patiently with the errors and 
imperfections, which they could not amend. 
Plato, the philosopher, wrote his book of 
the Commonwealth, in the which he damn- 
ed many things that then were maintained 
in the world, and required many things to 
have been reformed ; and yet, notwith- 
standing he lived under such policies, as 
then were universally received, without 
farther troubling of any estate. Even so, 
madam, am I content to do, in uprightness 
of heart, and with a testimony of a good 
conscience. I have communicated myjudg- 
ment to the world ; if the realm finds no 
inconveniency in the regimen of a woman, 
that which they approve shall I not farther 
disallow, than within my own breast, but 
shall be as well content to live under your 
grace, as Paul was to live under Nero. 
And my hope is, that so long as that ye de- 
file not your hands with the blood of the 
saints of God, that neither I nor that book 
shall either hurt you or your authority : for 
in very deed, madam, that book was writ- 
ten most especially against that wicked 
Jezebel of England." 

" But," said she, " ye speak of women in 
general." " Most true it is, madam," said 
the other ; " and yet it appeareth to me, 
that wisdom should persuade your grace, 
never to raise trouble for that, which to 
this day has not troubled your majesty, 
neither in person nor in authority : for of 
late years many things, which before were 
holden stable, have been called in doubt ; 
yea, they have been plainly impugned. But 
yet, madam, I am assured, that neither pro- 
testant nor papist shall be able to prove, 
that any such question was at any time 
moved either in public or in secret. Now, 
madam," said he, " if I had intended to have 
troubled your estate, because ye are a 
woman, I would have chosen a time more 
convenient for that purpose, than I can 
do now, when your own presence is with- 
in the realm. 

" But now, madam, shortly to answer to 



252 



HISTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1560 



the other two accusations. I heartily 
praise my God through Jesus Christ, that 
Satan the enemy of mankind, and the 
wicked of the world, have no other crimes 
to lay to my charge, then such as the very 
world itself knows to be most false and 
vain. For in England I was resident only 
the space of five years. The places were 
Berwick, where I abode two years, so long 
in Newcastle, and a year in London. Now, 
madam, if in any of these places, during the 
time that I was there, any man shall be 
able to prove, that there was either battle, 
sedition, or mutiny, I shall confess that I 
myself was the malefactor, and the shedder 
of the blood. I shame not [am not 
ashamed] farther to affirm, that God so 
blessed my weak labours, that in Berwick 
— wherein commonly there used to be 
slaughter, by reason of quarrels that used 
to arise among soldiers — there was as 
great quietness, all the time that I remain- 
ed there, as there is this day in Edinburgh. 

" And where they slander me of magic, 
necromancy, or of any other art forbidden 
of God, I have witnesses — beside my own 
conscience — all the congregations that 
ever heard me, what I spake both against 
such arts, and against those that use such 
impiety. But seeing the wicked of the 
world said, ' That my master, the Lord 
Jesus, was possessed with Beelzebub,' I 
must patiently bear, albeit that I, a wretch- 
ed sinner, be unjustly accused of those, 
that never delighted in the verity." 

" But yet," said she, " ye have taught 
the people to receive another religion, than 
their princes can allow : and how can that 
doctrine be of God, seeing, that God 
commands subjects to obey their princes ?" 
" Madam," said he, " as that right religion 
takes neither original nor authority from 
worldly princes, but from the eternal God 
alone, so are not subjects bound to frame 
their religion according to the appetite of 
their princes ; for oft it is, that princes are 
the most ignorant of all others in God's 
true religion, as we may read as well in the 
histories before the death of Christ Jesus, 
as after. If all the seed of Abraham should 
have been of the religion of Pharoah, to 
whom they -were long subjects, I pray you, | 



madam, what religion should there have 
been in the world ? For, if all men, in the 
days of the apostles, should have been of 
the religion of the Roman emperors, what 
religion should have been upon the face 
of the earth ? Daniel and his fellows were 
subjects to Nebuchadnezzar, and unto Da- 
rius, and yet, madam, they would not be 
of their religion, neither of the one nor of 
the other: for the three children said, 
' We make it known unto thee, O king, 
that we will not worship thy gods.' And 
Daniel did pray publicly unto his God, 
against the express commandment of the 
king. And so, madam, ye may perceive, 
that subjects are not bound to the religion 
of their princes, albeit they are command- 
ed to give them obedience." 

" Yea," said she, " none of those men 
raised the sword against their princes." 
" Yet, madam," said he, " ye cannot deny 
but that they resisted : for these that obey 
not the commandments that are given, in 
some sort they resist." " But yet," said she, 
" they resisted not by the sword." " God," 
said he, " madam, had not given unto them 
the power and the means." " Think ye," 
said she, " that subjects having power may 
resist their princes ?" " If their princes 
exceed their bounds," said he, " madam, 
and do against that wherefore they should 
be obeyed, it is no doubt but they may be 
resisted, even by power : for there is neither 
greater honour, nor greater obedience to 
be given to kings and princes, than God has 
commanded to be given to father and 
mother ; but so it is, that the father may 
be stricken with a frenzy, in the which he 
would slay his own children. Now, ma- 
dam, if the children arise, join themselves 
together, apprehend the father, take the 
sword and other weapons from him, and 
finally bind his hands, and keep him in 
prison, till that his frenzy be overpast ; 
think ye, madam, that the children do any 
wrong ? Or, think ye, madam, that God 
will be offended with them that have stay- 
ed their father to commit wickedness ? 
It is even so," said he, " madam, with 
princes that would murder the children of 
God that are subjects unto them. Their 
blind zeal is nothing but a very mad frenzy ; 



Book LV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



253 



and, therefore, to take the sword from 
them, to bind their hands, and to cast them 
into prison, till that they be brought to a 
more sober mind, is no disobedience against 
princes, but just obedience, because that it 
agreeth with the will of God." 

At these words, the queen stood as it 
were amazed, more than a quarter of an 
hour ; her countenauce altered, so that lord 
James began to entreat her, and to demand, 
" What has offended you, madam?" At 
length, she said, " Well, then, I perceive, 
that my subjects shall obey you, and not 
me; and shall do what they list, and not 
what I command : and so must I be subject I 
to them, and not they to me." " God for- 
bid," answered he, " that ever I take upon [ 
me to command any to obey me, or yet to 
set subjects at liberty to do what pleases ' 
them. But my travail is, that both princes 
and subjects obey God. And think not," 
said he, " madam, that wrong is done unto 
yon, when you are willed to be subject unto 
God: for, it is he that subjects the people 
under princes, and causes obedience to be 
given unto them ; yea, God craves of kings, 
' That they be, as it were, foster-fathers to ; 
his kirk, and commands queens to be 
nurses unto his people.' And this sub- j 
jection, madam, unto God, and unto his 
troubled kirk, is the greatest dignity that 
flesh can get upon the face of the earth, for 1 
it shall carry them to everlasting glory." 

"Yea," said she, "but ye are not the 
kirk that I will nurse. I will defend 
the kirk of Rome, for it is, I think, the 
true kirk of God." 

" Your will," said he, " madam, is no ' 
reason; neither doth your thought make 
that Roman harlot to be the true and im- 
maculate spouse of Jesus Christ. And 
wonder not, madam, that I call Rome a 
harlot; for that kirk is altogether polluted 
-with all kind of spiritual fornication, as 
well in doctrine as in manners. Yea, ma- j 
dam, I offer myself farther to prove, that 
the kirk of the Jews, that crucified Christ 
Jesus, when that they manifestly denied 
the Son of God, was not so far degene- 
rated from the ordinances and statutes 
which God gave by Moses and Aaron unto 
his people, as that the kirk of Rome is de- 



clined, and more than five hundred years 
hath declined from the purity of that re- 
ligion, which the apostles taught and plant- 
ed." 

" My conscience," said she, " is not so." 
" Conscience, madam," said he, " requires 
knowledge ; and I fear that right know- 
ledge you have none." " But," said she, " 1 
have both heard and read." " So, ma- 
dam," said he, " did the Jews "who cruci- 
fied Christ Jesus, read both the law and 
the prophets, and heard the same interpreted 
after their manner. Have ye heard," said 
he, " any teach, but such as the pope and 
the cardinals have allowed ? And ye may 
be assured, that such will speak nothing to 
offend their own estate." "Ye interpret 
the scrip tures," said she, " in one manner, 
and they in another ; whom shall I believe, 
and who shall be judge ?" " You shall 
believe God," said he, " that plainly speak- 
eth in his word: and farther than the 
word teacheth you, you neither shall believe 
the one nor the other. The word of God 
is plain in the self; and if there appeal' any 
obscurity in any place, the Holy Ghost, 
who is never contrarious to himself, ex- 
plains the same more clearly in other 
places : so that there can remain no doubt, 
but unto such as will remain obstinately 
ignorant. And now, madam," said he, "to 
take one of the chief points, which this 
day is in controversy betwixt the papists 
and us: for example, the papists allege, 
and boldly have affirmed, that the mass is 
the ordinance of God, and the institution 
of Jesus Christ, and a sacrifice for the quick 
and the dead. We deny both the one and 
other, and affirm, that the mass, as it is 
now used, is nothing but the invention of 
man ; and, therefore, it is an abomination 
before God, and no sacrifice that ever he 
commanded. Now, madam, who shall 
judge betwixt us two thus contending ? It 
is not reason that any of the parties be 
farther believed, than they are able to prove 
by unsuspected witnessing : let them lay 
down the book of God, and by the plain 
words thereof prove their affirmatives, and 
we shall give unto them the plea granted. 
But so long as they are bold to affirm, and 
yet do prove nothing, we must say, that 



254 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1561 



albeit all the world believe them, yet be- 
lieve they not God, but do receive the lies 
of men for the truths of God. What our 
master Christ Jesus did, we know by his 
own evangelists : what the priest doth at 
his mass, the world seeth. Now, doth not 
the word of God plainly assure us, that 
Christ Jesus neither said, nor yet command- 
ed mass to be said at his last supper, seeing 
that no such thing as their mass is made 
mention of within the whole scripture." 
" You are over-sore for me," said the 
queen, " but and if they were here whom I 
have heard, they would answer you." 
" Madam," said the other, " would to God 
that the most learned papist in Europe, and 
he that you would best believe, were pre- 
sent with your grace to sustain the argu- 
ment; and that ye would abide patiently to 
hear the matter reasoned to the end ; for 
then, I doubt not, madam, but that ye 
should hear the vanity of the papistical re- 
ligion, and how little ground it hath within 
the word of God." " Well," said she, " ye 
may perchance get that sooner than ye 
believe." " Assuredly," said the other, " if 
ever I get that in my life, I get it sooner 
than I believe ; for the ignorant papist can- 
not patiently reason, and the learned and 
crafty papist will never come into your 
audience, madam, to have the ground of 
their religion searched out ; for they know 
that they are never able to sustain an argu- 
ment, except fire and sword, and their own 
laws be judges." " So say you," said the 
queen ; " but I believe that it hath been so 
to this day." Said he, " for how often 
have the papists in this and other realms, 
been required to come to conference, and 
yet could it never be obtained, unless them- 
selves were admitted for judges. And, 
therefore, madam, I must yet say again, 
that they dare never dispute, but where 
themselves are both judge and party. And 
whensoever ye shall let me see the con- 
trary, 1 shall grant myself to have been de- 
ceived in that point." 

And with this the queen was called upon 
to dinner, for it was afternoon. At depart- 
ing, John Knox said unto her, " I pray 
God, madam, that ye may be as blessed 
within the commonwealth of Scotland — if 



it be the pleasure of God — as ever Deborah 
was in the commonwealth of Israel. Of 
this long conference, whereof we only 
touch a part, were divers opinions. The 
papists grudged, and feared that which they 
needed not; the godly thinking at least, 
that she would have heard the preaching, 
rejoiced ; but they were utterly deceived, 
for she continued in her massing ; and de- 
spised and quietly mocked all exhortation. 
John Knox his own judgment, being by 
some of his own familiars demanded what 
he thought of the queen, " If there be not 
in her," said he, " a proud mind, a crafty 
wit, and an indurate heart against God and 
his truth, my judgment faileth me." 

When the whole nobility were con vened, 
the lords of privy council were chosen, who 
were appointed the duke's grace, the earls 
of Huntly, Argyle, Athol, Morton, Glen- 
cairn, Marshall, Both well, lord Erskine, lord 
James, &c. Of these were a certain [num- 
ber] appointed to wait upon the court by 
course : but that order continued not long. 

Duke d'Omall returned with the galleys 
to France. The queen entered into her 
progress, and in the month of September 
travelled from Edinburgh to Linlithgow, 
Stirling, St Johnstone, Dundee, and St 
Andrews ; which all parts she polluted with 
her idolatry : fire followed her very com- 
monly in that journey, the towns propined 
her very liberally, and thereof were the 
French enriched. 

In the beginning of October she returned 
to Edinburgh, and at the day appointed she 
was received in the castle. Great prepara- 
tions were made for her entrance into the 
town, in farcing, in masking* and other 
prodigalities : fain would fools have coun- 
terfeited France. Whatsoever might set 
forth her glory, that she heard, and gladly 
beheld. The keys were delivered to her by 
a pretty boy, descending, as it were, from a 
cloud : the verses of her own praises she 
heard, and smiled; but when the Bible was 
presented, and the praise thereof declared, 
she began thereat to frown ; for shame she 
could not refuse it, but she did no better, 
for she gave it unto the most pestilent 

* Making farces and masquerades. — Ed. 



Book IV. 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



255 



papist within the realm, to wit, to Arthur 
Erskine. Edinburgh since that day has 
reaped as they sowed : they gave her some 
taste of their prodigality. And because 
the liquor was sweet, she has licked of that 
buist [brewing] oftener than twice since. 
All men know what we mean ; the queen 
cannot lack, and the subjects have. 

In Edinburgh it hath been an ancient and 
laudable custom, that the provost, bailies, 
and council, after their election, which 
used to be at Michaelmas, cause publicly 
to proclaim the statutes and ordinances of 
the town ; and, therefore, Archibald Doug- 
las, provost, Edward Hope, Adam Fullar- 
ton, bailies, 
caused proclaim, according to the former 
statutes of the town, that no adulterer, no 
fornicator, no noted drunkard, no mass- 
monger, no obstinate papist that corrupted 
the people, such as priests, friars, and others 
of that sort, should be found within the 
town, within forty-eight hours thereafter, 
under the pains contained in the statutes ; 
which blown in the queen's ears, there be- 
gan pride and maliciousness to show them- 
selves ; for without farther cognition of the 
cause, was the said provost and bailies 
charged to ward in the castle, and immedi- 
ately was commandment given, that other 
provost and bailies should be elected. Some 
gainstood for a while the new election, al- 
leging, that the provost and bailies whom 
they had chosen, and to whom they had 
given their oath, had committed no offence 
wherefore that justly they ought to be de- 
prived. But while that charge was doub- 
led upon charge, and no man found to op- 
pone himself to impiety, Jezebel's letter 
and wicked will was obeyed as a law. 
And so was Thomas M'Cally chosen pro- 
vost for the other. The man, no doubt, is 
both discreet, and sufficient for that charge ; 
but the deposition of the other was against 
all law. God be merciful to some of our 
own, for they were not all blameless that 
her wicked will was so far obeyed. A con- 
trary proclamation was publicly made, that 
the town should be patent to all the queen's 
lieges. And so murderers, adulterers, 
thieves, whores, drunkards, idolaters, and 
all malefactors, got protection under the 



queen's wings, under colour that they were 
of her religion. And so got the devil free- 
dom again, whereas before, he durst not 
have been seen in daylight upon the com- 
mon streets. " Lord deliver us from that 
bondage." 

The devil finding his reins loose, ran 
forward in his course, and the queen took 
upon her greater boldness than she and 
Baal's bleating priests durst have attempted 
before ; for upon All-hallow-day they 
bended up [dauntlessly performed] their 
mass with all mischievous solemnity. The 
ministers thereat offended, in plain and 
public place, declared the inconvenience 
that thereupon should ensue. The nobility 
were sufficiently admonished of their duties ; 
but affection caused men to call that in 
doubt, wherein short before they seemed 
to be most resolute, to wit, " Whether that 
the subjects might put hand to suppress the 
idolatry of their prince ?" And upon this 
question convened in the house of Mr 
James M'Gill, the lord James, the earl of 
Morton, the earl Marshall, secretary Leth- 
ington, the justice clerk, and the foresaid 
Mr James, clerk of register ; who all rea- 
soned for the part of the queen, affirming, 
" That the subjects might not lawfully take 
her mass from her." In the contrary judg- 
ment were the principal ministers, Mr 
John Row, Mr George Hay, Mr Robert 
Hamilton, and John Knox. The reasons 
of both parties we will omit, because they 
will be explained after, where the said 
question and others " Concerning the obe- 
dience due unto princes," were long rea- 
soned in open assembly. The conclusion 
of that first reasoning was, " That the ques- 
tion should be formed, and letters directed to 
Geneva for the resolution of that kirk ;" 
wherein John Knox offered his labours. 
But secretary Lethington, alleging, that 
there stood much in the information, said, 
that he would write : but that was only to 
derive time, as the truth declared itself. 
The queen's party urged, " That the queen 
should have her religion free in her own 
chapel, to do, she and her household, what 
they list." The ministers both affirmed, 
and voted the contrary, adding, " That her 
liberty should be to their thraldom, or [be- 



256 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1561 



fore] it were long." But neither could 
reason nor threatening move the hearts of 
such as were creeping in credit ; and so did 
the votes of the lords prevail against the 
ministers. 

For the punishment of the theft and of 
rief, which had increased upon the borders 
and in the south, from the queen's arrival, 
was the lord James appointed lieutenant. 
Some suspected that such honour and 
charge proceeded from the same heart and 
counsel that [influenced] Saul [when he] 
made David captain against the Philis- 
tines; but God assisted and bowed the 
hearts of men both to fear and obey him; 
yea, the lord Bothwell himself at that time 
assisted him — but he had remission for 
Liddesdale : — sharp execution was in Jed- 
burgh, for twenty-eight of one clan, and 
others, were hanged at the justice-court. 
Bribes, buddes, * or solicitation, saved not 
the guilty, if he might be apprehended; 
and therefore God prospered him in that 
his integrity. That same time the lord 
James spake to the lord Grey of England 
at Kelso, for good rule to be kept upon 
both the borders, and agreed in all things. 

Before his returning, the queen upon a 
night took a fray [fright] in her bed, as if 
horsemen had been in the close, and as if 
the palace had been inclosed about; whe- 
ther it proceeded from her own womanly 
fancy, or if men put her in fear of it, for 
displeasure of the earl of Arran, and for 
other purposes, as for the erecting of the 
guard, we know not ; but the fear was so 
great, that the town was called to the 
watch. Lord Robert of Holyroodhouse, 
and John of Coldingham kept the watch 
by course ; scouts were sent forth, and 
sentries, under the pain of death, were com- 
manded to keep their stations. And yet 
they feared where there was no occasion 
of fear ; neither jet could ever any ap- 
pearance or suspicion of such things be 
tried [traced]. 

Short after the returning of the lord 
James, there came from the queen of Eng- 



Another name for bribes, or it may be 
taken in the sense of gifts, or bodes, offers, or 
promises. — Ed. 



land, Sir Peter Mewtes, with commission 
to require the ratification of the peace 
made at Leith. Her answer was even 
such as we have heard before, that she be- 
hoved to ad rise, and then she should send 
answer. In presence of her council she 
kept herself very grave — for under the 
dule w r eid [mourning dress] she could play 
the hypocrite in full perfection ; — but how 
soon that ever her French fillokes [giddy 
young women], fiddlers, and others of that 
band, got the house alone, there might be 
seen skipping not very comely for honest 
women. Her common talk was in secret, 
that she saw nothing in Scotland but gra- 
vity, which repugned altogether to her na- 
ture, for she w- as brought up in joyeusete ; 
so termed she her dancing, and other things 
thereto belonging. 

The general assembly of the kirk ap- 
proached, held in December after the 
queen's arrival, in the which began the 
rulers of the court to draw themselves 
apart from the society of their brethren, 
and began to sturr [fret] and grudge, that 
any thing should be consulted upon, with- 
out their advices. Sir John Wood, who be- 
fore had shown himself very fervent in the 
cause of God, and forward in giving of his 
counsel in all doubtful matters, plainly re- 
fused ever to assist the assembly again, 
whereof many did wonder. The courtiers 
drew unto themselves some of the lords, 
and would not convene with then bre- 
thren, as before they were accustomed, but 
kept themselves in the abbey. The prin- 
cipal commissioners of the kirk, the super- 
intendents, and some ministers, passed unto 
them, where they were convened in the 
abbot's lodging within Holyroodhouse : 
both the parties began to open their grief; 
the lords complained, that the ministers 
drew the gentlemen into secret, and held 
councils without their knowledge : the mi- 
nisters denied that they had done any 
thing in secret, otherwise than the com- 
mon order had commanded them ; and ac- 
cused the lords — the flatterers of the queen, 
we mean — that they kept not the conven- 
tion with their brethren, considering that 
they knew the order, and that the same 
was appointed by then own advices, as the 



Book IV.J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



257 



book of discipline, subscribed with the 
most part of their own hands, would wit- 
ness. Some began to deny that ever they 
knew such a thing- as the book of disci- 
pline ; and called also in doubt, whether it 
was expedient that such conventions should 
be or not ; for gladly would the queen and 
her secret council have had all assemblies 
of the godly discharged. The reasoning 
was sharp and quick on either side; the 
queen's faction alleged, that it was suspi- 
cious to princes that subjects should assem- 
ble themselves and keep conventions with- 
out their knowledge. It was answered, 
that without the knowledge of the prince, 
the kirk did nothing, for the prince per- 
fectly understood, that within this realm 
there was a reformed kirk, and that they 
had their orders and appointed times of 
convention. And so without knowledge 
of the prince, they did nothing ; " Yea," said 
Lethington," the queen knew, and knows 
well enough ; but the question is, " Whether 
the queen allows such conventions?" It 
was answered, That if the liberty of the 
kirk stood or should stand upon the queen's 
allowance or disallowance, we are assured, 
not only to lack assemblies, but also to 
lack the liberty of the public preaching of 
the evangel ; that affirmative was mocked, 
and the contrary affirmed. " Well," said the 
other, " time will try the truth : but to 
my former words, this will I add, Take 
from us the freedom of assemblies, and 
take from us the evangel ; for without as- 
semblies, how shall good order and unity 
in doctrine be kept ? It is not to be sup- 
posed, that all ministers are so perfect but 
that they shall need admonition, as well 
concerning manners as doctrine, as it may 
be that some are so stiff-necked that they 
will not admit the admonition of the sim- 
ple ; as also it may be, that fault will be 
found with ministers, without just offence 
committed ; and yet if order be not taken, 
both with the complainer and the persons 
complained upon, it cannot be avoided, but 
that many grievous offences shall arise ; 
for remedy whereof, of necessity it is, that 
general assemblies must be, in the which, 
the judgments and gravity of many may 
occur, to correct or repress the follies or 



errors of a few. Hereunto consented the 
most part, as well of the nobility as of the 
barons, and willed the reasoners for the 
queen to will her grace, that if she stood in 
a suspicion of any thing that was to be en- 
treated in their assemblies, that it would 
please her grace to send such as she w r ould 
appoint, to hear whatsoever was proponed 
or reasoned. 

Hereafter was the book of discipline pro- 
poned, and desired to have been ratified by 
the queen's majesty. That was scripped 
at [derided], and the question was demand- 
ed, How many of those that subscribed 
that book would be subject unto it ? It was 
answered, " All the godly." " Will the 
duke ?" said Lethington. " If he will not," 
answered the lord Ochiltree, "I would that 
he were scraped out, not only of that book, 
but also out of our number and company ; 
for to what purpose shall labours be taken 
to put the kirk in order, and to what end 
shall men subscribe, and then never mean to 
keep word of that which they promise ?" 
Lethington answered, " Many subscribed 
them in fide parentum, as the children are 
baptized." * One, to wit, John Knox, an- 
swered, " Albeit ye think that scoff proper, 
yet as it is most untrue, so it is most im- 
proper. That book was read in public au- 
dience, and by the space of divers days, the 
heads thereof were reasoned, as all that 
here sit know well enough, and ye your- 
selves cannot deny ; so that no man was re- 
quired to subscribe that which he under- 
stood not." " Stand content," said one, " that 
book will not be obtained." " Let God," said 
the other, "require the lack which this poor 
commonwealth shall have of the things 
therein contained, from the hailds of such 
as stop the same." 

The barons perceiving that the book of 
discipline was refused, presented unto the 
council certain articles, requiring idolatry 
to be suppressed, their kirks to be planted 
with true ministers, and some certain pro- 
vision to be made for them, according to 
equity and conscience ; for unto that time, 
the most part of the ministers had lived 



* All their fair professions had withered be- 
fore the face of the queen.— -Ed. 

2 K 



258 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. t>. 1561 



upon the benevolence of men : for many 
had in their hands the fruits that the 
bishops and others of that sect had abused 
before ; and so some part was bestowed 
upon the ministers. But then the bishops 
began to gripe again to that which most 
unjustly they called their own ; for the earl 
of Arran was discharged of St Andrews 
and Dunfermline, wherewith before, by 
reason of a factor}'-, he had intromitted ; 
and so were many others. And therefore 
the barons required, that order might be 
taken for their ministers, or else they would 
no more obey the bishops, neither yet suffer 
any thing to be lifted up to their use after 
the queen's arrival, than that they did be- 
fore ; for they verily supposed that the 
queen's majesty would keep promise made 
unto them ; which was, not to alter their re- 
ligion, which could not remain without mi- 
nisters, and ministers could not live without 
provision : and therefore they most heartily 
desired the council to provide some conve- 
nient order in that head. That somewhat 
moved the queen's flatterers ; for the rod of 
impiety was not then strengthened in her 
and their hands, and so began they to prac- 
tise how they should please the queen, and 
yet seem somewhat to satisfy the faithful : 
and so devised they, that the kirkmen 
should have intromission with the two 
parts of their benefices, and that the third 
part should be lifted up, by such men 
as thereto should be appointed, for such 
uses, as in these subsequent acts are more 
fully expressed. 

APUD EDINBURGH, 20. DECEMBRIS, ANNO 
1561. 

" The which day, forasmuch as the 
queen's majesty, by advice of the lords of 
her secret council, foreseeing the imminent 
troubles which apparently were to arise 
among the lieges of this realm for mat- 
ters of religion; to stay the same, and 
evade all incommodities that might there- 
upon ensue, intercommwaed with a part of 
the clergy and state ecclesiastical, with 
whom then reasoning being had, it was 
thought good and expedient by her high- 
ness, that a general convention should be 
appointed, the 15th day of December in- 
stant, whereunto the rest of the estates 



might have repaired ; and by the advice of 
the whole, a reasonable overture made, and 
order taken for staying of the apparent 
trouble, and quieting of the whole country ; 
which convention being by her majesty ap- 
pointed, and sundry days of council kept, 
and the said ecclesiastical estate ofttimes 
required that the said order might be taken 
and overture made for staying of the trou- 
ble and quieting of the country ; last of all, 
in presence of the queen's majesty, and 
lords of council foresaid, and others of the 
nobility of this realm, compeared John 
archbishop of St Andrews, Patrick bishop 
of Murray, Henry bishop of Ross, and Ro- 
bert bishop of Dunkeld ; and for themselves 
respective, offered unto the queen's majesty, 
to be content of the two parts of the rents 
of their benefices, and the third part to be 
employed as her majesty thought expe- 
dient. And because the certainty thereof 
was not known, nor yet what sums of mo- 
ney would sustain the ministry and minis- 
ters of God's word within this realm, nei- 
ther yet how much was necessary to sup- 
port the queen's majesty above her own 
rents for the common affairs of the country ; 
therefore, it is decerned, concluded, and de- 
termined, by the queen's majesty, and lords 
of council foresaid, and others of the nobi- 
lity present, that if the fourth part of the 
fruits of the whole benefices within this 
realm, may be sufficient to sustain the 
ministry throughout this whole realm, and 
support the queen's majesty to entertain 
and set forward the common affairs of the 
country, failing thereof, the third part of the 
said fruits, or more, until it be found sufficient 
to the effect foresaid, to be taken up yearly 
in time coming, until a general order be ta- 
ken thereunto | so much thereof to be em- 
ployed to the queen's majesty for entertain- 
ing and setting forward of the common affairs 
of the country, and so much thereof unto 
the ministers and sustentation of the minis- 
try, as may reasonably sustain the same, at 
the sight and discretion of the queen's ma- 
jesty and council foresaid, and the excres- 
cence and surplus to be assigned to the old 
possessors. And to the effect that the rents 
and yearly value of the whole benefices of 
this realm may be clearly known to the 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



259 



queen's majesty and council foresaid, it is 
statute and ordained, that the whole rentals 
of the benefices of this realm be produced 
before her grace and lords foresaid, at the 
time underwritten ; that is to say, of the 
benefices on this side of the Month,* the 
24th day of January next to come, and be- 
yond the Month, the 10th of February next 
thereafter. And ordains letters to be di- 
rected to the sheriffs in that part to pass, 
charge, and require, all and sundry arch- 
bishops, bishops, commendators, abbots, and 
priors, on this side of the Month, personally, 
if they can be apprehended, and failing 
thereof at their dwelling- places, cathedral 
kirks, or abbeys ; and all archdeans, deans, 
chantors, subchantors, provosts, parsons, 
and vicars, and other beneficed men what- 
somever, their chamberlains or factors per- 
sonally, or at their dwelling- places, or at 
the parish kirks where they should remain, 
to exhibit and produce before the queen's 
majesty and lords foresaid, the said 24th 
day of January next to come, the just and 
true rentals of the avails and rents of their 
benefices to the effect foresaid : and to 
charge the prelates and the other beneficed 
men, on the other side of the Month, in 
manner respective foresaid, to exhibit and 
produce the just and true rentals of their 
benefices, before the queen's majesty and 
lords foresaid, the said 10th day of Feb- 
vuary, to the effect foresaid ; with certifi- 
cation to them that fail, the queen's grace 
and council will proceed herein as accords : 
and suchlike, to charge the whole superin- 
tendents, ministers, elders, and deacons of 
the principal towns and shires of this realm, 
to give in before the queen's grace and 
lords of council foresaid, the said 24th day 
of January next to come, a formal and suf- 
ficient roll and memorial what may be suffi- 
cient and reasonable to sustain the ministry 
and the whole ministers of this realm, that 



* Month, Mounth, Mount, Munthis, the an- 
cient name for the Grampians, that chain of 
mountains which extends across the island, from 
the district of Cowal, in Argyleshire, on the 
Atlantic, to Aberdeen on the German sea. 
" This long range of lofty mountains was in 
ancient times the boundary between the north 
and south Pichts (Bede, L. iii., c. 4; L. v., c. 
10. — An. ult. 781.), and was afterwards for 



her majesty and lords of council foresaid, 
may take order thereunto, as accords. And 
farther, that the queen's majesty and the 
lords of council foresaid, may reply and 
diligently weigh and consider what neces- 
sary support is required to be taken yearly 
of the fruits of the said benefices — by her 
grace's own yearly rent — and to entertain 
and set forward the common affairs of this 
realm, against the said 24th day of January 
next to come, that then it may be proceeded 
the said matter, all parties satisfied, and the 
in whole country and lieges thereof set at 
quietness." 

APUD LINLITHGOW, 24. JANUARII, ANNO 
156^ 

" Forasmuch as the queen's majesty, with 
the advice of the lords of her secret coun- 
cil, directed her letters, commanding- all and 
sundry archbishops, bishops, abbots, &c. 
and all other beneficed men, their factors, 
farmers, and tacksmen, to compear before 
her highness and lords foresaid at Edin- 
burgh, or where it shall happen them to 
be for the time, so many as dwell upon 
this side of the Month, the 24th day of Ja- 
nuary instant; and them that dwell be- 
yond the Month, the 10th day of February 
next to come, that the just avail of their 
benefices may be known ; so that there- 
after her grace may take order for the sus- 
tentation of the ministry of the kirk, and of 
the public business of the realm. And be- 
cause the queen's majesty is presently oc- 
cupied with other affairs, and may not her- 
self attend upon the receipt of the said 
rentals ; therefore, her highness has given 
and granted, and by these presents gives 
and grants full power and commission to 
Mr James M'Gill of Rankellour Nether, 
clerk of register, Sir John Bellenden of 
Auchinneul, knight, justice-clerk, to the 
secretary, treasurer, advocate, and laird of 
Pitarrow, to call before them, within the 



some ages the boundai'y between the Scots and 
independent Pichts (Ford, p. 76). Boyse says, 
these mountains were in his time called Granze- 
bain, — " Great Ben or mountain " — a name 
which, if it ever was used, I have reason to be- 
lieve, is now obsolete." Macpherson's Illus- 
trations of Scotish History, on the word 
Mounth. Granzebain must, I think, be the 
origin of the word Grampian. — Ed. 



260 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1561 



tolbooth of Edinburgh, all and sundry, pre- 
lates and beneficed men, who are charged, 
by virtue of the said letters, now presently 
being in Edinburgh, or shall happen here- 
after to repair thereto, their factors and 
farmers, and there inquire of them the ren- 
tals of their benefices, and receive the same 
from them to the effect foresaid. And such- 
like, that the said commissioners cause 
warn all superintendents, ministers, elders, 
and deacons, to give unto them the names 
of the whole ministers of this realm, that 
the just calculation being made and con- 
sidered by the said commissioners of the 
avail of the said benefices, they may report 
the same unto the queen's majesty, that 
her highness may take order therein, ac- 
cording to the just tenor of the first or- 
dinance made thereupon." 

APUD EDINBURGH, 12. FEBRUARII, 156^. 

" Forasmuch as by statute and ordinance 
made by the queen's majesty and lords of 
secret council, and her highness's letters 
direct thereupon, all and sundry arch- 
bishops, bishops, abbots, &c. and other be- 
neficed men, were charged to produce 
the rentals of their benefices before her 
majesty and lords foresaid, in manner fol- 
lowing ; that is to say, the said beneficed 
men, dwelling on this side of the Month, 
the 24th of January last bypast, and on the 
other side of the Month, the 10th of Feb- 
ruary instant, to the effect that order might 
be taken therein conform to the said ordi- 
nance, with certification to them, and they 
failed, the queen's majesty and council fore- 
said would take order therein, as the said 
ordinance bears : notwithstanding of the 
which, the queen's majesty and council, 
and others appointed by her for receiv- 
ing the said rentals, have continually, since 
the said 24th day of January foresaid, 
awaited upon the receiving of them : yet a 
very small number of them has produced 
their rentals, contemning therethrough not 
only her grace's ordinance and proclama- 
tion foresaid, but also herself and her au- 
thority, as they were princes and not sub- 
jects, express against equity, reason, and 
justice ; for remedy whereof, the queen's 
majesty, with advice of her secret council, 
ordains, that factors and chamberlains be 



appointed to intromit with, gather, uplift, 
and receive, to our sovereign lady's use, all 
and sundry mails, farms, teinds, rents, pro- 
vents, emoluments, kains, profits, and duties, 
of whatsomever benefices, whereof the ren- 
tals are not produced, conform to the said 
ordinance. And if any rentals else [already] 
produced, bears not the just avail, but 
is fraudulently made, to intromit and up- 
take so much of the profits and fruits of 
the said benefices, as are omitted forth of 
the said rentals ; and the ingivers of the 
rentals, and possessors of the benefices 
thereof, shall never have action to claim, 
crave, or receive from the tenants and oc- 
cupiers, farther than is contained within 
the said rentals else produced by them ; 
and the tenants and possessors shall be 
held to pay no more, than is contained 
in the same rentals else produced, as said 
is. And that the said chamberlains and 
factors to be appointed by the queen's ma- 
jesty, shall have sufficient power to intro- 
mit and uptake the fruits and profits fore- 
said, suchlike as if special letters of factory 
and chamberlainry were granted to them 
thereupon : and ordains the lords of session 
to direct forth letters at the said factors' 
and chamberlains' instances, either of horn- 
ing or poinding, as shall be thought expe- 
dient, for causing of them to be answered 
of the fruits of the said benefices, to be 
forthcoming to the queen's majesty's be- 
hoof, until farther order be taken there- 
unto." 

APUD EDINBURGUM, 15. FEBRUARY, 156}. 

For so much as the queen's majesty, by 
the advice of the lords of her secret coun- 
cil, and others divers of the nobility had of 
before, upon the 22d day of December last 
bypast, ordained, that if the fourth part of 
the fruits and rents of all the benefices 
within this realm were not sufficient for the 
support of her majesty, and other particu- 
lar charges underwritten, necessary to be 
borne for the weal of the country ; then the 
third of the said fruits, more or less, should be 
taken up to the effects foresaid. Attour 
ordained letters to be directed, charging all 
and sundry beneficed men, on this side of the 
Mount to produce their rentals, upon the 
24th dav of January last bypast : and the 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



261 



tenth day of February instant was prefixed 
by the said letters, for inbringing of all 
rentals of the benefices beyond the Mount ; 
with certification, to those who produced 
not the said rentals, at the days foresaid re- 
spective, the queen's majesty and her coun- 
cil would provide remedy : according 1 to the 
which certification, her highness, with ad- 
vice of her council foresaid, has ordained, 
that they who have not produced their 
rentals, whole and full intromission shall 
be had of their fruits, by them whom her 
majesty shall direct thereto : and who 
[whoever] have not given their just rentals, 
whatsomever part omitted forth of their 
said rentals, shall be intromitted with in 
like manner. And farther, having con- 
sulted ripely, and diligently advised upon 
the common affairs and necessities con- 
cerning the queen's majesty, and charges to 
be borne, for the common weal of the realm, 
and sustentation of the preachers and read- 
ers, conform to the said ordinance made 
thereupon of [as] before, has findin [decided] 
and declared the whole third part of all 
benefices of the which the rentals are pro- 
duced, to be taken up by the person or 
persons, to be nominated by her majesty, 
and to begin upon this last crop in the year 
of God 1561 years, the same to be employ- 
ed to the effect foresaid : together with the 
whole fruits of the benefices, whereof the 
rentals are not produced ; and also, all that 
is omitted of the rentals produced. And 
that order be directed by the queen's ma- 
jesty, to the lords of session, that the old 
possessors may be answered of the rema- 
nent fruits of the said benefices ; providing 
that the third part foresaid be full and 
whole taken up, by the persons to be de- 
puted to the uptaking thereof ; and this 
order to continue and stand, aye, and until 
farther order is taken by the queen's ma- 
jesty, with the advice of the estates. More- 
over her highness, by the advice of her 
highness' council foresaid, has statute and 
ordained, that annuals, .mails, and duties 
within free burghs and other towns of this 
realm, as well pertaining to chaplainaries, 
prebendaries, as to friars, together with the 
rents of the friars' lands, wherever they be, 
setting and disponing thereupon, be intro- 



mitted with, and uptaken by such as her 
grace shall depute thereto ; for employing 
of the same by her highness, to hospitals, 
schools, and other godly uses, as shall seem 
best to her highness, with advice of her 
council. And knowing, that nothing is 
more commodious for the foresaid hospi- 
tality, than the places of friars, as [which] 
are yet undemolished, and as to the enter- 
taining of schools, colleges, and other uses 
foresaid, ordains the provost and bailies of 
Aberdeen, Elgin in Murray, Inverness, 
Glasgow, and other burghs in this realm, 
where the same are not demolished, to en- 
tertain and uphold the said friars' places 
standing in the said towns, upon the com- 
mon goods thereof, and to use the same to 
the common weal and service of the said 
towns, aye, and until the queen's majesty 
is farther advised, and take final order in 
such things, notwithstanding of any other 
gift, title, or entrance given to whatsomever 
persons of the said places, with their yards, 
orchards, and pertinents, by our sovereign 
lady of [as] before." 

The lords of secret council who were 
present at voting and making of these fore- 
said acts, were James duke of Chatelhe- 
rault, George earl of Huntly, Archibald 
earl of Argyle, William earl of Marshall, 
John earl of Athol, William earl of Mon- 
trose, James earl of Morton, Alexander 
earl of Glencairn, James commendator of 
St Andrews, John lord Erskine, the trea- 
surer, the clerk of register, the justice 
clerk, the secretary and comptroller. After 
the first act, the earl of Huntly said jest- 
ingly, " Good day, my lords of the two 
part." The whole rentals being gathered, 
the sum of the third, according to their own 
calculation, was found to extend to [no- 
thing]. 

The ministers, even in the beginning, in 
public sermons opponed themselves to such 
corruption, for they foresaw the purpose of 
the devil, and clearly understood the butt 
whereat the queen and her flatterers shot. 
And so in the stool [chair] of Edinburgh, 
John Knox said, " Well, if the end of this 
order, pretended to be taken for sustentation 
of the ministers, be happy, my judgment 
fails me, for I am assured, that t^e Spirit 



202 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1561 



of God is not the author of it, for, first, 
I see two parts freely given to the devil, 
and the third must be divided betwixt 
God and the devil :" " Well," said he, 
" bear witness to me, that this day I say 
it, ere it be long- the devil shall have three 
parts of the third; and judge you then, 
what God's portion shall be." This was 
an unsavoury saying in the ears of many. 
Some shamed not to affirm, " The minis- 
ters being sustained, the queen will not 
get at the year's end to buy her a pair of 
new shoes." And this was secretary Leth- 
ington. 

There were appointed to modify the mi- 
nisters' stipends, the earls Argyle, Murray, 
and Morton, Lethington, justice clerk, and 
clerk of register. The laird of Pitarrow, 
was appointed to pay the ministers' sti- 
pends, according to their modification. 
Who would have thought, that when 
Joseph ruled in Egypt, his brethren should 
have travelled for victuals, and have return- 
ed with empty sacks unto their families ; 



* The value or efficiency of this, according to 
the present standard, the reader may calculate 
as follows : A few pages farther on, Knox in- 
forms us of a great dearth in the country, when 
the necessaries of Life brought three times their 
ordinary price Thus, a boll of wheat was LQ, 
of bear 6j merks, of meal 4 merks, of oats 50 
shillings. Take them at one-third of these prices, 
and we have a boll of wheat L2, of bear 
LI, 6s. Sd. (a merk being two-thirds of a 
pound),- of meal 17s. 9d. of oats 16s. 8d. the 
average of the four articles being Li, 5s. 44//. 
As we have seen in a former note, the bawbie 
was three pennies, then a pound Scots was 
3s. 4c/. Sterling, exactly double of what it be- 
came in the following reign, and has been ever 
since. Li, 5s. i\d. Scots was equal to nearly 
4s. Sd. sterling. The average of the same four 
articles at present, 1 take at 18s. sterling ; then 
as 4s. 3d. is to IBs. so is 100 merks at ?.6§c/. 
each to L46, lis. 9d. sterling. This was the 
minimum of a minister's stipend, according to 
the present prices ; that is, 100 merks would 
then have bought as much of the indispensible 
necessaries of life as Li6, lis. 9d. will do now. 
Knox's own stipend in Edinburgh, besides a 
free house, was L200, which was exactly the 
maximum, or 300 merks, equal in efficiency to 
£139, 15s. 3d. of our present money. This 
would be enough for the support of an ordinary 
family if they could content themselves with 
the mere produce of the soil above enumerated, 
even at the present prices, with the addition of 
butcher meat at a corresponding rate. Knox 
adds, that an ox to draw the plough sold for 20 
merks, and a wedder at 30*. which I cannot 
exactly estimate, not knowing their size or 
weight ; but taking them at one-third of the 
above, which was the dearth price, the ox would 



men would rather have thought that Pha- 
raoh's pose [hoard], treasure, and garnells 
[granaries] should have been diminished, ere 
that the household of Jacob should stand 
in danger to starve for hunger. But so 
busy and circumspect were the modificators 
— because it was a new office, the term 
must also be new — that the ministers 
should not be over wanton, that a hundred 
merks was sufficient to a single man,* 
being a common minister : three hundred 
merks was the highest that was appoint- 
ed to any, except the superintendents, 
and a few others; shortly, whether it 
was the niggardness of their own hearts, 
or the care that they had to enrich the 
queen, we know not, but the poor minis- 
ters, readers, and exhorters, cried out to 
the heavens — as their complaints in all as- 
semblies do witness — that neither were 
they able to live upon the stipends ap- 
pointed, neither could they get payment of 
that small thing which was appointed, so 
fain would the comptroller have played 



be about 15s. and the wedder exactly Is. 8a'. ster- 
ling ; so our fathers must have had beef and 
mutton fully as cheap as bread and beer. Arti- 
cles of foreign produce, with the duty upon them, 
constitute the chief expense of a family now. 
Of these our reforming ministers knew little ; 
and what they did use of foreign luxuries, they 
had nearly as cheap as their own produce. Thus 
they could afford to drink French claret, which is 
scarcely within the reach of even an Edinburgh 
stipend of the present day. Knox was a gentle- 
man, and a companion of noblemen ; and had, of 
course, higher ideas of a competent maintenance 
than most of his brethren in the ministry had. 
Hence his complaint of the smallness of their 
stipends; but it was enough, had it been well 
paid, which however it was not, to procure the 
necessaries of life according to the manner of 
living at the time. Let it be observed, that the 
minimum was allotted only to single men ; and 
how many single men among us make shift to 
live comfortably on less than £,46, lis. 9d. a 
year, without either manse or glebe? They 
must indeed confine themselves, in a great 
measure, to the produce of their own soil, 
as our fathers did before the introduction of 
Chinese and West India luxuries, which have 
now become necessaries to every man and wo- 
man who can procure them. In the well en- 
dowed church of England, there are many mi- 
nisters with families, who have little more to 
live on than the church of Scotland at the refor- 
mation allowed to single men ; for, according to 
a statement before me, the church of England 
has at present seven hundred of what she ab- 
surdly calls livings, under 150 a year ; where- 
as the minimum in Scotland now is 1.150, be- 
sides glebe, garden, and manse. — Ed. 



Book IVj 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



263 



the good valet, and have satisfied the 
queen, or else his own profit in every 
point, that he got this diction and proverb, 
« The good laird of Pitarrow was an earnest 
professor of Christ, but the meikle devil 
receive the comptroller, for he and his col- 
lectors are become greedy factors." To put 
an end to this unpleasant matter ; when the 
brethren complained of their poverty, it was 
disdainfully answered of some, " There are 
many lairds that have not so much to 
spend.' 1 When men did reason that the 
vocation of ministers craved of them books, 
quietness, study, and travail to edify the 
kirk of Christ Jesus, when many lairds were 
waiting upon their worldly business ; and, 
therefore, that the stipends of ministers, 
who had no other industry, but to live upon 
that which was appointed, ought not to be 
modified according to the living of other 
common men, who might, and did daily 
augment their rents by some other indus- 
try, when such reasons were laid before 
them, they got none other answer, but, 
" The queen can spare no greater sums." 
Oft was it cried in their ears, " O happy 
servants of the devil, and miserable ser- 
vants of Jesus Christ, if after this life 
there were not hell and heaven :" for to 
the servants of the devil, to your dumb dogs, 
and horned bishops, to one of those idle 
bellies, I say, ten thousand was not enough, 
but to the servants of Christ, that painfully 
preach his evangel, a thousand pound : how 
can that be sustained ? 

One day in reasoning of this matter, the 
secretary burst out in a piece of his choler, 
and said, " The ministers have this much 
paid unto them by year, and who yet ever 
bade the queen grand mercies [great thanks] 
for it ? Was there ever a minister that 
gave thanks to God for her majesty's libe- 
rality towards them ?" One smiled, and 
answered ; " Assuredly, I think, that such 
as receive any thing gratis of the queen, are 
unthankful if they acknowledge it not, both 
in heart and mouth : but whether the mi- 
nisters be of that rank or not, I greatly 
doubt. Gratis, I am assured, they receive 
nothing; and whether they receive any 
thing at all of the queen, wise men may 
reason. I am assured, that neither third 



nor two part ever appertained to any of her 
predecessors within this realm these thou- 
sand years bypast, neither yet has the 
queen better title to that which she usurps, 
be it in giving to others, or in taking to 
herself, than such as crucified Christ 
Jesus had to divide his garments amongst 
them. And if the truth may be spoken, 
she has not so good title as they had, for 
such spoil used to be the reward of such 
men. And in that point these soldiers 
were more gentle than the queen and her 
flatterers, for they parted not the garments 
of our Master, till that he himself was hung 
upon the cross ; but she and her flatterers 
do part the spoil, while as yet poor Christ 
is preaching amongst us. But the wis- 
dom of our God taketh trial of us by this 
mean, knowing well enough what she and 
her faction have purposed to do. Let the 
papists, who have the two parts, some that 
have their thirds free, and some that have 
gotten abbacies, and feu lands, thank the 
queen, and sing, Placebo Domine, the poor 
preachers will not yet flatter, for feeding 
of their bellies." These words were judged 
proud and intolerable, and engendered no 
small displeasure to the speaker. This we 
put in memory, that the posterities to come 
may know that God once made his truth 
to triumph ; but because some of ourselves 
delighted more in darkness than in light, 
God has restrained our freedom, and put 
the whole body in bondage ; yea, the 
greatest flatterers have not escaped so free 
as they supposed, yea, the latter plagues 
appear yet to be worse than the first. " Be 
merciful to us, O Lord, and entreat us not 
according to our deservings, but look thou 
to the equity of the cause which thou hasfc 
put in our hands, and suffer not iniquity to 
oppress thy truth, for thy own name's sake, 
O Lord." 

In this meantime, to wit, in February, 
156^, was lord James first made earl of 
Murray, and then married upon Agnes 
Keith, daughter to the earl of Marshall. 
The marriage was public in the kirk of 
Edinburgh ; in the marriage they both got 
an admonition to behave themselves mode- 
rately in all things. " For," said the preacher 
to him, « unto this day has the kirk of God 



264 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1561 



received comfort by you, and by your la- 
bours ; in the which, if hereafter ye shall 
be found fainter than that ye were before, 
it will be said, that your wife has changed 
your nature." The greatness of the ban- 
quet, and the vanity used thereat, offended 
many godly : there began the masking, 
which from year to year has continued 
since. Mr Randolph, agent for the queen of 
England was then, and sometime after, in 
no small conceit with our queen : for his 
mistress' sake, she drank to him [in] a cup of 
gold, which he possessed with greater jo}^, 
for the favour of the giver, than of the 
gift and value thereof, and yet it was ho- 
nourable.* The things that then were in 
handling betwixt the two queens, whereof 
Lethington, secretary Cecil, and Mr Ran- 
dolph, were ministers, were of great weight, 
as we will after hear. 

This winter the earl Bothwell, the mar- 
quis d'Albuf, and lord John of Coldingham, 
played the riot in Edinburgh, misordered 
the whole town, broke Cuthbert Ramsay's 
gates and doors, sought his house for his 
good-daughter, Alison Craig ; and this was 
done in despite of the earl of Arran, whose 
whore the said Alison was suspected to 
have been. The horror of this fact, and 
the rarity of it, highly commoved all godly 
hearts. The assembly, and also the nobi- 
lity, for the most part were in the town ; 
and so they concluded to crave justice, as 
that they did, as by this subsequent sup- 
plication does appear. 

" To the queen's majesty, and her secret 
and great council, her grace's faithful 
and obedient subjects, the professors 
of Christ Jesus, his holy evangel, wish 
the spirit of righteous judgment. 
" The fear of God conceived of his holy 
word, the natural and unfeigned love we 
bear unto your grace, the duty which we 
owe unto the quietness of our country, 
and the terrible threatenings which our 
God pronounces against every realm and 
city, in the which horrible crimes are com- 
mitted openly, and then by the committers 



* It would appear she had made him a pre- 
sent of the cup, after having drank out of it. — 
Ed. 



obstinately defended, compel us, a great 
part of your subjects, humbly to crave of 
your grace, upright and true judgment 
against such persons as have done what 
in them lies, to kindle God's wrath against 
this whole realm. The impiety by them 
committed is so heinous, and so horrible, 
that as it is a fact most vile and rare to 
be heard of within this realm, and princi- 
pally Avithin the bowels of this city; so 
should we think ourselves guilty in the 
same, if negligently, or yet for worldly 
fear, we pass it over with silence. And, 
therefore, your grace may not think that 
we require any thing — while that we 
crave open malefactors condignly to be 
punished — but that which God has com- 
manded us to crave, and also has com- 
manded your grace to give to every one of 
your subjects; for by this link God has 
knit together the prince and the people, 
that as he commands honour, fear, and 
obedience to be given to the powers esta- 
blished by him ; so doth he, in express 
words, command and declare what the 
prince oweth unto the subjects ; to wit, 
that as he is the minister of God, bear- 
ing the sword for vengeance to be taken 
on evil doers, and for the defence of peace- 
able and quiet men ; so ought he to draw 
the same without partiality, so often as 
in God's name he is required thereto. — 
Seeing so it is, madam, that this crime, so 
recently committed, and that in the eyes of 
your whole realm now presently assembled, 
is so heinous — for who heretofore has 
heard within the bowels of Edinburgh, 
gates and doors under silence of night burst 
I up, houses riped, and that with hostility, 
seeking a woman, as appeareth, to oppress 
her — seeing, we say, that this crime is so 
heinous, that all godly men fear not only 
God's sore displeasure to fall upon you 
and your whole realm, but also that such 
liberty breeds contempt, and in the end se- 
dition, if remedy in time be not provided, 
which in our judgment is impossible, if se- 
vere punishment be not executed for the 
crime committed : therefore, we most 
humbly beseech your grace, that all affec- 
tion set aside, you declare yourself so up- 
right in this case, that ye may give evident 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



265 



demonstration to all your subjects, that the 
fear of God, joined with the love of com- 
mon tranquillity, has principal seat and do- 
minion in your grace's heart. This farther, 
madam, of conscience we speak, that as 
your grace in God's name does crave of us 
obedience — which to render in all things 
lawful, we are most willing — so in the same 
name d© we, the whole professors of Christ's 
evangel, within this your grace's realm, 
crave of you, and of your council, sharp 
punishment of this crime, and for perform- 
ance thereof, that without all delay, the 
principal actors of this most heinous crime, 
and the pursuers of this pretended villany, 
may be called before the chief justice of 
this realm to suffer an assize, and to be 
punished according to the laws of the same. 
Your grace's answer most humbly we be- 
seech." 

This supplication was presented by divers 
gentlemen. The flatterers of the court at 
the first stormed, and asked, " Who durst 
avow it ?" To whom the master, now lord 
Lindsay, answered, " A thousand gentle- 
men within Edinburgh." Others were 
ashamed to oppone themselves thereto in 
public ; but they suborned the queen to 
give a gentle answer, until such time as 
the convention was dissolved. And so she 
did ; for she lacks no craft, both to cloak 
and maintain impiety, and whoredom in 
special. She alleged, " That her uncle was 
a stranger, and that he had a young com- 
pany ; but she should put such order unto 
him, and unto all others, that hereafter they 
should have no occasion to complain." 
And so eluded she the just petition of her 
subjects, and no wonder ; for how shall she 
punish in others that vice, which in France 
is free without punishment ? And which 
kings and cardinals use most commonly, as 
the mask and dancing of Orleans can wit- 
ness ; wherein virgins and men's wives 



* The inclosed passage is wanting in David 
Buchanan's and all the modern editions, and in 
lieu of it we have the following reflections, 
which are not at all in Knox's style, for he 
made no account of " excellent natural endow- 
ments," when accompanied by such moral ob- 
liquity :— " It had been good for our queen that 
she had been brought up in better company, 
both for her credit and for the course of her 
life ; and it may be, that her excellent natural 



were made as common to king Henry 
and Charles, the cardinals, and to their 
court and pages, as common harlots of the 
brothel are unto their companions. The 
manner was thus : at the entry of king 
Henry of France, into the town of Orleans, 
the matrons, virgins, and men's wives were 
commanded to present themselves in the 
king's palace at night to dance : and they 
obeyed ; for commonly the French nation 
is not hard to be entreated to vanity. After 
fiddling and flinging, and when the cardi- 
nal of Lorrain had espied his prey, he said 
to the king, " Sire, le primUre est vdtre, 
et faut que je sois le second:" that is, " Sir, 
the first choice is yours, and I must be the 
second." And so the king got the pre- 
eminence, that he had his first election ; 
but, because cardinals are companions to 
kings, the cardinal had the next. And 
thereafter the torches were put out, and 
every man commanded to provide for him- 
self the best he might. What cry was there 
of husbands for their wives, of wives for 
their husbands, of ancient matrons for their 
daughters, and of virgins for friends, or for 
some honest men, to defend their pudicity 
[chastity], Orleans will remember more 
king's days than one. This horrible vil- 
lany — a fruit of the cardinal of Lorrain 's 
religion — we shortly touch, to let the world 
understand, what subjects may look [ex- 
pect] of such magistrates : for such pastime 
to them is but joyeusete, wherein our 
queen was brought up. [We caliber not a 
whore — albeit her dame heard more than 
we will write — but she was brought up in 
the company of the vilest whoremongers — 
yea, of such as no more regard incest, than 
honest men regard the company of their 
lawful wives — in the company of such men, 
we say, was our queen brought up. What 
she was and is, herself best knoweth, and 
God, we doubt not, will farther declare ;]* 



endowments had been better employed for her 
reputation and happiness, than they were to her 
great misfortune, and to the grief of those who 
wished her truly well." This is evidently meant 
as a palliation of the queen's conduct, which 
Buchanan ought to have given as his own in a 
note, and not as the words of Knox. In this, 
and other instances, he is followed by all the 
subsequent editions, with the exception of the 
Glasgow MS. one. — Ed. 

2 L 



266 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. J5'j2 



but punishment of that enormity and fear- 
ful attempt we could get none : but more 
and more they presumed to do violence, 
and frequented nightly maskings. Some — 
as Robin Craig's house, because his 
daughter was fair — delighted therein : others 
lamented, and began to bear the matter 
very heavily. At length the lord duke's 
friends assembled upon a night upon the 
causeway. The abbot of Kilwinning, who 
then was joined to the kirk, and so, as we 
understand, yet abideth, was the principal 
man at the beginning. To him repaired 
many faithful ; and amongst others came 
Andrew Stewart, lord Ochiltree — a man 
rather born to make peace, than to brag 
upon the causeway — and demanded the 
quarrel ; and being informed of the former 
enormity, said, " Nay, such impiety shall 
not be suffered, so long as God shall assist 
us : the victory that God in his mercy has 
given us, we will by his grace maintain." And 
so he commanded his son Andrew Stewart, 
then master, and his servants, to put them- 
selves in order, and to bring forth their 
spears and long weapons ; and so did others. 
The word came to the earl Bothwell and 
his, that the Hamiltons were upon the 
street. Vows were made, " That the Ha- 
miltons should be dung [driven], not only 
out of the town, but also out of the coun- 
try." Lord John of Coldingham had mar- 
ried the said earl Bothwell's sister — a 
sufficient woman for such a man ; — alliance 
drew the lord Robert, and so they joined 
both with the said earl of Bothwell. But 
the stoutness of the marquis le Bevf— 
d'Albuf they call him— is most to be com- 
mended; for in his chamber, within the 
abbey, he started to a halbert, and ten men 
were scarce able to hold him : but as 
chance was, the inner gate of the abbey 
kept him that night ; and the danger was 
between the cross and the Salt Tron; and 
so he was a large quarter of a mile from 
the shot and sklenting of bolts. The master 
of Maxwell— thereafter made lord Harris 
— gave declaration to the earl Bothwell, 
" That if he stirred forth of his lodging, he, 
and all that would assist him, should resist 
him in the face ;" whose words did some- 
what beat down that blast. The earls of 



Murray and Huntly, being in the abbey 
where the marquis was, came with their 
companies sent from the queen, to stay that 
tumult, as that they did ; for Bothwell and 
his were commanded, under pain of trea- 
son, to keep their lodging. 

It was whispered of many, that the earl 
of Murray's displeasure was as much sought 
as any hatred that the Hamiltons bore 
against the earl of Bothwell, or yet he 
against them. And in very deed, either 
had the duke very false servants, or else by 
Huntly and the Hamiltons, the earl of 
Murray's death was oftener conspired than 
once : the suspicion whereof burst forth so 
far, that upon a day the said earl being 
upon horse to have come to the sermon, 
was charged by one of the duke's own ser- 
vants to return and abide with the queen. 
The bruit thereof spread over all ; what 
ground it had, we cannot say, but shortly 
thereafter the duke and some of the lords 
convened at Glasgow ; their conclusion was 
not known. The earl of Arran came to 
Edinburgh, where the earl Bothwell lay. 
The queen and the court were departed to 
Fife, and remained sometimes in St An- 
drews and sometimes in Falkland. 

The earl of Bothwell, by the means of 
James Boron, burgess and then merchant 
of Edinburgh, desired to speak with John 
Knox secretly ; which the said John gladly 
granted, and spake with him upon a night, 
first in the said James' lodging, and there- 
after in his own study. The sum of all 
their communication and conference was : 
The said lord lamented his former inordi- 
nate life ; and especially that he was pro- 
voked by the enticements of the queen re- 
gent to do that which he sore repented, as 
well against the laird of Ormiston, whose 
blood was spilt, albeit not in his default. 
But his chief dolor was, that he had mis- 
behaved himself against the earl of Arran, 
whose favour he was most willing to re- 
deem, if possible it were that so he might ; 
and desired the said John to give him his 
best counsel. " For," said he, " if J might 
have my lord Arran's favours, I would 
await upon the court with a page and some 
few servants to spare my expenses, where 
now I am compelled to keep, for my own 



Book IV.] OF RELIGION 

safety, a number of wicked and unprofitable 
men, to the utter destruction of my living 
that is left." To the which, the said John 
answered, " My lord, would to God that 
in me were counsel or judgment that might 
comfort and relieve you : for albeit that to 
this hour it has not chanced me to speak 
with your lordship face to face, yet have I 
borne a good mind to your house ; and have 
been sorry at my heart of the troubles that 
I have heard you to be involved in. For, 
my lord, my great grandfather, goodsire 
[grandfather], and father, have served your 
lordship's predecessors, and some of them 
have died under their standards; and this 
is a part of the obligation of our Scotish 
kindness, but this is not the chief. But as 
God has made me his public messenger of 
glad tidings, so is my will earnest that all 
men may embrace it, which perfectly they 
cannot, so long as that there remaineth in 
them rancour, malice, or envy. I am very 
sorry that ye have given occasion unto men 
to be offended with you ; but I am more 
sorry that ye have offended the majesty of 
God, who by such means oft punishes the 
other sins of men ; and therefore my coun- 
sel is, that ye begin at God, with whom if j 
[you] will enter in perfect reconciliation, I 
doubt not but he shall bow the hearts of 
men to forget all offences. And as for me, 
if ye will continue in godliness, your lord- 
ship shall command me as boldly as any 
that serve your lordship." The said lord 
desired him that he would attempt the earl 
of Arran's mind, if he would be content to 
accept of him in his favours, which he pro- 
mised to do. And so earnestly he travailed 
in that matter, that it was once brought to 
such an end as all the faithful praised God 
for such an agreement, The greatest stay 
stood upon the satisfaction of the laird of 
Ormiston, who beside his former hurt, as is 
before declared, was even at that time of 
the communing, pursued by the said earl 
Both well, and his son Mr Alexander Cock- 
burn taken by him and carried with him to 
Borthwick ; but gently enough sent back 
again. That new trouble so greatly dis- 
pleased John Knox that he almost gave 
over farther travailing for amity : but yet 
upon the excuse of the said earl, and upon 



IN SCOTLAND. 267 

the declaration of his mind, he re-entered 
in labours, and so brought it to pass, that 
the laird of Ormiston referred his satisfac- 
tion in all things to the judgments of the 
earls of Arran and Murray, to whom the 
said earl submitted himself in that head, 
and thereupon delivered his hand write, and 
so was convoyed, by certain of his friends, 
to the lodging of the Kirk of Field, where 
the earl of Arran was with his friends, and 
the said John Knox with him, to bear wit- 
ness and testification to the end of the 
agreement. As the said earl of Both well 
entered at the chamber door, and would 
have done those honours that friends had 
appointed— Mr Gavin Hamilton, abbot of 
Kilwinning, and the laird of Riccarton, 
were the chief friends that communed — 
the said earl of Arran gently passed unto 
him, embraced him, and said, " If the heart 
be upright, few ceremonies may serve and 
content me." The said John Knox, in au- 
dience of them both, and of their friends, 
said, " Now, my lords, God has brought 
you together by the labours of simple men, 
in respect of such as would have travailed 
therein. I know my labours are already 
taken in an evil part ; but because I have 
the testimony of a good conscience before 
my God, that whatsoever 1 have done, it is 
in his fear, for the profit of you both, for 
the hurt of none, and for tranquillity of 
this realm : seeing, therefore, that my con- 
science beareth witness unto me, what I 
have sought and continually seek, 1 the 
more patiently bear the misreports and 
wrongous judgments of men. And now I 
leave you in peace, and desire you who are 
the friends to study that amity may in- 
crease all former offences being forgot." 
The friends on either party embraced other, 
and the two earls departed to a window, 
and talked by themselves familiarly a rea- 
sonable space. And thereafter the earl 
Bothvvell departed for that night, and upon 
the next day in the morning returned, with 
some of his honest friends, and came to 
the sermon with the earl foresaid, whereat 
many rejoiced ; but God had another work 
to work than the eyes of men could espy. 

The Thursday next they dined together, 
and thereafter the said earl Both well and 



268 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. ». 1562 



Mr Gavin Hamilton rode to ray lord duke's 
grace, who then was in Kinneil. What 
communication was betwixt them, it is not 
certainly known, but by the report which 
ihe said earl of Arran made to the queen's 
grace, and unto the earl of Murray, by his 
writings ; for upon the Friday, the fourth 
day after their reconciliation, the sermon 
being ended, the said earl of Arran came 
to the house of the said John Knox, and 
brought with him Mr Richard Strang, and 
Mr Alexander Guthrie, to whom he had 
opened the grief of his mind before that 
John Knox was called ; for he was occu- 
pied, as commonly he used to be after his 
sermon, in directing of writings ; which 
ended, the said earl called the three toge- 
ther, and said, " I am treasonably betray- 
ed," and with these words began to weep. 
John Knox demanded, " My lord, who 
hath betrayed you ?" " A Judas or other," 
said he; " but I know it is but my life 
that is sought, I regard it not." The other 
said, " My lord, I understand not such dark 
manner of speaking ; if I shall give you 
any answer, you must speak more plain." 
" Well," said he, " I take you three to wit- 
ness, that I open this unto you, and I will 
write it unto the queen ; an act of treason 
is laid to my charge: the earl Both well 
has shown to me in council, that he shall 
take the queen, and put her in my hands in 
the castle of Dumbarton ; and that he shall 
slay the earl of Murray, Lethington, and 
others that now misguide her, and so shall 
I and he rule all. But I know this is devis- 
ed to accuse me of treason ; for I know that 
he will inform the queen of it : but I take 
you to witness, that I open it here to you; 
and I will pass incontinent and write to 
the queen's majesty, and unto my brother 
! the earl of Murray." John Knox demand- 
ed, " Did you consent, my lord, to any part 
of that treason ?" He answered, " No." 
" Then," said he, " in my judgment, his 
words, albeit they were spoken, can never 
be treason to you ; for the performance of 
the fact depends upon your will, where- 
unto ye say ye have dissented ; and so 
shall that purpose evanish and die by the 
self, unless that ye waken it ; for it is not 
to be supposed that he will accuse you of 



that which he himself has devised, and 
whereunto ye would not consent." " O," 
said he, " you understand not what craft is 
used against me : it is treason to conceal 
treason." " My lord," said he, " treason must 
import consent and determination, of the 
which I hear upon neither of your parts ; 
and therefore, my lord, in my judgment, it 
shall be more sure and more honourable to 
you to depend upon your own innocence, 
and to abide the unjust accusation of an- 
other — if any follow thereon, as I think 
there shall not — than you to accuse, espe- 
cially after so late reconciliation, and having 
no other witness but your own affirmation." 
" I know," said he, " that he will offer the 
combat unto me, but that would not be suf- 
fered in France ; but I will do that which 
I have purposed." And so he departed, 
and took with him to his lodging the said 
x^lexander Guthrie and Mr Richard Strang, 
from whence was dited and written a letter 
to the queen's majesty, according to the 
former purpose, which letter was directed 
with all diligence unto her majesty, who 
then was in Falkland. The earl himself 
rode after to Kinneil to his father the 
duke's grace : how he was entreated we 
have but the common bruit; but from thence 
he wrote a letter with his own hand in cy- 
phers to the earl of Murray, complaining 
upon his rigorous handling and treatment 
by his own father and by his friends ; and 
affirmed farther, that he feared his life, in 
case that he got no sudden rescue. But 
thereupon he remained not, but broke the 
chamber wherein he was put, and with 
great pain passed to Stirling, and from 
thence he was convoyed to the Hallyards, 
where he was kept till that the earl of 
Murray came unto him and convoyed him 
to the queen, then being in Falkland, who 
then was sufficiently instructed of the whole 
matter; and upon suspicion conceived, had 
caused apprehend Mr Gavin Hamilton and 
the earl Bothwell foresaid, who knowing 
nothing of the former advertisements, came 
to Falkland, which augmented the former 
suspicion. But yet the letters of John 
Knox made all things to be used more cir- 
cumspectly, for he did plainly forewarn the 
earl of Murray that he espied the earl of 



Book I V.J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



269 



Arran to be stricken with frenzy, and 
therefore willed not overgreat credit to be 
given unto his words and. inventions. And 
as he advertised, so came it to pass, for 
within few days his sickness increased ; he 
devised of wondrous signs that he saw in 
the heavens ; he alleged that he was be- 
witched ; he would have been in the queen's 
bed, and affirmed that he was her husband ; 
and finally, he behaved himself in all things 
so foolishly, that his frenzy could not be 
hid. And yet were the said earl Bothwell 
and Mr Gavin, abbot of Kilwinning, kept 
in the castle of St Andrews, and convened 
before the council with the said earl of 
Arran, who ever stood firm, that the earl 
Bothwell proponed to him such things as 
he advertised the queen's grace of ; but 
stiffly denied that his father, the said abbot, 
or his friends, knew any thing thereof, 
either yet that they intended any violence 
against him ; but alleged, that he was en- 
chanted so to think and write. Whereat 
the queen, highly offended, committed him 
to prison with the other two, first in the 
castle of St Andrews, and thereafter caused 
them to be convoyed to the castle of Edin- 
burgh ; James Stewart of Cardonnel, called 
captain James, was evil bruited of, for the 
rigorous entreatment that he showed to the 
said earl in his sickness, being appointed 
keeper unto him. To consult upon these 
accusations, the whole council was assem- 
bled at St Andrews, the ISth day of April, 
1562 years ; in which it was concluded, 
that, in consideration of the former suspi- 
cion, the duke's grace should render to the 
queen the castle of Dumbarton, the custody 
whereof was granted unto him by appoint- 
ment, till that lawful succession should be 
seen of the queen's body : but will prevail- 
ed against reason and promise, and so was 
the said castle delivered to captain Anstru- 
ther, as having power from the queen and 
council to receive it. 

Things ordered in Fife, the queen re- 
turned to Edinburgh, and then began danc- 
ing to grow hot; for her friends began to 
triumph in France. The certainty hereof 
came to the ears of John Knox, for there 
were some that showed to him, from time 
to time, the state of things ; and amongst 



others, he was assured, that the queen had 
danced excessively till after midnight, be- 
cause that she had received letters that 
persecution was begun again in France, and 
that her uncles were beginning to stir their 
tails, and to trouble the whole realm of 
France. Upon occasion of this text, " And 
now understand, O ye kings, and be learned, 
ye that judge the earth," he began to tax 
the ignorance, the vanity, and the despite 
of princes against all virtue, and against all 
those in whom hatred of vice and love of 
virtue appeared. The report hereof made 
unto the queen, the said John Knox was 
sent for. Mr Alexander Cockburn, who 
before had been his scholar, and then was 
very familiar with him, was the messenger, 
who gave him some knowledge both of the 
report and of the reporters. The queen 
was in her bed-chamber, and with her, be- 
sides the ladies and common servants, were 
the lord James, the earl of Morton, secre- 
tary Lethington, and some of the guard, 
that had made the report. He w r as called 
and accused, as one that had irreverently 
spoken of the queen, and that travailed to 
bring her unto hatred and contempt of the 
people ; and that he had extended the 
bounds of his text : and upon these three 
heads, made the queen herself a long ha- 
rangue or oration, whereto the said John 
answered as follows : 

" Madam, this is oftentimes the just re- 
compense which God gives to the stubborn 
of the world, that because they will not 
hear God speaking to the comfort of the 
penitent, and for amendment of the wicked, 
they are oft compelled to hear the false re- 
ports of others to their greater displeasure. 
I doubt not but that it came to the ears of 
proud Herod, that our Master Christ Jesus 
called him a fox ; but they told him not 
how odious a thing it was before God to 
murder an innocent, as he had lately done 
before, causing to behead John the Baptist, 
to rew r ard the dancing of a harlot's daugh- 
ter. Madam, if the reporters of my words 
had been honest men, they would have re- 
ported my words, and the circumstances of 
the same. But because they would have 
credit at court, and lacking virtue worthy 
thereof, they must have somewhat to plea- 



270 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1562 



sure your majesty, if it were but flattery 
and lies : but such pleasure — if any your 
grace take in such persons — will turn to 
your everlasting- displeasure ; for, madam, 
if your own ears had heard the whole mat- 
ter that I entreated ; if there be into you 
any spark of the Spirit of God, yea, of ho- 
nesty and wisdom, ye could not justly have 
been offended with any thing- that I spake. 
And because you have heard their report, 
please your grace to hear myself rehearse 
the same, so near as memory will serve." [It 
was even upon the next day after that the 
sermon was made.] — " My text," said he, 
" madam, was this, ( And now, O king's, 
understand, be learned, ye judges of the 
earth.' After, madam," said he, " that I 
had declared the dignity of king's and rulers, 
the honour whereunto God has placed them, 
the obedience that is due unto them, being- 
God's lieutenants, I demanded this ques- 
tion : But O alas ! what account shall the 
most part of the princes make before that 
supreme judge, whose throne and autho- 
rity they so manifestly and shamefully 
abuse ? That the complaint of Solomon is 
this day most true, to wit, that violence 
and oppression do occupy the throne of 
God here in this earth ; for while that 
murderers, blood-thirsty men, oppressors, 
and malefactors, dare be bold to present 
themselves before kings and princes, and 
the poor saints of God are banished and 
exiled, what shall we say but that the devil 
has taken possession in the throne of God, 
which ought to be fearful to all wicked 
doers, and a refuge to the innocent oppres- 
sed. And how can it otherwise be ? For 
princes will not understand, they will not 
be learned, as God commands them. But 
God's law they despise, his statutes and 
holy ordinances they will not understand ; 
for in fiddling and flinging they are more 
exercised than in reading or hearing of 
God's most blessed word ; and fiddlers and 
flatterers — which commonly corrupt the 
youth — are more precious in their eyes 
than men of wisdom and gravity, who by 
wholesome admonition might beat down 
into them some part of that vanity and 
pride, whereunto all are born, but in princes 
take deep root and strength by wicked edu- 



cation. And of dancing, madam, I said, 
that albeit in scripture I find no praise of 
it, and in profane writers, that it is termed 
the gesture rather of those that are mad 
and in frenzy than of sober men ; yet do I 
not utterly damn it, providing that two 
vices be avoided. The former, That the 
principal vocation of those that use that 
exercise be not neglected for the pleasure 
of dancing. Secondly, That they dance 
not, as the Philistines their fathers, for the 
pleasure that they take in the displeasure 
of God's people : for if any or both they 
do, as they shall receive the reward of 
dancers — and that will be to drink in hell, 
unless they speedily repent — so shall God 
turn their mirth into sudden sorrow : for 
God will not always afflict his people, nei- 
ther yet will he always wink at the ty- 
ranny of tyrants If any man, madam," 
said he, " will say that I spake more, let 
him presently accuse me ; for I think I 
have not only touched the sum, but the 
very words as I spake them." Many that 
stood by bore witness with him, that he 
had recited the very words that publicly 
he spake. 

The queen looked about to some of the 
reporters, and said, " Your words are sharp 
enough as ye have spoken them, but yet 
they were told to me in another manner. 
I know," said she, " that my uncles and 
ye are not of one religion ; and therefore I 
cannot blame you albeit you have no good 
opinion of them : but if ye hear any thing 
of myself that mislikes you, come to my- 
self and tell me, and I shall hear you." 
" Madam," said he, " I am assured that 
your uncles are enemies to God, and unto 
his Son Jesus Christ ; and that for main- 
tenance of their own pomp and worldly 
glory, they spare not to spill the blood of 
many innocents ,• and therefore I am as- 
sured that their enterprises shall have no 
better success than others have had that 
before them have done as they do now. 
But as to your own person, madam, 1 
would be glad to do all that I could to 
your grace's contentment, providing* that I 
exceed not the bounds of my vocation. I 
am called, madam, to a public function 
within the kirk of God, and am appointed 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



271 



by God to rebuke the sins and vices of all. \ 
I am not appointed to come to every man 
in particular to show him his offence ; for 
that labour were infinite. If your grace 
please to frequent the public sermons, then 
doubt I not but that ye shall fully under- 
stand both what I like and what I mislike, 
as well in your majesty as in all others. 
Or, if your grace will assign unto me a 
certain day and hour when it will please 
you to hear the form and substance of doc- 
trine which is proponed in public to the 
kirks of this realm, I will most gladly 
await upon your grace's pleasure, time, 
and place : but to come to wait upon your 
chamber-door or elsewhere, and then to 
have no farther liberty but to whisper my 
mind in your grace's ears, or to tell you 
what others think and speak of you, nei- 
ther will my conscience, nor the vocation 
whereunto God has called me suffer it; 
for albeit at your grace's commandment I 
am here now, yet can I not tell what other 
men shall judge of me, that at this time of 
day am absent from my book and waiting 
upon the court." " Ye will not always," 
said she, " be at your book," and so turned 
her back. And the said John departed with 
a reasonable merry countenance ; whereat 
some papists offended, said, " He is not 
afraid." Which heard of him, he answer- 
ed, " Why should the pleasing face of a 
gentlewoman fear me ? I have looked in 
the faces of many angry men, and yet have 
not been afraid above measure." And so 
left he the queen and the court for that time. 

In this meantime, the negotiation was 
great betwixt the queen of England and 
our sovereign : letters, couriers 5 and posts, 
ran very frequent. Great bruit was there 
of the interview and meeting of the two 
queens at York, and some preparation was 
made therefore in both realms; but that 
failed upon the part of England, and that 
by occasion of the troubles moved in 
France, as was alleged, which caused the 
queen and her council to attend upon the 
south parts of England, for avoiding of in- 
conveniences. 

That summer came there an ambassador 
from the king of Sweden, requiring mar- 
riage of our sovereign to his master the king. 



His entertainment was honourable, but his 
petitions liked our queen nothing; for such 
a man was too base for her estate ; for bad 
not she been great queen of France ? Fie of 
Sweden! What is it? But happy was 
the man that of such a one was forsaken. 
And yet she refused not one far inferior to 
a virtuous king. 

The earl of Lennox and his wife were 
committed to the tower of London, for 
traffic with papists. The young laird of 
Bar was a traveller in that business, and 
was apprehended with some letters, which 
were the cause of his and their trouble. 

The earl of Murray made a privy ride to 
Hawick, upon the fair-day thereof, and ap- 
prehended fifty thieves, of which number 
were seventeen drowned, others were exe- 
cuted in Jedburgh, the principals were 
brought to Edinburgh, and there suffered, 
according to their merits upon the Burrow- 
muir. The queen was nothing content of the 
prosperity and good success that God gave 
to the earl of Murray in all his enterprises, 
for she hated his upright dealing, and the 
image of God that evidently did appear in 
him ; but at that time she could not well 
have been served without him. 

The assembly of the kirk at mid-summer, 
the 24th of June, anno 1562, approached, 
in the which were many notable heads en- 
treated concerning good order to be kept 
in the kirk, for the papists and the idolatry 
of the queen began to trouble the former 
good order. Some ministers, like as Mr 
John Sharp, had left their charges, and 
entered into other vocations more profit- 
able for the belly, against whom were acts 
made, although to this day they have not 
been put in execution. The tenor of the 
supplication read in open audience, and ap- 
proved by the whole assembly to be pre- 
sented to the queen's majesty, was this: 
" To the queen's majesty, and her most 
honourable privy council, the superin- 
tendents and ministers of the evangel 
of Jesus Christ within this realm, to- 
gether with the commissioners of the 
whole kirks, desire grace and peace, 
from God the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, with the spirit of righte- 
ous judgment. 



272 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1562 



" Having in mind that fearful sentence, 
pronounced by the eternal God, against 
the watchmen that see the sword of God's 
punishment approach, and do not in plain 
words forewarn the people, yea, the princes 
and rulers that they may repent, we cannot 
but signify unto your highness and council, 
that the state of this realm is such for this 
present ; that unless redress and remedy be 
shortly provided, that God's hand cannot 
long spare in his anger, to strike the head 
and the tail ; the inobedient prince and sin- 
ful people : for as God is unchangeable and 
true, so must he punish in these our days, 
the grievous sins which before we read he 
has punished in all ages, after that he has 
long called for repentance, and none is 
shown. And that your grace and council 
may understand what be the things we de- 
sire to be reformed, we will begin at that 
which we assuredly know to be the foun- 
tain and spring of all other evils that now 
abound in this realm, to wit, that idol and 
bastard service of God, the mass. The 
fountain, we call it, of all impiety, not only 
because many take boldness to sin, by rea- 
son of that opinion which they have con- 
ceived of that idol, to wit, that by the 
virtue of it they get remission of their 
sins; but also because that under the 
colour of the mass, are whores, adulterers, 
drunkards, blasphemers of God, of his 
holy word and sacraments, and such other 
manifest malefactors, maintained and de- 
fended : for, let any mass-sayer or earnest 
maintainer thereof be deprehended in any 
of the forenamed crimes, no execution can 
be had, for all is [alleged to be] done in 
hatred of his religion, and so are wicked 
men permitted to live wickedly, cloaked 
and defended by that odious idol. But, 
supposing that the mass were occasion of 
no such evils, yet in the self it is so odious 
in God's presence, that we cannot cease, 
with all instance to desire the removing of 
the same, as well from yourself as from all 
others within this realm ; taking heaven 
and earth, yea, and your own conscience to 
record, that the obstinate maintenance of 
that idol, shall in the end be to you, de- 
struction of soul and body. 

" If your majesty demand, why that now I 



we are more earnest than we have been 
heretofore *? We answer — our former si- 
lence no ways excused — because we find us 
frustrated of our hope and expectation, 
which was, that in process of time your 
grace's heart should have been mollified so 
far, as that ye would have heard the pub- 
lic doctrine taught within this realm ; by 
the which, our farther hope was, that God's 
Holy Spirit should so have moved your 
heart, that ye would have suffered your re- 
ligion — which before God is nothing but 
abomination and vanity — to have been tried 
by the true touchstone, the written word 
of God, and that your grace finding it to 
have no ground nor foundation in the same, 
should have given that glory unto God, 
that ye would have preferred his truth 
unto your own preconceived vain opinion, 
of what antiquity that ever it has been. 
Whereof we in a part now discharged, can 
no longer keep silence, unless we would 
make ourselves criminal before God of 
your blood, perishing in your own ini- 
quity ,• for we plainly admonish you of the 
dangers to come. 

" The second that we require, is, punish- 
ment of horrible vices, such as are adultery, 
fornication, open whoredom, blasphemy, 
contempt of God, of his word and sacra- 
ments ; which in this realm, for lack of 
punishment, do even now so abound, that 
sin is reputed to be no sin. And, therefore, 
as that we see the present signs of God's 
wrath now manifestly appear, so do we 
forewarn, that he will strike, ere it be long, 
if his law without punishment be permit- 
ted thus manifestly to be contemned. If 
any object, that punishments cannot be 
commanded to be executed without a par- 
liament ; we answer, that the eternal God 
in his parliament has pronounced death to 
be the punishment for adultery, and for 
blasphemy. Whose acts if ye put not to 
execution — seeing that kings are but his 
lieutenants, having no power to give life, 
where he commands death — as that he will 
repute you, and all others that foster vice, 
patrons of impiety, so will he not fail to 
punish you for neglecting of his judgments. 

" Our third request concerns the poor, 
who be of three sorts. The poor labourers 



Book IV. J 



OF RELIGION I 



N SCOTLAND. 



273 



of the ground ; the poor desolate beggars, 
orphans, widows, and strangers ; and the 
poor ministers of Christ Jesus his holy 
evangel, who all are so cruelly entreated 
by this last pretended order taken for sus- 
tentation of ministers, that their latter 
misery far surmounteth the former; for 
now the poor labourers of the ground are 
so oppressed by the cruelty of those that 
pay their third, that they for the most part 
advance upon the poor, whatsoever they 
pay to the queen, or to any other. As for 
the very indigent and poor, to whom God 
commands a sustentation to be provided of 
the tiends, they are so despised, that it is a 
wonder that the sun giveth light and heat 
unto the earth, where God's name is so 
frequently called upon, and no mercy — ac- 
cording to his commandments — shown to 
his creatures. And as for the ministers, 
their livings are so appointed, that the most 
part shall live but a beggar's life : and all 
cometh of that impiety that the idle-bellies 
of Christ's enemies must be fed in their 
former delicacy. We dare not conceal 
from your grace and honours our con- 
science, w hich is this, that neither by the 
law of God, neither yet by any just law of 
man, is any thing due unto them who now 
most cruelly do exact of the poor and rich, 
the two parts of their benefices, as they 
call them. And, therefore, we most humbly 
require, that some other order be taken 
with them, nor that they be set up again to 
empire above the people of God, either yet 
above any subject within this realm ; for 
we fear that such usurpation to their for- 
mer state, be neither in the end pleasing to 
themselves, nor profitable to them that 
would place them in that tyranny. If any 
think that a competent living is to be as- 
signed to them, we repugn not, provided 
that the labourers of the ground be not op- 
pressed, the poor be not utterly neglected, 
and the ministers of the word so sharply 
entreated as now they are. And finally, 
that those idle-bellies, who by law can 
crave nothing, shall confess that they re- 
ceive their sustentation, not of debt, but as 
of benevolence. Our humble request is, 
therefore, that some sudden order may be 
taken, that the poor labourers may find 



some relief, and that in every parish some 
portion of the tiends may be assigned to the 
sustentation of the poor within the same : 
and likewise that some public relief may 
be provided for the poor within burghs, 
that collectors may be appointed to gather ; 
and that sharp counts may be taken, as 
well of their receipt, as of their deliver- 
ance. The farther consideration to be had 
to our ministers, we some part remit to 
your wisdoms and unto their particular 
complaints. 

" Our fourth petition is for the manse- 
yards and glebes justly appertaining to the 
ministers, without the which it is impossi- 
ble unto them quietly to serve their 
charges ; and, therefore, we desire that 
order be taken thereinto without delay. 

" Our fifth concerns the inobedience of 
certain wicked persons, who not only 
trouble, and have troubled ministers, with- 
in their functions, but also disobey the 
superintendents in their visitation ; where- 
of we humbly crave remedy : which w r e 
do not so much for any fear that we and 
our ministers have of the papists, but for 
the love we bear to the common tranquil- 
lity. For this we cannot hide from your 
majesty and council, that if the papists 
think to triumph where they may, and to 
do what they list, where there is not a 
party able to resist them, that some will 
think, that the godly must begin where 
they left, who heretofore have borne all 
things patiently, in hope that laws should 
have bridled the wicked. Whereof, if they 
be frustrated — albeit that nothing be more 
odious to them than tumults and domesti- 
cal discords — yet will men attempt the ut- 
termost, before that in their own eyes they 
behold that house of God demolished, 
which with travail and danger God hath 
within this realm erected by them. 

" Last, we desire, that such as have re- 
ceived remission of their thirds, be com- 
pelled to sustain the ministers within their 
bounds, or else we forewarn your grace and 
council, that we fear, that the people shall 
retain the whole in their hands, until such 
time as their ministers be sufficiently pro- 
vided. We farther desire the kirks to be 
j repaired, according to an act set forth by 
2 M 



274 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1562 



the lords of the secret council, before your 
majesty's arrival in this country. That 
judges be appointed to hear the causes of 
divorcement ; for the kirk can no longer 
sustain that burthen, especially, because 
there is no punishment for the offenders. 
That sayers and hearers of mass, profaners 
of the sacraments, such as have entered 
into benefices by the pope's bulls, and such 
other transgressors of the law made at your 
grace's arrival within this realm, may be 
severely punished ; for else men will think 
that there is no truth meant in making 
of such laws. Farther, we most humbly 
desire of your grace and honourable coun- 
cil, a resolute answer to every one of the 
heads fore written, that the same being- 
known, we may somewhat satisfy such as 
be grievously offended at manifest iniquity 
now maintained, at oppression, under pre- 
text of law, done against the poor, and at 
the rebellious disobedience of many wicked 
persons against God's word and holy ordi- 
nance. 

" God, the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, so rule your hearts, and direct 
your grace and council's judgments by the 
ditement and illumination of his Holy 
Spirit, that ye may answer so, as that your 
consciences may be absolved in the presence 
of that righteous judge, the Lord Jesus; 
and then we doubt not but you yourselves 
shall find felicity, and this poor realm, that 
long has been oppressed by wicked men, 
shall enjoy tranquillity and rest, with the 
true knowledge of God." 

These things read in public assembly, as 
said is, were approved of all : and some 
wished that more sharpness had been used, 
because that the time so craved. But the 
minions of the court, and secretary Leth- 
ington above others, could not abide such 
hard speaking ; " For who ever saw it writ- 
ten," said he, "to a prince, * That God would 
strike the head and the tail : that if pa- 
pists did what they list, men would begin 
where they left ?' But above all others 
that was most offensive, that the queen was 
accused, as that she would raise up papists 
and papistry again. To put that in the 
people's heads, was no less than treason : 
for oaths were made, that she never meant 



such things." To whom it was answered, 
" That the prophet Isaiah used such man- 
ner of speaking: and it was no doubt but 
that he was well acquainted in the court; 
for it was supposed, that he was of the 
king's stock. But howsoever it was, his 
words make manifest, that he spake to the 
court and courtiers, to judges, ladies, 
princes and priests : and yet," says he, 
" ' The Lord shall cut away the head and 
the tail,' " &c. " And so," said the first 
writer, " I find that such phrase was once 
used before us." " And if this offend you, 
that we say, * Men must begin where they 
left, in case papists do as they do;' we 
would desire you to teach us, not so much 
how we shall speak, but rather what we 
shall do, when our ministers are stricken, 
our superintendents disobeyed, and a plain 
rebellion decreed against all good order." 
" Complain," said Lethington. " Whom 
to ?" said the other. " To the queen's ma- 
jesty," said the other. " How long shall 
we do so ?" said the whole. " Till that ye 
get remedy," said the justice clerk : " give 
me their names, and I shall give you let- 
ters." " If the sheep," said one, " shall 
complain to the wolf, that the wolves and 
whelps have devoured their lambs, the 
coniplainer may stand in danger, but the 
offender, we fear, shall have liberty to hunt 
after his prey." " Such comparisons," 
said Lethington, " are very unsavoury : for 
I am assured, that the queen will neither 
erect, nor yet maintain papistry." " Let 
your assurance," said another, " serve your- 
self, but it cannot assure us : for her mani- 
fest proceedings speak the contrary." 
After such taunting reasoning on both sides, 
the multitude concluded, that the supplica- 
tion, as it was conceived, should be present- 
ed, unless that the secretary would form 
one more agreeable to the present neces- 
sity. He promised to keep the substance 
of ours, but he would use other terms, and 
ask things in a more gentle manner. The 
first writer answered, " That he served the 
kirk at their commandment, and was con- 
tented, that in his dictment should men use 
the liberty that best pleaseth them, pro- 
vided that he were not compelled to sub- 
scribe to the flattery of such as more re- 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



275 



garded the persons of men and women, than 
the simple truth of God." And so was 
this former supplication given to be reform- 
ed, as Lethington's wisdom thought best. 
And in very deed he framed it so, that 
when it was delivered by the superintend- 
ents of Lothian and Fife, and when that 
she had read somewhat of it, she said, 
a Here are many fair words, I cannot tell 
what the hearts are." And so for our 
painted oratory, we were termed the next 
name to flatterers and dissemblers. But for 
that session the kirk received none other 
answer 

Short after the convention of the kirk, 
chanced that unhappy pursuit, which John 
Gordon, laird of Findlater, made upon the 
lord Ogilvie, who was evil hurt, and almost 
yet abides mutilation. The occasion was, 
for certain lands and rights, which old Find- 
later had resigned to the said lord, which 
he was pursuing, and was in appearance 
to ohtain his purpose, whereat the said 
John and his servants were offended, and, 
therefore, made the said pursuit, upon a 
Saturday at night, betwixt nine and ten. 
The friends of the said lord were either 
not with him, or else not willing to fight 
that night, for they took strokes, hut gave 
few that left marks. The said John was 
taken, and put in the tolhooth, where he 
remained certain days, and then hroke his 
ward, some judged, at his father's com- 
mandment; for he was making prepara- 
tion for the queen's coming to the north, 
as we will after hear. 

The interview and meeting of the two 
queens, delayed till the next year, our 
sovereign took purpose to visit the north, 
and departed from Stirling in the month 
of August. Whether there was any secret 
paction and confederacy betwdxt the pa- 
pists in the south, and the earl of Huntly 
and his papists in the north ; or, to speak 
more plainly, hetwixt the queen herself 
and Huntly, we cannot certainly affirm : 
but the suspicions were wondrous vehe- 
ment, that there was no good will home to 
the earl of Murray, nor yet to such as de- 
pended upon him at that time. The history 
we shall faithfully declare, and so leave the 
judgment free to the readers. 



That John Gordon broke his ward, we 
have already heard ; who immediately there- 
after repaired to his father George, then 
earl of Huntly,- and understanding the 
queen's coming, made great provision in 
Strathbogie, and in other parts, as it were to 
receive the queen. At Aberdeen, the queen 
and court remained certain days to deli- 
berate upon the affairs of the country ; 
where some began to smell, that the earl of 
Huntly was under gathering, as hereafter 
shall be declared. While things were so 
working in the north, the earl Bothwell 
broke his ward, and came forth of the cas- 
tle of Edinburgh, the 28th of August. 
Some say he broke the stanchels of the 
window, others whispered, that he got easy 
passage by the gates. One thing is certain, 
to wit, the queen was little offended at his 
escaping'. There passed with him a servant of 
the captain's, named James Porterfield. The 
said earl showed himself not very afraid, 
for his common residence was in Lothian. 
The bishop of St Andrews, and abbot of 
Crossraguel, kept secret convention that 
same time in Paisley, to whom resorted di- 
vers papists ; yea, the said bishop spoke the 
duke, unto whom also came the lord Gor- 
don from the earl of Huntly, requiring him 
" to put to his hands in the south as he 
should do in the north, and so it should 
not be Knox's crying nor preaching that 
should stay that purpose." The bishop, be 
he never so close, could not altogether hide 
his mind, but at his own table said, " The 
queen has gone into the north, belike to 
seek disobedience ; she may perchance find 
the thing she seeks." It was constantly 
affirmed, that the earl of Bothwell and the 
said lord Gordon spake together, but of 
their purpose we heard no mention. 

That same year, and at that instant time, 
were appointed commissioners by the ge- 
neral assembly to Carrick and Cunningham, 
Mr George Hay, who with great fruit 
preached the space of a month in the kirks 
of Carrick, To Kyle and to the parts of 
Galloway, was appointed John Knox, who, 
beside the doctrine of the evangel shown 
to the common people, forewarned some of 
the nobility and barons of the dangers that 
he feared, and that were appearing shortly 



276 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a d. 1502 



to follow ; and exhorted them to put them- 
selves in such order as that they might be 
able to serve the authority, and yet not to 
suffer the enemies of God's truth to have 
the upper hand. Whereupon a great part 
of the barons and gentlemen of Kyle, Cun- 
ningham, and Carrick, professing the true 
doctrine of the evangel, assembled at Ayr ,• 
and after exhortation made, and conference 
had, subscribed this bond. The tenor where- 
of follows : 

" We, whose names are underwritten, do 
promise, in the presence of God, and in pre- 
sence of his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that we, and every one of us, shall and will 
maintain and assist the preaching of his 
holy evangel, now of his mere mercy, offer- 
ed unto this realm : and also will maintain 
the ministers of the same against all per- 
sons, power, and authority, that will op- 
pone the self to the doctrine proponed, and 
by us received. And further, with the 
same solemnity, we protest and promise, 
that every one of us shall assist others ; 
yea, and the whole body of the protestants 
within this realm, in all lawful and just ac- 
tions, against all persons,- so that whoso- 
ever shall hurt, molest, or trouble any of 
our body, shall be reputed enemy to the 
whole, except that the offender will be 
content to submit himself to the judgment 
of the kirk, now established amongst us. 
And this we do, as we desire to be accepted 
and favoured of the Lord Jesus, and re- 
accounted worthy of credit and honesty in 
the presence of the godly. At the burgh 
of Ayr, the fourth day September, the year 
of God 1562. Subscribed by all these with 
their hands, as follows : 

" Mr Michael Wallace, provost of Ayr, 
James Lockhart, 
William Montgomery, 
John Crawford of W olston, 
John Mure in Wole, 
Hugh Wallace of Carnel, 
James Chalmer of Gathgirth, 
Hugh Montgomery of Heshielhead, 
John Fullarton of Dreghorn, 
Sir William Cunningham with my hand, 
Skeldon, 



* Pi-rhaps the surname could not he decipher- 
ed. The other editions have only a few of the 
subscriptions, and these chieny of men of title. 



Fergushill, 

Master of Boyd, 

John Lockhart of Bar, 

William Cunningham of Caprington, y r - 

Robert Ker of Kersland, 

Robert Crawford, 

David Crawford, 

William Cunningham, 

Charles Campbell burgess of Ayr, 

James Da lrymple of Stair, 

Mungo Muir, 

James Reid, 

James Kennedy burgess of Ayr, 

George Lockhart burgess there, 

Robert Shaw burgess there, 

John Dunbar of Blantyre, 

Robert Chalmer of Martuein, 

Robert Hunter of Hunterston, 

Robert Rankin, 

Archibald Boyle, 

Alexander Nisbet, 

James Lockhart, 

William Stewart of Halrig, 

Hector Dunbar of Cloustang, 

James Campbell of Houthley, 

Adam Cathcart of Bardarot, 

George Reid of Chapelhouse, 

Hugh Wallace of the Meanford, 

Glencairn, 

R. Boyd, 

R. Failford, 

Matthew Campbell of Loudon, knight, 

Allan lord Cathcart, 

John Cunningham of Caprington, 

c unningh amhe ad, 
Ochiltree, 

George Crawford of Lochnorris, 

John Muir of Rowallan, 

Hugh Cunningham of Waterston, 

Robert Cunningham, 

Auchinharvey, 

Middleton, 

John Wallace of Craigie, 

John Boyd of Narston, 

Robert Campbell of Kingzeancleucb, 

Gilbert Eales, 

Thomas Cathcart with my hand, 
Allan Cathcart of Clawance, 
Adam Reid of Barskyming, 
John Cathcart of Gibbsyard, 
John Reid with my hand, 
John* 

Robert Boyd of Pemont, 
William Campbell of Horsecleugh, 
William Cathcart, brother to the lord 

Cathcart, 
John Macquisdale, 



Some of the places are probably now known un- 
der other names, or are differently written.— 

Ed. 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



211 



George Corry of Kelwood, 
William Kennedy of Ternganoth, 
John Kennedy of Kirkmichael, 
Thomas Macalexander of Corsclaise, 
Robert Campbell of Craydow 
Andrew Niven of Monkredden, 
William Cathcart, 
David Crawford of the Kers, 
John Kennedy of Ternganoth, 
Patrick Kennedy of Dalgarrocb, 
Allan Cathcart of Carltoa," 

With many other gentlemen of worth, 
and burgesses. 

These things done at Ayr, the said John 
passed to Nithsdale and Galloway, where 
in conference with the master of Maxwell, 
a man of great judgment and experience, 
he communicated with him such things as 
he feared ; who by his motion wrote to the 
earl Bothwell, to behave himself as became 
a faithful subject, and to keep good quiet- 
ness in the parts committed to his charge, 
and so would his crime of breaking the 
ward be more easily pardoned. John Knox 
Avrote unto the duke's grace, and earnestly 
exhorted him, neither to give ear to the 
bishop his bastard brother, nor yet to the 
persuasions of the earl of Huntly ; for if 
he did, he assured him, that he and his 
house should come to a sudden ruin. By 
such means were the south parts kept in a 
reasonable quietness during the time that 
the troubles were in brewing in the north ; 
and yet the bishop and the abbot of Cross- 
raguel, did what in them lay to have raised 
some trouble ; for besides the fearful bruits 
that they spread abroad, sometimes that 
the queen was taken, sometimes that the 
earl of Murray and all his band were slain, 
and sometimes that the queen had given 
herself unto the earl of Huntly ; besides 
such bruits, the bishop, to break the coun- 
try of Kyle, where quietness then was 
greatest, raised the Crawfords against the 
Reids for the payment of the bishop's pasch 
fines ; but that was stayed by the labours 
of indifferent men, who favoured peace. 

The abbot of Crossraguel required dis- 
putation of John Knox for maintaining of 
the mass, which was granted unto him, 
and which held in Maybole three days. 
The abbot had the advantage that he re- 
quired, to wit, he took upon him to prove, 



that Melchisedec offered bread and wine 
unto God, which was the ground that the 
mass w r as builded upon to be a sacrifice, 
&c. But in the travail of three days there 
could no proof be produced for Melchi- 
sedec's oblation, as in the same disputation 
— which is to be had in print — clearly may 
appear. The papists constantly looked for 
a wolter [turn or change in their favour], 
and therefore they would make some brag 
of reasoning. The abbot farther presented 
himself to the pulpit, but the voice of Mr 
George Hay so feared him, that after once 
he wearied of that exercise. 

After that the queen was somewhat sa- 
tisfied with hunting, and other pastime, 
she came to Aberdeen, where the earl of 
Huntly met her, and his lady, wdth no 
small train, remained in court, was sup- 
posed to have the greatest credit, departed 
with the queen to Buchan, met her again 
at Rothmay, looking that she should have 
passed with him to Strathbogie. But in the 
journey certain w r ord came to her that John 
Gordon had broken promise in not re-en- 
tering in ward ; for his father the earl had 
promised that he should enter again within 
the castle of Stirling-, and there abide the 
queen's pleasure : but whether with his 
father's knowledge and consent, or with- 
out the same, we know not, but he refused 
to enter, which so offended the queen, that 
she would not go to Strathbogie but passed 
to Strathlaw through Inverness, where the 
castle thereof was denied unto her. The 
captain was commanded to keep it, and 
looked for relief, for so had John Gordon 
promised ; but being thereof frustrated, the 
castle was rendered, and the captain named 
Gordon was executed. The rest were con- 
demned, and the hands of some bound, but 
escaped. 

This was the beginning of farther trou- 
ble ; for the earl of Huntly thereat offend- 
ed, began to assemble his folk, and spared 
not to speak that he would be revenged. 
But always his wife bore fair countenance 
to the queen; and it is verily supposed, 
that no other harm than the queen herself 
could easily have stood content with, was 
meant unto her own person : but the whole 
malice lay upon the earl of Murray, secre- 



278 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1562 



tary Lethington, and upon the laird of Pit- 
arrow. Yet the queen began to be afraid, 
and by proclamation caused warn Stirling, 
Fife, Angus, Mearns, and Strathearn, [and] 
charged all substantial men to be in Aber- 
deen the fifth day of October, there to remain 
the space of twenty days. In her returning 
from Inverness, she required the castle of 
Findlater, which was likewise denied, and 
so was Achindon, which more inflamed the 
queen. The earl of Huntly was charged 
to cause deliver the said houses under the 
pain of treason. To show some obedience, 
he caused the keys of both to be presented 
by his servant Mr Thomas Keir ; but be- 
fore had the queen sent young captain 
Stewart — son to captain James, who to 
this day has neither been stout, happy, nor 
true — with six score of soldiers, to lie 
about the said place of Findlater ; they 
lodged in Cullen, not far distant from the 
said place. Upon a night John Gordon 
came with a company of horsemen, took 
the captain, slew certain of the soldiers, 
and disarmed the rest. This fact done — 
as the queen alleged — under trust [accusa- 
tion], so inflamed her, that all hope of re- 
conciliation was past ; and so the said earl 
of Huntly was charged, under pain of put- 
ting him to the horn, to present himself 
and the said John before the queen and 
council within six days, which charge he 
disobeyed, and so was denounced rebel. 
Whether it was law or not, we dispute 
little thereunto, but it was a preparative 
to others that after were served with the 
same measure. He was sought at his place 
of Strathbogie, but escaped. The evil in- 
creased, for the earl assembled his folk out 
of all parts of the north ; he marched for- 
wards towards Aberdeen, and upon the 
twenty-second day of October, the year of 
God 1562, came to the loch of Skene. 
His army was judged to be seven or eight 
hundred men. The queen's army, both in 
number and manhood, far surmounted his, 
and yet he took no fear ; for he was as- 
sured of the most part of them that were 
with the queen, as the issue did witness. 
Within the town they stood in great fear ; 
and therefore it was concluded that they 
would assail the uttermost upon the fields. 



The Forbeses, Hays, and Leslies, took the 
vanguard, and promised to fight the said 
earl without any other help. They passed 
forth of the town before ten hours, they 
put themselves in array, but they approach- 
ed not to the enemy till that the earl of 
Murray and his company were come to the 
fields, and that was after two at afternoon ; 
for he was appointed with his company only 
to have beheld the battle : but all things 
turned otherwise than the most part of 
men supposed. The earl of Huntly was 
the night before determined to have retir- 
ed himself and his company; but that 
morning he could not be wakened before 
it was ten hours, and when he was upon 
foot his spirits failed him, by reason of his 
corpulency, so that rightly a long time he 
could do nothing. Some of his friends, 
fearing 1 the danger, left him. When that 
he looked upon bGth the companies, he 
said, " This great company that approach- 
eth nearest unto us will do us no harm, 
they are our friends ; I only fear yonder 
small company that stands upon the hill- 
side, yon are our enemies ; but we are 
enough for them, if God be with us." And 
when he had thus spoken, he fell upon his 
knees, and made his prayer in this form : 
" O Lord, I have been a bloodthirsty man, 
and by my means has much innocent blood 
been spilt ; but wilt thou give me victory 
this day, and I shall serve thee all the days 
of my life." Note and observe, good rea- 
der, he confessed that he had been a blood- 
thirsty man, and that he had been the 
cause of the shedding of much innocent 
blood, but yet would he have had victory ; 
and what was that else, but to have had 
power to have shed more, and then would 
he have satisfied God for altogether? 
wherein is expressed the nature of hy- 
pocrites, who neither fear nor love God 
farther than present danger or profit mov- 
eth. But to our history. 

The Leslies, Hays, and Forbeses espying 
the earl of Murray and his to be lighted 
upon their feet, made forward against the 
earl of Huntly and his, who stood in Car- 
rochy Burn — some call it Farabank, — but 
ere they approached near by the space of 
the shot of an arrow, they cast from them 



rooK iv.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



279 



their spears and long weapons, and fled di- 
rectly in the faces of the earl of Murray 
and his company. The danger espied, the 
laird of Pitarrow — a man both stout and 
of a ready wit — with the master, now lord 
Lindsay, and tutor of Pitcur, said, " Let 
us cast down spears to the foremost, and 
let them not come in among- us, for there 
is no doubt but this flying is by treason :" 
and so they did, so that they that fled kept 
themselves apart from the few number that 
were marching upon foot in order. The 
earl of Huntly seeing the vanguard flee, 
said unto his company, " Our friends are 
honest men, they have kept promise ; let us 
now rencounter the rest and so he and 
his, as sure of victory, marched forward. 

The secretary in few words made a ve- 
hement orison, and willed every man to 
call upon his God, to remember his duty, 
and not to fear the multitude; and in the 
end concluded thus : " O Lord, thou that 
rulest the heaven and earth, look upon thy 
servants, whose blood this day is most un- 
justly sought, and to man's judgment is 
sold and betrayed. Our refuge is now unto 
thee, and our hope is in thee. Judge thou, 
O Lord, this day betwixt us and the earl of 
Huntly, and the rest of our enemies; if 
ever we have unjustly sought his or their 
destruction and blood, let us fall in the j 
edge of the sword. And, O Lord, if thou j 
knowest our innocence, maintain thou and i 
preserve us for thy great mercy's sake." 

Short after the speaking of these and the 
like words, the former ranks joined, for 
Huntly 's company made great haste ; they 
were repulsed by the master of Lindsay, 
and the companies of Fife and Angus. 
Some of them that fled returned, and fol- 
lowed the earl of Murray, but gave no 
strokes till that Huntly's company gave 
back. In the front there were slain about 
eighteen or twenty-four men, and in the 
flying there fell near a hundred; there 
were taken a hundred, and the rest were 



* Knox seems to have entertained no doubt 
of the existence of witches, or persons who 
maintained intercourse with the devil, which 
was Indeed the prevailing belief in Scotland for 
nearly two centuries after his time. About the 
middle or last century, an enlightened English 
parliament repealed the law that required the 



spared. The earl himself was taken alive, 
his two sons, John foresaid, and Adam 
Gordon, were taken with him. The earl 
j immediately after his taking, departed this 
life, without any wound, or yet appearance 
! of any stroke, whereof death might have 
ensued ; and so, because it was late, he was 
: cast over athwart [across] a pair of creels, 
: and so was canned to Aberdeen, and was 
laid in the tolbooth thereof, that the res- 
; ponse which his wife's witches* had given 
might be fulfilled, who all affirmed- — as the 
most part say — that that same night should 
! be be in the tolbooth of Aberdeen without 
any wound upon his body. When his lady 
got knowledge thereof, she blamed her prin- 
I cipal witch, called Janet ; but she stoutly 
defended herself — as the devil can ever do 
— and affirmed, that she gave a true an- 
swer, albeit she spake not all the truth ; 
; for she knew that he should be there dead : 
but that could not profit my lady, she was 
| angry and sorry for a season. But the 
devil, the mass, and witches, have as great 
credit of her this day, the 12th of June, 
1566, as they had seven years ago. 

The earl of Murray sent message unto 
the queen of the marvellous victory, and 
humbly prayed her to show that obedience 
to God as publicly to convene with them, 
to give thanks unto God for his notable 
deliverance. She gloomed [frowned] both 
at* the messenger and at the request, 
and scarcely would give a good word or 
blithe countenance to any that she knew 
earnest favourers of the earl of Murray, 
whose prosperity was, and yet is a very 
venom to her boldened heart, against him 
for his godliness and upright plainness. Of 
many days she bore no better countenance ; 
whereby it might have been evidently es- 
pied, that she rejoiced not greatly of the 
success of that matter ; and albeit she caus- 
ed execute John Gordon and divers others, 
yet it was the destruction of others that 
she sought. 



burning of witches; and I believe there is no 
evidence of one having existed, since they might 
have lawfully done so. Yet, within my own 
recollection, the repeal of the above law was re- 
garded as a great national sin, and was made a 
ground of public fasting and humiliation. —Ed. 



280 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. b. 1562 



Upon the morrow after the discomfiture, 
the lady Forbes, a woman both wise and 
fearing- God, came amongst many others to 
visit the corpse of the said earl; and see- 
ing him lie upon the cold stones, having 
only upon him a doublet of canvas, a pair 
of Scotish grey hose, and covered with an 
arras-work ; she said, " What stability shall 
we judge to be in this world ? There lieth 
he that yesterday in the morning was held 
the wisest, the richest, and a man of great- 
est power that was in Scotland." And in 
very deed she lied not, for in man's opi- 
nion, under a prince, there was not such a 
one these three hundred years in this realm 
produced : but felicity and worldly wisdom 
so blinded him, that in the end he perished 
in them, as shall all those that despise God 
and trust in themselves. 

John Gordon, at his death, confessed 
many horrible things, devised by his father, 
by his brother, and by himself. There were 
letters found in the earl's pocket that dis- 
closed the treason of the earl of Suther- 
land, and of divers others. Mr Thomas 
Keir, who before was the whole counsellor 
to the earl foresaid, disclosed whatsoever 
he understood might hurt the Gordons and 
their friends, and so was the treason plainly 
disclosed ; which was, that the earl of Mur- 
ray, with certain others, should have been 
murdered in Strathbogie ; the queen should 
have been taken, and kept at the devotion 
of the said earl of Huntly. These things, 
we say, revealed, the queen left the north 
and came to Dundee, St Johnstone, Stir- 
ling, and then to Edinburgh. The earl of 
Huntly' s body was carried about in a boat, 
and laid without burial in the abbey of 
Holyroodhouse, till the day of his forfei- 
ture, as after shall be declared. The duke 
apprehended the lord Gordon his son-in- 
law, because that the queen had straitly 
commanded him so to do, if he repaired 
within his bounds. Before he delivered 
him, the earl of Murray laboured at the 
queen's hand for the safety of his life, 
which hardly was granted ; and so was he 
delivered within the castle of Edinburgh, 
the 28th day of November, 1562, where he 
remained till the 8th of February; when 
he was put to an assize, accused, and con- 



victed of treason ; but was restored again, 
first, to the castle foresaid, and thereafter 
was transported to Dunbar, where he re- 
mained prisoner till the month of August 
in the year of God 1565 years, as we will 
after hear. 

In this meantime the troubles were hot 
in France, and the intelligence and out- 
ward familiarity betwixt the two queens 
was great, Lethington was directed with 
large commission, both to the queen of 
England and to the Guisans. 

The marriage of our queen was in all men's 
mouths ; some would have [the infant of] 
Spain, some the emperor's brother, some 
lord Robert Dudley, some duke Denemours, 
and some unhappily guessed at the lord 
Darnley. What Lethington's credit was, 
we know not ; but shortly after there began 
much to be talked of the earl of Lennox, 
and of his son the lord Darnley. It was 
said that Lethington spoke the lady Mar- 
garet Douglas, and that Robert Melville 
received a horse to the secretary's use 
from the earl of Lennox, or from his wife. 
Howsoever it was, Mr Fowler, servant to 
the said earl, came with letters to the 
queen's grace, by the which, license was 
permitted to the earl of Lennox to come 
to Scotland, to travail in his lawful busi- 
ness. That same day that the said license 
was granted, the secretary said, " This day 
I have taken the deadly hatred of all the 
Hamiltons w r ithin Scotland, and have done 
unto them no less displeasure, than if I 
had cutted their throats." The earl Both- 
well, who before had broken ward, fearing 
apprehension, prepared to pass to France, 
but by storm of weather was driven into 
England, where he was stayed, and was 
offered to have been rendered by the queen 
of England : but our queen's answer was, 
" That he was no rebel, and, therefore, she 
requested that he should have liberty to 
pass where he pleased." And thereto 
Lethington helped not a little; for he 
travailled to have friends in every faction 
of the court. And so obtained the said 
earl license to pass to France. 

The winter after the death of the earl 
of Huntly, the court remained for the most 
part at Edinburgh. The preachers were 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND, 



281 



wondrous vehement in reprehension of all 
manner of vice, which then began to 
abound; and specially avarice, oppression 
of the poor, excess, riotous cheer, banquet- 
ting, immoderate dancing, and whoredom, 
that thereof ensues. Whereat the cour- 
tiers began to storm, and pick quarrels 
against the preachers, alleging that all their 
preaching was turned to railing; where- 
unto one of them gave answer as follow- 
eth : " It comes to our ears that we are 
called railers, whereof albeit we wonder, 
yet we are not ashamed, seeing that the 
most worthy servants of God that before 
us have travailled in this vocation, have so 
been styled : but unto you do I say, that 
that same God, who from the beginning has 
punished the contempt of his word, and 
has poured forth his vengeance upon such 
proud mockers, shall not spare you ; yea, 
he shall not spare you before the eyes of 
this same wicked generation, for the plea- 
sure whereof ye despise all wholesome ad- 
monition. Have ye not seen one greater 
than any of you sitting where presently 
ye sit, pick his nails, and pull down his 
bonnet over his eyes, when idolatry, witch- 
craft, murder, oppression, and such vices, 
were rebuked ? Was not his common 
talk, when the knaves have railed their 
fill, then will they hold their peace ? 
Have ye not heard it affirmed to his own 
face, that God should revenge that his 
blasphemy, even in the eyes of such as 
were witnesses to his iniquity ? Then was 
the earl of Huntly accused by you, as the 
maintainer of idolatry, and the only hinderer 
of all good order : him has God punished, 
even according to the threatening^ that his 
and your ears heard ; and by your hands 
has God executed his judgments. But what 
amendment in any case can be espied in 
you ? Idolatry was never in greater rest, 
virtue and virtuous men were never in more 
contempt, vice was never more bold, nor 
less feared punishment. And yet who 
guides the queen and court ? Who but 
the protestants. O horrible slanderers of 
God, and of his holy evangel ! better it 
were unto you plainly to renounce Christ 
Jesus, than thus to expose his blessed evan- 
gel to mockage. If God punish not you, 



that this same age shall behold aud see your 
punishment, the spirit of righteous judg- 
ment guides me not." 

This vehemenoy provoked the hatred, not 
only of the courtiers, but also of divers 
others against the speaker, which was John 
Knox ; for such as are in credit, never lack 
flatterers. " Their brethren of the court 
were irreverently handled. What was that, 
but to raise the hearts of the people against 
them : they did what they might ; such 
speaking would cause them do less." And 
this was the fruit that the preachers gather- 
ed of their just reprehensions. 

The general assembly of the kirk, held 
the 25th of December, 1562, approached, 
in the which, great complaints were made, 
that kirks lacked ministers ; that ministers 
lacked their stipends; that wicked men 
were permitted to be schoolmasters, andVso 
to infect the youth ; amongst whom one 
Mr Robert Cumming, schoolmaster in 
Arbroath, was complained upon by the 
laird of Dun, and sentence pronounced 
against him. It was farther complained, 
that idolatry was erected in divers parts of 
this realm ; for redress whereof, some 
thought best, that new supplication should 
be presented to the queen's grace ; others 
demanded, what answer was received of the 
former. The superintendent of Lothian 
confessed the deliverance of it ; " but," said 
he, " I received no answer." It was an- 
swered for the part of the queen — for her 
supports were ever there — "That it was 
well known to the whole realm what 
troubles had occurred since the last assem- 
bly ; and, therefore, that they should not 
wonder, albeit the queen had not answer- 
ed : but betwixt that and the parliament, 
which was appointed to be in May, they 
doubted not but that such order should be 
taken, as all men should have occasion to 
stand content." This satisfied, for that time, 
the whole assembly. And this was the practice 
of the queen, and of her council, with fair 
words to drive time, as before we have said. 

The assembly, notwithstanding, proceed- 
ed forward in establishing of such order, as 
whereby vice might be punished, and virtue 
might be maintained. And because that 
there was a great slander risen upon Paul 
2 N 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



La. d. 1563 



Meffan, of whom mention is made in the 
second book of this history, commission and 
charge was given to John Knox, minister 
of Edinburgh, and unto certain of the elders 
of the kirk of Edinburgh, to pass to the 
town of Jedburgh, where the said slander 
was raised, and to be found there the third 
of January next, for the trial to be taken 
in the slander raised, and to hear the arti- 
cles and complaint of the said Paul, and 
after the trial, to report the truth to the 
session of the kirk of Edinburgh ; to whom, 
with the assistance of the superintendent of 
Lothian, commission was given to discern 
thereuntil. The trial and examination of 
that crime was difficult. The slander was 
universal in that town and country : the 
servant woman of the said Paul had be- 
twixt terms left his house, she had born a 
child, no father to it could she find, but al- 
leged herself to have been oppressed late 
ill an evening. The said Paul constantly 
affirmed himself innocent, and would have 
given his public purgation, but because his 
accusators had taken upon them to prove 
their accusation, that was denied. Many 
witnesses were produced, of whom some 
deponed so clearly, that the commissioners 
suspected that they had been suborned, and 
therefore they required to have inspection 
of the places, where some said they saw, 
and some said they heard them in the very 
act of iniquity. The sight and considera- 
tion of the place augmented greatly the 
suspicion ; but one thing was most suspi- 
cious of all others, for the wife of the said 
Paul, an ancient matron, was absent from him 
the space of eight or nine weeks in Dun- 
dee ; which time — or at least a great part 
thereof — the suspected and he lay nightly in 
one house, without other company than a 
child of seven or eight years of age. The 
judges, notwithstanding these suspicions, 
having a good opinion of the honesty and 
godliness of the man, travailled what they 
could — conscience not hurt — to purge him 
of the slander: but God, who would not 



* The wiiter of the fifth book, whoever he 
was, gives an account of his profession of re- 
pentance, and the steps that were taken therr- 
on. — Ed. 



that such villany should be cloaked and 
concealed within his kirk, otherwise had 
decreed, for he brought the brother of the 
guilty woman to the town, having no mind 
of such matters, who being produced by the 
accusators, as one that was privy to the 
fact, and knew the verity with all circum- 
stances ; this witness, we say, who could 
not be suspected, being produced, made the 
matter so plain and clear, that all suspicion 
was removed j for he it was that conveyed 
the woman away, he it was that caused the 
child to be baptized, alleging it to be his 
own : he it was that carried frequent mes- 
sages between them, and from Paul carried 
money and clothes divers times. How soon 
that ever the said Paul saw that man pro- 
duced, as witness, he withdrew himself, and 
left the town, by that means plainly taking 
upon him the crime ; and so the commis- 
sioners with full information returned to 
Edinburgh, and notified the fact unto 
the kirk, who caused publicly summon 
the said Paul to hear the sentence pro- 
nounced ; who not compearing in the end, 
for his odious crime and contumacy, was 
publicly excommunicated, and was de- 
prived of all function within the kirk of 
Scotland, and so left he the realm. 

For two causes we insert this horrible 
fact, and the order kept in the punishment 
of the same ; first, to forewarn such as 
travail in that vocation, that according to 
the admonition of the a jostle, " Such as 
stand, take heed lest they fall." No man 
in the beginning of the evangel, was judged 
more fervent and more upright ; and yet 
we have heard how far Satan has prevailed 
against him. God grant that we may hear 
of his repentance.* Jseither yet ought his 
fall any thing to prejudge the authority of 
the doctrine which he taught, for the 
doctrine of God hath authority of no crea- 
ture, but has the assurance of God himself, 
how weak or imperfect that ever the in- 
struments be by whom it pleases God to 
publish the same. The treason of Judas, 
the adultery of David, and the abnegation 
of Peter, did derogate nothing to the glory 
of Christ's evangel, nor yet to the doctrine 
which before they had taught; but de- 
clared the one to be a reprobate, and the 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



283 



others to be instruments in whom mercy 
must needs surmount judgment. The other 
cause is, that the world may see what dif- 
ference there is betwixt light and dark- 
ness, betwixt the uprightness of the kirk 
of God, and the corruption that reigns in 
the synagogue of Satan, the papistical 
rabble; for how many of that sort have 
been, and still remain openly known 
whoremongers, adulterers, violaters of vir- 
gins, yea, and committers of such abomina- 
tions as we will not name; and yet are 
they called and permitted to be bishops, 
archbishops, cardinals, and popes them- 
selves : for what sins can unable the sworn 
servants of Simon, and of his father the 
devil ? For brag what they list of Christ, 
of Peter, and of Paul, their lives and con- 
versations bear witness to whom they be- 
long. But w r e return to our history of 
things done in court. 

Amongst the minions of the court, there 
was one named Monsieur Chatelet, a 
Frenchman, that at that time passed all 
others in credit with the queen. In dancing 
of the purpose — so term they that dance, 
in the which man and woman talketh se- 
cretly ; wise men would judge such 
fashions more like the bordell [brothel], 
than to the comeliness of honest women. 
In this dance, the queen chose Chatelet, 
and Chatelet took the queen, for he had 
the best dress. All this winter Chatelet 
was so familiar in the queen's cabinet, early 
and late, that scarcely could any of the no- 
bility have access unto her. The queen 
w ould he upon Chatelet's shoulder, and 
sometimes privily would steal a kiss of 
his neck : and all this was honest enough ; 
for it was the gentle entreatment of a 
stranger. But the familiarity was so great, 
that upon a night, he privily did convey 
himself under the queen's bed ; but being 
espied, he was commanded away. But the 
bruit arising, the queen called the earl of 
Murray, and bursting forth in a womanly 



* It ought not perhaps to be surmised that this 
poor Frenchman came into his " too much sus- 
pected " situation with the queen's consent, but 
her extreme anxiety that he might not be allow- 
ed to speak, betrayed a consciousness that he 
could have said something for himself which 



affection, charged him, " That as he loved 
her, he should slay Chatelet, and let him 
never speak a word." The other at the 
first made promise so to do ; but after 
calling to mind the judgments of God pro- 
nounced against the shedders of innocent 
blood, and also that none should die, with- 
out the testimony of two or three witnes- 
ses, returned, and fell upon his knees before 
the queen, and said, " Madam, I beseech 
your grace, cause not me to take the blood 
of this man upon me ; your grace has en- 
treated him so familiarly before, that ye 
have offended all your nobility; and now 
if he shall be secretly slain, at your own 
commandment, what shall the world judge 
of it ? I shall bring him to the presence of 
justice, and let him suffer by law according 
to his deserving." " O," said the queen, 
" ye w T ill never let him speak ?" " I shall 
do," said he, " madam, what in me lieth to 
save your honour." Poor Chatelet was 
brought back from Kinghorn to St An- 
drews, examined, put to an assize, and so 
beheaded the 22d of February, 1562. He 
begged license to write to France the cause 
of his death, " Which," said he, " in his 
tongue, was, ' Pour etre trouve en lieu 
trop suspect ;' that is, * Because I was 
found in a place too much suspected.' " 
At the place of execution, when he saw 
that there w r as no remedy but death, he 
made a godly confession, and granted, that 
his declining from the truth of God, and 
following of vanity and impiety, was justly 
recompensed upon him. But in the end 
he concluded, looking unto the heavens, 
with these words, " O cruelle dame !" that 
is, " cruel mistress." What that complaint 
imported, lovers may divine. And so re- 
ceived Chatelet the reward of his dancing; 
for he lacked his head, that his tongue 
should not utter the secrets of our queen* 
" Deliver us, O Lord, from the rage of such 
inordinate rulers." 

The year of God, 1563, there was a uni- 



would not have been to her credit. Murray did 
right not to assassinate him privately, as she de- 
sired ; but he would have done better if he had 
procured him a fair trial, with leave to urge 
what he could in his own defence. — Ed. 



284 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1563 



versa! dearth in all Scotland; but in the 
northlaud, where the harvest before the 
queen had travelled, there was an extreme 
famine, in the which many died in that 
country. The dearth was great over all; 
but the famine was principally there. The 
boll of wheat gave six pounds, the boll of 
beer six merks and a half, the boll of meal 
four merks, the boll of oats fifty shillings ; 
an ox to draw in the plough, twenty merks, 
a wedder thirty shillings. And so all 
things appertaining to the sustentation of 
man, in triple and more exceeded their ac- 
customed prices. And so did God, accord- 
ing to the threatening of his law, punish 
the idolatry of our wicked queen, and our 
ingratitude, that suffered her to defile the 
land with that abomination again, that God 
so potently had purged, by the power of 
his word. For the riotous feasting, and 
excessive banquetting, used in court and 
country, wheresoever that wicked woman 
repaired, provoked God to strike the staff 
of bread, and to give his malediction upon 
the fruits of the earth. But O, alas ! who 
looked, or yet looks, to the very cause of all 
calamities. 

Lethington was absent, as before we have 
heard, in the queen's affairs. The papists 
at that Pasch, anno 1563, in divers parts 
of the realm, had erected that idol the mass. 
Amongst whom the bishop of St Andrews, 
the prior of Whithorn, with divers others 
of their faction, would avow it. Besides 
the first proclamation, there had letters 
passed in the contrary, with certification of 
death to the contravene!*. The brethren 
universally offended, and espying that the 
queen, by her proclamation, did but mock 
them, determined to put to their own 
hands, and to punish for example of others ; 
and so some priests in the westland were 
apprehended. Intimation [was] made unto 
others, as unto the abbot of Crossraguel, 
the parson of Sanquhar, and such, that 
they [the brethren] should neither complain 
to queen nor council, but should execute 
the punishment that God has appointed to 
idolaters in his law, by such means as they 
might, wherever they should be appre- 
hended. 

The queen stormed at such freedom of 



speaking, but she could not amend it; for 
the spirit of God, of boldness and of wisdom, 
had not then left the most part of such as 
God had made instruments in the begin- 
ning. They were of one mind to maintain 
the truths of God, and to suppress idolatry ; 
particularities had not divided them : and, 
therefore, could not the devil, working in 
the queen and in papists, do then what 
they would ; and, therefore, she began to 
invent a new craft. She sent for John 
Knox to come unto her, where she lay at 
Lochleven. She travailled with him ear- 
nestly two hours before her supper, that 
he would be the instrument to persuade 
the people, and principally the gentlemen 
of the west, not to put hands to punish any 
man for the using of themselves in their 
religion as pleased them. The other per- 
ceiving her craft, willed her grace to pun- 
ish malefactors according to the laws, and 
he durst promise quietness upon the part 
of all them that professed the Lord Jesus 
within Scotland. But if her majesty 
thought to elude the laws, he said, he 
feared that some would [make] the papists 
understand, that without punishment they 
should not be suffered so manifestly to of- 
fend God's majesty. "Will ye," said she, 
" allow that they shall take my sword in 
their hands?" "The sword of justice," 
said he, " madam, is God's, and is given to 
princes and rulers for an end, which, if 
they transgress, sparing the wicked, and 
oppressing the innocents, they, that in the 
fear of God execute judgment, where God 
has commanded, offend not God, although 
kings do it not ; neither yet sin they that 
bridle kings to strike innocent men in their 
rage. The examples are evident ; for 
Samuel feared not to slay Agag, the fat 
and delicate king of Amalek, whom king 
Saul had saved: neither spared Elias 
Jezebel's false prophets, and Baal's priests, 
albeit that king Ahab was present. Phineas 
was no magistrate, and yet feared he not to 
strike Cosbi and Zimri in the very act 
of filthy fornication. And so, madam, your 
grace may see that others than chief magis- 
trates may lawfully punish, and have pun- 
ished, the vices and crimes that God com- 
mands to be punished ; and in this case I 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



285 



would earnestly pray your majesty to take 
good advisement, and that your grace 
should let the papists understand, that their 
attempts will not be suffered unpunished. 
For power, by act of parliament, is given to 
all judges within their own bounds, to 
search massmongers, or the hearers of the 
same, and to punish them according to the 
laws ; and, therefore, it shall be profitable 
to your majesty, to consider what is the 
thing your grace's subjects look to receive 
of your majesty, and what it is that ye 
ought to do unto them by mutual contract. 
They are bound to obey you, and that not 
but in God. Ye are bound to keep laws 
unto them. Ye crave of them service; 
they crave of you protection and defence 
against wicked doers. Now, madam, if 
you shall deny your duty unto them — 
which especially craves, that ye punish 
malefactors — think ye to receive full obe- 
dience of them ? I fear, madam, ye shall 
not." Herewith she being somewhat of- 
fended, passed to her supper. The said 
John left her, informed the earl of Murray 
of the whole reasoning, and so departed of 
final purpose to have returned to Edin- 
burgh, without any farther communication 
with the queen : but before the sun, upon the 
morn, were two directed — Walter Melvill 
was the one — to him, commanding him not 
to depart while [until] that he spoke the 
queen's majesty, which he did, and met her 
at the hawking, by west Kinross. Whether 
it was the night's sleep, or a deep dissimu- 
lation locked in her breast, that made her 
to forget her former anger, wise men may 
doubt, but thereof she never moved word, 
but began divers other purposes ; such as 
the offering of a ring to her by the lord 
Ruthven, " whom," said she, " I cannot 
love ; for I know him to use enchantment, 
and yet is he made one of my privy coun- 
cil." " Whom blameth your grace," said 
the other, " thereof ?" M Lethington," said 
she, " was the whole cause." " That man 
is absent," said he, " for this present, ma- 
dam ; and, therefore, I will speak nothing 
in that behalf." " I understand," said the 
queen, " that you are appointed to go to 
Dumfries, for the election of a superintend- 



ent to be established in these countries." 
" Yes," said he, " those quarters have great 
need ; and some of the gentlemen so re- 
quire." " But 1 hear," said she, " that the 
bishop of Caithness would be superin- 
tendent." "He is one," said the other, 
" madam, that is put in election." " If ye 
knew him," said she, " as well as I do, ye 
would never promote him to that office, 
nor yet to any other within your kirk." 
" What he has been," said he, " madam, I 
neither know, nor yet will 1 inquire ; for in 
time of darkness what could we do but 
grope and go wrong, even as darkness 
carried us ? But if he fear not God now, 
he deceives many more than me ; and yet," 
said he, " madam, I am assured God will 
not suffer his kirk to be so far deceived, as 
that an unworthy man shall be elected 
where free election is, and the Spirit of God 
is earnestly called upon to decide betwixt 
the two." " Well," says she, " do as ye 
will ; but that man is a dangerous man." 
And thereuntil was not the queen deceived ; 
for he had corrupted the most part of the 
gentlemen, not only to nominate him, but 
also to elect him ; which perceived by the 
said John, commissioner, delayed the elec- 
tion, and left with the master of Maxwell, 
Mr Robert Pont — who was put in election 
with the foresaid bishop — to the end that 
his doctrine and conversation might be 
the better tried of those that had not known 
him before. And so was the bishop frus- 
trated of his purpose for that present : and 
yet was he at that time the man that was 
most familiar with the said John, in his 
house, and at table. But now to the for- 
mer conference. When the queen had long 
talked with John Knox, and he being often 
willing to take his leave, she said, " I have 
one of the greatest matters that have touch- 
ed me since I came into this realm, to open 
unto you, and I must have your help in it." 
And she began to make a long discourse of 
her sister, the lady Argyle, how that she 
was not so circumspect in all things as that 
she wished her to be ; " and yet," said she, 
" my lord, her husband, whom I love, en- 
treats her not in many things so honestly 
and so godly, as I think ye yourself would 



286 



HISTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. d. 166S 



require." " Madam," said he, " I have been 
troubled with that matter before, and once 
I put such an end to it — and that was be- 
fore your grace's arrival — that both she and 
her friends seemed fully to stand content. 
And she herself promised before her 
friends, that she should never complain to 
creature, till that I should first understand 
the controversy by her own mouth, or else 
by an assured messenger. I now have 
heard nothing of her part ; and, therefore, 
I think there is nothing but concord." 
w Well," said the queen, " it is worse than 
ye believe. But do this much for my sake, 
as once again to put them at unity, and if 
she behave not herself so as she ought to 
do, she shall find no favours of me : but, in 
any ways," said she, " let not my lord 
know that I have requested you in this 
matter ; for I would be very sorry to of- 
fend him in that or in any other thing. 
And now," said she, "as touching our rea- 
soning yesternight, I promise to do as ye 
required ; I shall cause summon all of- 
fenders, and ye shall know that I shall 
minister justice." " I am assured then," 
6aid he, " that ye shall please God, and 
enjoy rest and tranquillity within your 
realm; which to your majesty is more 
profitable than all the pope's power can 
be." And thus they departed. This con- 
ference we have inserted, to let the world 
see how deeply Mary, queen of Scotland, 
can dissemble ; and how that she could 
cause men to think that she bore no indig- 
nation, for any controversy in religion, 
while that yet in her heart was nothing but 
venom and destruction, as short after did 
appear. 

John Knox departed, and prepared him- 
self for his journey, appointed to Dumfries. 
And from Glasgow, according to the queen's 
commandment, he wrote this letter to the 
earl of Argyle. The tenor whereof fol- 
lows : 

THE LORD COMETH AND SHALL NOT TARRY. 

" After commendation of my services 
unto your lordship, if I had known of your 
lordship's sudden departing, the last time 
it chanced me to see and speak to you, I 
had opened unto you some part of my 
grief : but supposing that your lordship 



should have remained still with the queen's 
grace, I delayed at that time to utter any 
part of that which now my conscience com- 
pelleth me to do. Your behaviour toward 
your wife is very offensive unto many 
godly. Her complaint is grievous, that ye 
altogether withdraw the use of your body 
from her. If so be, ye have great need to 
look well to your own estate ; for albeit that 
you within yourself felt no more repug- 
nance, than any flesh this day on earth, yet 
by promise, made before God, are ye debtor 
unto her, as reasonably ye shall be required 
of her. But if that ye burn on the one 
side — albeit ye do no worse — and she in 
your default on the other, you are not only 
mansworn before God, but also do what 
in you lieth, to kindle against yourself his 
wrath and heavy displeasure. These words 
are sharp, and God is witness, that in do- 
lour of heart I write them : but because 
they are true, and pronounced by God him- 
self, I dare not but admonish you, per- 
ceiving you, as it were, sleeping in sin. The 
proud stubbornness, whereof your lordship 
has often complained, will nothing excuse 
you before God. For if ye be not able to 
convict her of any crime, you ought to bear 
with other imperfections, as that ye would 
that she should bear with you, in the like. 
In the bowels of Christ Jesus, I exhort you, 
my lord, to have respect to your own sal- 
vation, and not to abuse the lenity and long 
suffering of God : for it is a fearful treasure 
that you heap upon your own head, while 
that he calleth you to repentance, and you 
obstinately continue in your own impiety ; 
for impiety it is, that you abstract your 
comfort and company from your lawful 
wife. I write nothing in defence of her 
misbehaviour toward your lordship in any 
sort. But I say, if you be not able to con- 
vict her of adultery committed since your 
last reconciliation, which was in my pre- 
sence, that you can never be excused be- 
fore God, of this fremmit [foreign or dis- 
tant] and strange entreatment of your wife. 
And if by you such impiety be committed, 
as is bruited, then, before God, and unto 
your own conscience, I say, that every mo 
ment of that filthy pleasure, shall turn to 
you in a year's displeasure ; yea, it shall be 



Boos IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



287 



the occasion and cause of everlasting damna- 
tion, unless speedily you repent. And re- 
pent you cannot, except that you desist 
from that impiety. Call to mind, my lord, 
' That the servant knowing the will of his 
Lord, and doing the contrary, shall be 
plagued with many plagues.' Sin, my 
lord, is sweet in drinking, but in digesting 
more bitter than the gall. The Eternal 
move your heart earnestly to consider, how 
fearful a thing it is ever to have God to be 
an enemy. In the end, I most heartily pray 
your lordship, not to be absent from Edin- 
burgh the 19th of this instant, for such 
causes, as I will not write. This much 
only I forewarn your lordship, that it will 
not be profitable for the common quietness 
of this realm, that the papists brag, and that 
justice be mocked that day. And thus I 
cease farther to trouble your lordship, 
whom God assist. — Your lordship's to 
command in godliness. 

Sic subscribitur, John Knox. 
In haste from Glasgow, > 
the 7th May, 1563." 3 

This bill was not well accepted of the 
said earl ; and yet did he utter no part of 
his displeasure in public, but contrarily 
showed himself most familiar with the said 
John. He kept the diet, and sat in judg- 
ment himself, where the bishop and the 
rest of the papists were accused, as after 
follows. 

The summonses were directed against the 
massmongers with expedition, and in the 
straitest form. The day was appointed, 
the 19th of May, a day only before the 
parliament. Of the pope's knights com- 
peared the bishop of St Andrews, the prior 
of Whithorn, the parson of Sanquhar, Wil- 
liam Hamilton of Camskeith, John Gordon 
of Barskiogh, with divers others. The pro- 
testants convened whole to crave for jus- 
tice. The queen asked counsel of the bi- 
shop of Ross, and of the old laird of Le- 
thington — for the younger was absent, and 
so the protestants had the fewer unfriends 
— who affirmed, " That she must see her 
laws kept, or else she would get no obe- 
dience." And so was preparation made for 
their accusation. The bishop and his band 



of the exempted sort made it nice to en- 
ter before the earl of Argyle, who sat in 
judgment ; but at last he was compelled to 
enter within the bar. A merry man — who 
now sleeps in the Lord — Robert Norwell, 
instead of the bishop's cross, bore before 
him a steel hammer ; whereat the bishop 
and his band were not a little offended, be- 
cause the bishop's privileges were not then 
current in Scotland — which day God grant 
our posterity may see of longer continuance 
than we possessed it. — The bishop and his 
fellows, after much ado, and long drift of 
time, came in the queen's will, and were 
committed to ward, some to one place, and 
some to another. The lady Erskine — a 
meet morsel for the devil's mouth — got 
the bishop for her part. All this was done 
of a most deep craft, to abuse the simpli- 
city of the protestants, that they should 
not press the queen with any other thing 
concerning matters of religion. 

At that parliament, which began within 
two days thereafter, she obtained of the 
protestants whatsoever she desired. For 
this was the reason of many, " We see 
what the queen has done, the like of this 
was never heard of within this realm ; 
we will bear with the queen, we doubt not 
but all shall be well." Others were of a 
contrary judgment, and forespake things, 
as after they came to pass, to wit, that no- 
thing was meant but deceit; and that the 
queen, how soon that ever the parliament 
was past, should set the papists at freedom : 
and therefore willed the nobility not to be 
abused. But because many had their pri- 
vate commodity to be handled at that par- 
liament, the common cause was the less re- 
garded. 

The earl of Huntly, whose corpse had 
lain unburied till that time, it was brought 
to the tolbooth : he was accused, his arms 
rent off, himself, the earl of Sutherland, 
and eleven barons and lairds, being Gordon 
to surname, were that day forfeited. The 
lady Huntly craftily protested, and asked 
the support of a man of law. In that par- 
liament were restored the laird of Grange 
in Fife, Mr Henry Balnavis, John Lesly, 
and Alexander Whitelaw. 



28b' 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a, d. 1563 



Such stinking pride of women as was 
seen at that parliament, was never seen 
before in Scotland. Three sundry days 
the queen rode to the tolbooth. The first 
day she made a painted oration ; and there 
might have been heard amongst her flat- 
terers, " Vox Diana ! The voice of a god- 
dess — for it could not be Dei — and not of 
a woman ! God save that sweet face ! Was 
there ever orator spake so properly and so 
sweetly !" &c. 

All thing's misliked the preachers ; they 
spake boldly against the targetting of their 
tails [superfluities of their dress], and against 
the rest of their vanity, which they af- 
firmed should provoke God's vengeance, 
not only against those foolish women, but 
against the whole realm ; and especially 
against those that maintained them in that 
odious abusing of things that might have 
been better bestowed. Articles were pre- 
sented for order to be taken for apparel, 
and for the reformation of other enormi- 
ties, but all was scripped at [derided]. 

The earldom of Murray needed confir- 
mation, and many things were to be rati- 
fied that concerned the help of friends and 
servants ; and therefore they might not 
urge the queen, for if they so did, she 
would hold no parliament ; and what then 
should become of them that had melled 
[been partakers] with the slaughter of the 
earl of Huntly. Let that parliament pass 
over, and when the queen shall ask any 
thing of the nobility, as she must do before 



* One cannot but admire the firm intrepi- 
dity of the " stern reformer," in thus breaking 
connexion with his early and powerful friend, 
when he thought him too compliant with the 
sinful measures of the court. It is evident, from 
the tone of his letter to Murray, that he felt the 
sacrifice he was making; but his conscience re- 
quired it: and supposing his conscience to have 
been unreasonably scrupulous, his integrity must 
be admitted. At the same time, it must be confess- 
ed, that Murray had a most difficult and delicate 
part to act. The queen was his sister and sove- 
reign, and he did not see it to be his duty to op- 
pose her errors otherwise than by respectful ad- 
vice and remonstrance. He declared from the 
first, when he went to bring her home from 
Fiance, that he would not prevent her from 
having mass in private; indeed, how could he, 
without personal violence to herself and her ser- 
vants? Knox regarded the saying of a mass in 
Scotland, the same as setting up an idol in the 



her marriage ; then should the religion be 
the first thing that shall be established. It 
was answered, That the poets and painters 
erred not altogether, who feigned and paint- 
ed Occasion with a bald hind-head : for the 
first, when it is offered, being lost, is hard 
to be recovered again. The matter fell so 
hot betwixt the earl of Murray and some 
others of the court, and John Knox, that 
familiarly after that time they spake not 
together more than a year and a half ; for 
the said John, by his letter, gave a dis- 
charge to the said earl of all farther intro- 
mission or care with his affairs. He made 
unto him a discourse of their first ac- 
quaintance, in what estate he was when 
that first they spake together in London, 
how God had promoted him, and that 
above man's judgment; and in the end. 
made this conclusion: "But seeing that I 
perceive myself frustrated of my expecta- 
tion, which was, that ye should ever have 
preferred God to your own affection, and 
the advancement of his truth to your sin- 
gular commodity, I commit you to your 
own wit, and to the conducting of those who 
better can please you. * I praise my God, 
I leave you this day victor of your enemies, 
promoted to great honour, and in credit 
and authority with your sovereign. If so 
ye long continue, none within the realm 
shall be more glad than I shall be : but if 
that after this ye shall decay — as I fear ye 
shall—then call to mind by what means 
God exalted you; which was neither by 



land of Israel, and thought it ought to be put down 
by the same means as Israel was commanded to 
use in extirpating idolatry. It is probable his 
arguments failed to convince the judgment of 
the earl, as I believe they would fail to convince 
most men of the present age ; and then, not- 
withstanding his affection for Knox, he could 
not honourably obey him contrary to his own 
convictions. The same remarks will apply to 
the general licentiousness of the court. It is 
not alleged that Murray gave any countenance 
to this. We know not what remonstrances he 
made against it ; but he did not actively labour 
to put it down as Knox would have had him; 
and perhaps he found it impossible, without per- 
sonal violence, and rebellion against his sove- 
reign. This is one of those cases in which good 
men, from their different views of things, find 
themselves obliged to separate, to prevent pain- 
ful collition. — Ed. 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



289 



bearing with impiety; neither yet by main- 
taining of pestilent papists." 

This bill and discharge was so pleasing 
to the flatterers of the said earl, that they 
triumphed of it, and were glad to have got 
their occasion ; for some envied that so 
great familiarity was betwixt the said earl 
and John Knox ; and therefore from the 
time they got once that occasion to sepa- 
rate them, they ceased not to cast oil in 
the burning flame, which ceased not to 
burn, till that God by water of affliction 
began to slacken it, as we shall after hear. 
But lest that they should altogether have 
been seen to have forsaken God — as in 
very deed both God and his word was far 
from the hearts of the most part of the cour- 
tiers in that age, a few excepted — they be- 
gan a new shift, to wit, to speak of the pu- 
nishment of adultery, of witchcraft, and to 
seek the restitution of the glebes and manses 
to the ministers of the kirk, and the repa- 
ration of the kirks; and thereby they 
thought to have pleased the godly that 
were highly offended at their slackness. 

The act of oblivion passed, because some 
of the lords had interest, but the acts 
against adultery, and for the manses and 
glebes, were so modified, that no law, and 
such a law might stand in eodem prcedica- 
mento ; to speak plain, no law and such acts 
were both alike. The acts are in print ; let 
wise men read, and then accuse us, if with- 
out cause we complain. 

In the progress of this corruption, and 
before the parliament was dissolved, John 
Knox, in his sermon before the most part 
of the nobility, began to enter into a deep 
discourse of God's mercies which that 
realm had felt, and of that ingratitude 
which he espied almost in the whole mul- 
titude, which God had marvellously deli- 
vered from the bondage and tyranny both 
of body and soul. " And now, my lords," 
said he, " I praise my God, through Jesus 
Christ, that in your own presence I may 
pour forth the sorrows of my heart ; yea, 
yourselves shall be witnesses if that I shall 
make any lie in things that are bypast from 
the beginning of God's mighty working 
within this realm. I have been with you 
in your most desperate temptations. Ask 



your own consciences, and let them answer 
you before God, if that I— not I, but God's 
Spirit by me — in your greatest extremity 
willed you not ever to depend upon your 
God, and in his name promised unto you 
victory and preservation from your enemies, 
so that ye would only depend upon his pro- 
tection, and prefer his glory to your own 
lives and worldly commodity. In your 
most extreme dangers I have been with 
you ; St Johnstone, Cupar muir, and the 
Crags of Edinburgh, are yet recent in my 
heart ; yea, that dark and dolorous night 
wherein all ye, my lords, with shame and 
fear left this town, is yet in my mind, and 
God forbid that ever I forget it. What 
was, I say, my exhortation to you, and 
what is fallen in vain of all that ever God 
promised unto you by my mouth, ye your* 
selves yet live to testify. There is not one 
of you against whom was death and de- 
struction threatened, perished in that dan- 
ger ; and how many of your enemies has 
God plagued before your eyes. Shall this 
be the thankfulness that ye shall render 
unto your God, to betray his cause, when 
ye have it in your own hands to establish 
it as you please ? The queen, say ye, will 
not agree with us : ask ye of her that 
which by God's word ye may justly re- 
quire, and if she will not agree with you in 
God, ye are not bound to agree with her in 
the devil ; let her plainly understand so far 
of your minds, and steal not from your for- 
mer stoutness in God, and he shall prosper 
you in your enterprises. But I can see no- 
thing but such a recoiling from Christ 
Jesus, as the man that first and most spee- 
dily flieth from Christ's ensigncy, holdeth 
himself most happy. Yea, I hear some say 
[the dean of Restalrig], that we have no- 
thing of our religion established neither by 
law or parliament: albeit the malicious 
words of such can neither hurt the truth 
of God, nor yet us that thereupon depend ; 
yet the speaker for his treason against God 
committed, and against this poor common- 
wealth, deserves the gallows ; for our re- 
ligion being commanded, and so established 
by God, is accepted within this realm in 
public parliament. And if they will say 
that was no parliament, we must, and will 
2 o 



290 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 15(33 



say, and also prove, that that parliament 
was as lawful as ever any that passed be- 
fore it within this realm. Yea, if the king 
then living was king, and the queen now 
in this realm be lawful queen, that parlia- 
ment cannot be denied. 

" And now, my lords, to put end to all, 
I hear of the queen's marriage ; dukes, 
brethren to emperors, and kings strive all 
for the best gain ; but this, my lords, will, 
I say — note the day, and bear witness after, 
— whensoever the nobility of Scotland pro- 
fessing the Lord Jesus, consent that an in- 
fidel — and all papists are infidels — shall be 
head to our sovereign, ye do, so far as in 
you lieth, to banish Christ Jesus from this 
realm : ye bring God's vengeance upon the 
country, a plague upon yourselves, and per- 
chance ye shall do small comfort to your 
sovereign." 

These words, and this manner [of] speak- 
ing was judged intolerable, papists and pro- 
testants were both offended ; yea, his most 
familiars disdained him for that speaking. 
Placeboes and flatterers posted to the court 
to give advertisement that Knox had spo- 
ken against the queen's marriage. The 
provost of Glencluden, Douglas of Drum- 
Ian rig by surname, was the man that gave 
the charge that the said John should pre- 
sent himself before the queen, which he 
did soon after dinner. The lord Ochiltree, 
and divers of [the] faithful, bore him com- 
pany to the abbey, but none passed in to 
the queen with him in the cabinet but 
John Erskine of Dun, then superintendent 
of Angus and Mearns. The queen, in a 
vehement fume, began to cry out, that 
never prince was handled as she was. " 1 
have," said she, " borne with you in all 
your rigorous manner of speaking, both 
against myself and against my uncles ; yea, 
I have sought your favour by all possible 
means ; I offered unto you presence and 
audience whensoever it pleased you to ad- 
monish me, and yet I cannot be quit of 
you. I vow to God, I shall be once reveng- 
ed." And with these words scarcely could 
Marnock, her secret chamber-boy, get nap- 
kins to hold her eyes dry for the tears. 
And the howling, besides womanly weep- 
ing, stayed her speech. The said John did 



patiently abide all the first fume, and at op- 
portunity answered : — 

" True it is, madam, your grace and I 
have been at divers controversies, into the 
which I never perceived your grace to be 
offended at me. But when it shall please 
God to deliver you from that bondage of 
darkness and error in the which ye have 
been nourished, for the lack of true doc- 
trine, your majesty will find the liberty of 
my tongue nothing offensive. Without 
the preaching place, madam, I think few 
have occasion to be offended at me ; and 
there, madam, I am not master of myself, 
but must obey him who commands me to 
speak plain, and to flatter no flesh upon the 
face of the earth." 

" But what have you to do," said she, 
" with my marriage ?" " If it please your 
majesty," said he, " patiently to hear me, I 
shall show the truth in plain words. I 
grant your grace offered unto me more 
than ever I required ; but my answer was 
then as it is now, that God hath not sent 
me to await upon the courts of princes, or 
upon the chambers of ladies ; but I am 
sent to preach the evangel of Jesus Christ 
to such as please to hear it; and it hath 
two parts, Repentance and Faith. Now, 
madam, in preaching repentance, of neces- 
sity it is that the sins of men be so noted, that 
they may know w r herein they offend : but 
so it is, that the most part of your nobility 
are so addicted to your affections, that nei- 
ther God's word, nor yet their common- 
wealth, are rightly regarded ; and therefore 
it becomes me so to speak, that they may 
know their duty." " What have you to I 
do," said she, " with my marriage ? Or 
what are you in this commonwealth ?" " A 
subject born within the same," said he, 
" madam. And albeit 1 am neither earl, 
lord, nor baron within it, yet has God 
made me — how abject that ever I am in 
your eyes — a profitable member within the 
same ; yea, madam, to me it appertains no 
less to forewarn of such things as may hurt 
it, if I foresee them, than it doth to any 
of the nobility ; for both my vocation and 
conscience crave plainness of me, and 
therefore, madam, to yourself 1 say that 
which I spake in public place. Whenso- 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



291 



ever that the nobility of this realm shall 
consent that ye be subject to an unfaithful 
[infidel] husband, they do as much as in 
them lieth to renounce Christ, to banish 
his truth from them, to betray the freedom 
of this realm, and perchance shall in the 
end do small comfort to yourself." At 
these words, howling- was heard, and tears 
might have been seen in greater abundance 
than the matter required. John Erskine 
of Dun, a man of meek and gentle spirit, 
stood beside, and entreated what he could 
to mitigate her anger, and gave unto her 
many pleasing words of her beauty, of her 
excellency, and. how that all the princes 
of Europe would be glad to seek her fa- 
vour. But all that was to cast oil in the 
flaming' fire. The said John stood still 
without any alteration of countenance for 
a long season, until that the queen gave 
place to such inordinate passion ; and in 
the end, he said, " Madam, in God's pre- 
sence I speak, I never delighted in the 
weeping of any of God's creatures; yea, 
I can scarcely abide the tears of my own 
boys, whom my own hand corrects, much 
less can I rejoice in your majesty's weep- 
ing 1 ; but seeing that I have offered you no 
just occasion to be offended, but have 
spoken the truth, as my vocation craves of 
me, I must sustain — albeit unwillingly — 
your majesty's tears, rather than I dare 
hurt my conscience, or betray my com- 
monwealth through my silence," Herewith 
was the queen more offended, and com- 
manded the said John to pass forth of the 
cabinet, and to abide farther of her pleasure 
in the chamber. The laird of Dun tarried, 
and lord John of Coldingham came into 
the cabinet ; and so they both remained 
with her near the space of an hour. The 
said John stood in the chamber as one 
whom men had never seen — so were all 
afraid — except that the lord Ochiltree bore 
him company ; and therefore began he to 
forge talking [devise conversation] with the j 
ladies who were there sitting in all their 
gorgeous apparel, which espied, he merrily 
said, " O fair ladies, how pleasing was this 
life of yours, if it should ever abide, and 
then in the end that we might pass to hea- 
ven with all this gay gear *? But fie upon [ 



that knave Death, that will come whether 
we will or not ! and when he has laid on his 
arrest, the foul worms will be busy with 
this flesh, be it never so fair and so tender; 
and the silly soul, I fear, shall be so feeble, 
that it can neither carry with it gold, gar- 
nishing, targetting [border tasselling], pearl, 
nor precious stones." And by such means 
procured he company of women, and so 
passed the time till that the laird of Dun 
willed him to depart to his house with new 
advertisement. The queen would have had 
the sensement of the lords of articles, if 
that such manner of speaking deserved not 
punishment ; but she was counselled to de- 
sist. And so that storm quieted in appear- 
ance, but never in the heart. 

Short after the parliament, Lethington 
returned from his negotiation in England 
and France. God, in the February before, 
had stricken that bloody tyrant the duke 
of Guise, which somewhat broke the fard 
[violence] of our queen for a season. But 
short after the returning of Lethington, 
pride and malice began to show themselves 
again. She set at liberty the bishop of St 
Andrews, and the rest of the papists that 
before were put in prison for violating of 
the laws. Lethington at his return showed 
himself not a little offended, that any bruit 
should have risen of the queen's marriage 
with the king of Spain ; for he took upon 
him that such thing never entered into her 
heart : but how true that was, we shall 
after hear. The end of all his acquittance 
and complaint, was to discredit John Knox, 
who had affirmed, that such a marriage 
was both proponed, and upon the part of 
our queen, by the cardinal accepted. Le- 
thington, in his absence, had run into a 
very evil bruit among the nobility for too 
much serving the queen's affections against 
the commonwealth ; and therefore had he, 
as one that iacketh no worldly wisdom, 
made provision both in England and Scot- 
land : for in England he travailed for the 
freedom of the earl Bothwell, and by that 
means obtained promise of his favour. He 
had there also taken order for the home- 
coming of the earl of Lennox, as we shall 
after hear. In Scotland he joined with the 
earl of Athol, him he promoted and set for- 



292 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 15G3 



ward in court, and so began the earl of 
Murray to be defaced ; and yet to the said 
earl, Lethington at all times showed a fair 
countenance. 

The rest of that summer the queen spent 
in her progress through the west country, 
where in all towns and gentlemen's places 
she had her mass ; which coming to the 
ears of John Knox, he began that form of 
prayer which ordinarily he saith after 
thanksgiving at his table. " 1. Deliver us, 
O Lord, from the bondage of idolatry. 2. 
Preserve and keep us from the tyranny of 
strangers. 3. Continue us in quietness and 
concord amongst ourselves, if thy good 
pleasure be, O Lord, for a season," &c. 
Which that divers of the familiars of the 
said John asked of him why he prayed for 
quietness to continue for a season, and not 
rather absolutely that we should continue 
in quietness ? His answer was, " That he 
durst not pray but in faith ; and faith in 
God's word assured him, that constant 
quietness could not continue in that realm 
where idolatry had been suppressed, and 
then was permitted to be erected again." 

From the west country, the queen pass- 
ed into Argyle to the hunting, and after 
returned to Stirling. The earl of Murray, 
the lord Robert of Holyroodhouse, and 
lord John of Coldingham, passed to the 
northland, where justice courts were held ; 
thieves and murders were punished. Two 
witches were burned ; the eldest was so 
blinded with the devil, that she affirmed, 
" That no judge had power over her." 

That same time, lord John of Colding- 
ham departed this life in Inverness. It was 
affirmed, that he commanded such as were 
beside him to say unto the queen, " That 
unless she left her idolatry, that God would 
not fail to plague her. He asked God mer- 
cy, that he had so far borne with her in 
impiety, and had maintained her in the 
same, and that no one thing did he more 
regret, than that he flattered, fostered, and 
maintained her in her wickedness against 
God and his servants." And in very deed 
great cause had he to have lamented his 
wickedness ; for besides all his other infir- 
mities, he in the end, for the queen's plea- 
sure, became enemy to virtue, and to all 



virtuous men, and a patron to impiety to 
the uttermost of his power : yea, his venom 
was so kindled against God and his word, 
that in his rage he bursted forth [into] these 
words, " Ere I see the queen's majesty so 
troubled with the railing of these knaves, I 
shall leave [have] the best of them sticked in 
the pulpit." What farther villany came forth 
of both their stinking throats and mouths, 
modesty will not suffer us to write ; where- 
of, if he had grace unfeignedly to repent, it 
is no small document of God's mercies. 
But however God wrought with him, the 
queen regarded his words as wind, or else 
thought them to have been forged by others, 
and not to have proceeded from himself; 
and affirmed plainly, that they were devis- 
ed by the laird of Pitarrow and Mr John 
Wood, whom she both hated, because they 
flattered her net in her dancing and other 
things. One thing in plain words she spake, 
" That God took always from her the per- 
sons in whom she had greatest pleasure ; 
and that she repented." But of farther 
wickedness no mention. 

While the queen lay at Stirling, with her 
idolatry in her chapel, in the palace of 
Holyrood-house were left certain donti- 
bours, and others of the French menzie, 
who raised up their mass, more publicly 
than they had done at any time before ; 
for upon those same Sundays that the kirk 
of Edinburgh had the ministration of the 
Lord's table, the papists in great numbers 
resorted to the abbey, to their abomination. 
Which understood, divers of the brethren, 
being sore offended, consulted how to re- 
dress that enormity. And so were ap- 
pointed certain of the most zealous, and 
most upright in the religion, to await upon 
the abbey, that they might note such per- 
sons as resorted to the mass, and perceiving 
a great number to enter into the chapel, 
some of the brethren burst in also, whereat 
the priest and the French dames being 
afraid, made the shout to be sent to the 
town. And madam Baylie, mistress to the 
queen's dontibours — for maids that court 
could not then well bear — posted one with 
all diligence to the comptroller, the laird of 
Pitarrow, who then was in St Gile's kirk 
at the sermon; and cried for his assistance, 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



293 



" To save her life, and to save the queen's 
palace." Who, with greater haste than 
need required, obeyed her desire, and took 
with him the provost, the bailies, and a 
great part of the faithful. But when they 
came where the fear was bruited to have 
been, they found all things quiet, except 
the tumult they brought with themselves, 
and peaceable men looking to the papists, 
and forbidding them to transgress the laws. 
True it is, a zealous brother, named Patrick 
Cranston, passed into the chapel, and find- 
ing the altar covered, and the priest ready 
to go to that abomination, said, " The 
queen's majesty is not here, how darest thou 
then be so malapart, as openly to do against 
the laws '?" No farther was done or said. 
And yet the bruit hereof was posted to the 
queen, with such information as the papists 
could give; which found such credit, as 
their hearts could have wished for; which 
was so heinous a crime in her eyes, that 
satisfaction for that sin was there none 
without blood : and, therefore, without de- 
lay were summoned Andrew Armstrong 
and Patrick Cranston, to rind surety to un- 
derlie the law, for forethought felony, 
hamesucken, violent invasion of the queen's 
palace, and for spoliation of the same. 
These letters divulged, and the extremity 
feared, brethren, the few that were within 
the town, consulted upon the next remedy ; 
and in the end concluded, that John Knox, 
to whom the charge was given to make 
advertisements, whensoever dangers should 
appear, should write to the brethren in all 
quarters, giving information as the matter 
stood, and requiring their assistance, which 
he did, in tenor as here follows : 

THE SUPERSCRIPTION. 

" Wheresoever two or three are gather- 
ed together in my name, there am I in 
the midst of them. 
" It is not unknown unto you, dear 
brethren, what comfort and tranquillity 
God gave unto us, in times most dangerous, 
by our christian assemblies, and godly con- 
ferences, as often as any danger appeared to 
any member or members of our body. And 
that how that, since we have neglected, or 
at least not frequented our conventions and 
assemblies, the adversaries of Christ Jesus 



his holy evangel, have enterprised, and 
boldened themselves publicly and secretly, 
to do many things odious in God's presence, 
and most hurtful to the liberty of the true 
religion, now of God's great favour granted 
unto us. The holy sacraments are abused 
by profane papists ; masses have been, and 
yet are, openly said and maintained : the 
blood of some of our dearest ministers have 
been shed, without fear of punishment, or 
correction craved by us. And now, last, 
are two of our dear brethren, Patrick 
Cranston and Andrew Armstrong, sum- 
moned to underlie the law, in the tolbooth 
of Edinburgh, the 24th of this instant 
October ; " For forethought felony, pre- 
tended murder, and for invading of the 
queen's majesty's palace of Holy rood-house, 
with unlawful convocation," &c. This ter- 
rible summons is directed against our breth- 
ren, because that they with two or three 
more, passed to the abbey upon Sunday, the 
loth of August, to behold and note what per- 
sons repaired to the mass. And that because 
upon the Sunday before, the queen's grace 
being absent, there resorted to that idol a 
rascal multitude, having openly the least 
[perhaps most] devilish ceremony — yea, even 
the conjuring of their accursed water — that 
ever they had in the time of greatest blind- 
ness. Because, I say, our said brethren passed, 
and that in most quiet manner, to note such 
abusers, these fearful summonses are directed 
against them, to make no doubt a prepara- 
tion upon a few, that a door may be opened 
to execute cruelty upon a greater multi- 
tude. And if so it come to pass, God, no 
doubt, has justly recompensed our former 
negligence and ingratitude, toward him and 
his benefits received in our own bosoms. 
God gave to us a most notable victory, of 
his and our enemies : he broke their 
strength, confounded their counsels, he set 
us at freedom, and purged this realm, for 
the most part, of open idolatry ; to the end, 
that we, ever mindful of so wonderful a 
deliverance, should have kept this realm 
clean from such vile filthiness, and damn- 
able idolatry. But we, alas ! preferring the 
pleasure of flesh and blood, to the pleasure 
and commandment of our God, have suffer- 
ed that idol, the mass, publicly to be erect- 



294 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. ». 1563 



ed again : and, therefore, justly suffers he 
us to fall in that danger that to look to an 
idolater, going to his idolatry, shall be re- 
puted a crime, little inferior to treason. 
God grant that we fall not further. And 
now I, whom God has of his mercy made 
one amongst many to travail in setting for- 
ward of his true religion within this realm, 
seeing the same in danger of ruin, cannot 
but of conscience crave of you, my bre- 
thren, of all estates, that have professed the 
truth, your presence, comfort, and assist- 
ance, at the said day in the town of Edin- 
burgh, even as that ye tender the advance- 
ment of God's glory, the safety of your bre- 
thren, and your own assurance, together 
with the preservation of the kirk in these 
appearing dangers. It may be, perchance, 
that persuasions be made on the contrary, 
and that you may be informed, that either 
your assembly is not necessary, or else that 
it will offend the upper powers ; but my 
good hope is, that neither flattery nor fear 
shall make you so far decline from Christ 
Jesus, as that against your public promise, 
and solemn bond, ye will leave your bre- 
thren in so just a cause ; and albeit there 
were no great danger, yet cannot our as- 
sembly be unprofitable ; for many things re- 
quire consultation, which cannot be had, 
unless the wisest and godliest convene. 
And thus, doubting nothing of the assist- 
ance of our God, if that we uniformly seek 
his glory, I cease farther to trouble you, 
committing you heartily to the protection 
of the Eternal. 

John Knox. 

From Edinburgh, the 8th } 
of October, 1563." 3 

The brethren, advertised by this bill, pre- 
pared themselves, so many as were thought 
expedient for every town and province, to 
keep the day appointed ; but by the means 
of false brethren, the letter came to the 
hands of the queen, and the manner was 
this. It was read in the town of Ayr, 
where was present Robert Cunningham, 
styled minister of Failford, who then was 
held an earnest professor of the evangel, 
who — by what means we know not — got 
the said letter, and sent it with his token 
to Mr Henry Sinclair, then president of the 



seat and college of justice, and styled 
bishop of Ross, a perfect hypocrite, and a 
conjured enemy to Christ Jesus, whom God 
after struck according to his deservings. 
The said Mr Henry being enemy to all that 
unfeignedly profess the Lord Jesus, but 
chiefly to John Knox, for the liberty of his 
tongue ; for he had affirmed, as ever still 
he does affirm, that a bishop that receives 
profit, and feeds not the flock, even by his 
own labours, is both a thief and a mur- 
derer : the said Mr Henry, we say, think- 
ing himself happy, that had found so good 
occasion to trouble him, whose life he 
hated, posted the said letter with his coun- 
sel to the queen, who then lay in Stirling. 
The letter being read, it was concluded by 
the council of the cabinet, that is, by the 
most secret secret-council, that it imported 
treason. Whereof the queen was not a 
little rejoiced ; for she thought once to be 
revenged of that her great enemy. It was 
concluded that the nobility should be writ- 
ten for, that the condemnation should have 
the greater authority. The day was ap- 
pointed about the middle of December, 
which was kept of the whole council, and 
of divers others, such as the master of Max- 
well, the old laird of Lethington, and the 
said president. 

In the meantime the earl of Murray re- 
turned from the north, to whom the secre- 
tary Lethington opened the matter as best 
pleased him. The master of Maxwell, after 
made lord Harris, gave unto the said John 
as it had been a discharge of the familiarity 
— which before was great betwixt them — 
unless that he would satisfy the queen at 
her own sight. The answer of John Knox 
was, " That he knew no offence done by 
him to the queen's majesty, and therefore 
he wist not what satisfaction to make." 
" No offence !" said he ; " have you not writ- 
ten letters, desiring the brethren from all 
parts to convene to Andrew Armstrong-, 
and Patrick Cranston's day ?" " That I 
grant," said the other ; " but therein I ac- 
knowledge no offence done by me." " No 
offence," said he, " to convocate the queen's 
lieges ?" " Not for so just a cause," said 
the other ; " for greater things were reputed 
no offence within these two years." " The 



Book IV. ] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



295 



time," said he, "is now other; for then our 
sovereign was absent, and now she is pre- 
sent." " It is neither the absence nor the 
presence of the queen," said he, " that rules 
my conscience, but God plainly speaking in 
his word ; what was lawful to me the last 
year, is yet lawful, because my God is un- 
changeable." 

" Well," said he, " master, I have given 
you my counsel, do as you list, but I think 
you shaH repent it, if you bow not unto the 
oueen." 

" I understand not," said the master, 
[Knox] what you mean ; I never made myself 
an adverse party unto the queen's majesty, 
except in the head of religion, and there- 
until I think you will not desire me to 
bow." 

" Well," said he, " you are wise enough ; 
but you will not find that men will bear 
with you in times to come, as they have 
done in times bypast." 

" If God stand my friend," said the other, 
" as I am assured he of his mercy will, so 
long as I depend upon his promise, and pre- 
fer his glory to my life and worldly profit, 
1 little regard how men behave themselves 
towards me, neither yet know I whereuntil 
any man has been with me in times past, un- 
less it be, that of my mouth they have heard 
the word of God, which in times to come, 
if they refuse, my heart will be perfect, and 
for a season will lament ; but the incom- 
modity will be their own." And after these 
words — whereunto the laird of Lochinvar 
w r as witness — they departed ; but unto this 
day, the 17th December, 1571, they never 
met in such familiarity as they had before, 
&c. 

The bruit of the accusation of John Knox 
being divulged, Mr John Spence of Condie, 
advocate, a man of gentle nature, and one 
that professed the doctrine of the evangel, 
came, as it were, in secret to John Knox, to 
inquire the cause of that great bruit; to 
-whom the said John was plain in all things, 
and showed unto him the double of the let- 
ter; which heard and considered, he said, 
" I thank my God, I came to you with a 
fearful and sorrowful heart, fearing that you 
had done such a crime as laws might have 
punished, which would have been no small 



I trouble to the heart of all such as have re- 
■ ceived the word of life which you have 
preached ; but I depart greatly rejoiced, as 
well because I perceive your own comfort, 
| even in the midst of your troubles, as that 
1 clearly understand, that you have com- 
mitted no such crime as you are burdened 
with; you will be accused," said he ; " but 
God will assist you.'' And so he departed. 

The earl of Murray and the secretary 
sent for the said John to the clerk of regis- 
j ter's house, and began to lament that he 
I had so highly offended the queen's majesty, 
the which they feared should come to a 
'■ great inconvenience to himself, if he were 
j not wisely foreseen : they showed what 
\ pains and travail they had taken to mitigate 
her anger, but they could find nothing but 
J extremity, unless that he himself would 
confess his offence, and put himself in her 
grace's will. To which heads the said 
John answered as follows : 

" I pray my God, through Christ Jesus," 
said he, " I have learned not to cry conju- 
ration and treason at every thing that the 
godless multitude does condemn, neither 
yet to fear the things that they fear. I have 
the testimony of a good conscience, that I 
have given no occasion to the queen's ma- 
jesty to be offended with me, for i have 
done nothing but my duty ; and so whatso- 
ever shall thereof ensue, my good hope is, 
that my God will give me patience to bear 
it : but to confess an offence where my con 
science witnesseth there is none, far be it 
from me." 

" How can it be defended ?" said Lething 
ton ; " have ye not made convocation of 
the queen's lieges ?" " If I have not," said 
he, " a just defence for my fact, let me smart 
for it." " Let us hear," said they, " your 
defences ; for we would be glad that you 
might be found innocent." " No," said the 
other, " for I am informed, that by divers, 
and even by you, my lord secretary, that I 
am already condemned, and my cause pre- 
judged : therefore, I might be reputed a 
fool, if I would make you privy to my de- 
fences." At these words they seemed both 
offended, and so the secretary departed; but 
the said earl remained still, and would have 
entered into farther discourse of the estate 



296 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1563 



of the court with the said John, who an- 
swered, " My lord, 1 understand more than 
I would of the affairs of the court, and, 
therefore, it is not needful that your lord- 
ship trouble me with the recounting- there- 
of. If you stand in good cause I am con- 
tent; and if you do not, as I fear you do 
not already, or else you shall not do ere it be 
long-, blame not me. You have the coun- 
sellors whom you have chosen ; my weak 
judgment both they and you despised: I 
can do nothing- but behold the end, which, 
I pray God, be other than my troubled heart 
feareth." 

Within four days the said John was 
called before the queen and council, betwixt 
six and seven hours at nig-ht ; the season of 
the year was the middle of December. The 
bruit rising- in the town, that John Knox 
was sent for by the queen, the brethren of 
the town followed in such numbers, that the 
inner close was full, and all the stairs, even 
to the chamber door where the queen and 
council sat, who had been reasoning- among 
themselves before, but had not fully satis- 
fied the secretary's mind. And so was the 
queen retired to her cabinet, and the lords 
were talking- each one with another, as oc- 
casion served. But upon the entry of John 
Knox, they were commanded to take their 
places, and so they did, sitting as counsel- 
lors, one against another. The duke, ac- 
cording to his dignity, began the one side, 
upon the other side sat the earl of Argyle, 
and, consequently, followed the earl of Mur- 
ray, the earl of Glencairn, the earl Mar- 
shall, the lord Ruthven, the common offi- 
cers, Pitarrow then comptroller, the justice 
clerk, Mr John Spence of Condie, advocate, 
and divers others stood by. Removed from 
the table sat old Lethington, father to the 
secretary, Mr Henry Sinclair the bishop of 
Ross, and Mr James M'Gill, clerk of regi- 
ster. 

Things thus put in order, the queen came 
forth, and with no little worldly pomp was 
placed in the chair, having two faithful 
supports, the master of Maxwell upon the I 
one tor [arm], and secretary Lethington 
upon the other tor of the chair, whereupon 
they waited diligently, all the time of that 
accusation, sometimes the one occupying 



her ear, sometimes the other: her pomp 
lacked one principal point, to wit, woman- 
ly gravity ; for when she saw John Knox 
standing at the other end of the table bare- 
headed ; she first smiled, and after gave a 
gaulf [loud burst of] laughter; whereat 
when her placeboes gave their plaudit, af- 
firming with like countenance, " This is a 
good beginning," she said; "but wot ye 
whereat I laugh ? Yon man made me 
greet [weep], and grate [wept] never a tear 
himself ; I will see if I can cause him greet.'' 
At that word the secretary whispered her 
in the ear, and she him again, and with that 
gave him a letter; after the inspection 
thereof he directed his visage and speech 
to John Knox in this manner: "The 
queen's majesty is informed, that you have 
travailed to raise a tumult of her subjects 
against her, and for certification thereof, 
there is presented to her your own letter, 
subscribed in your name ; yet, because her 
grace will do nothing without a good ad- 
visement, she has convened you before this 
part of the nobility, that they may witness 
betwixt you and her." " Let him acknow- 
ledge," said she, " his own handwrite, and 
then shall we judge of the contents of the let- 
ter." And so was the letter presented from 
hand to hand, to John Knox, who, taking 
inspection of it, said, " I gladly acknowledge 
this to be my handwrite: and also I re- 
member, that I dited a letter in the month 
of October, giving signification to the bre- 
thren in divers quarters of such things as 
displeased me. And that good opinion 
have I of the fidelity of the scribes that 
willingly they would not adulterate my 
original, albeit I left divers blanks sub- 
scribed with them ; and so I acknowledge 
both the handwrite and the ditement." 
" You have done more," said Lethington, 
" than I would have done." " Charity," 
said the other, " is not suspicious." "Well, 
well," said the queen, " read your own let- 
ter, and then answer to such things as shall 
be demanded of you." " I shall do the best 
I I can," said the other; and so with a loud 
voice he began to read as before is ex- 
pressed. 

After that the letter was read to the end, 
it was presented again to Mr John Spence ; 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



297 



for the queen commanded him to accuse, as 
he after did, but very gently. After, we 
say, that the letter was read, the queen be- 
holding the whole table, said, " Heard ye 
ever, my lords, a more despiteful and trea- 
sonable letter ?" When that no man gave 
answer, Lethington addressed himself to 
John Knox, and said, " Master Knox, are 
you not sorry from your heart, and do you 
not repent that such a letter has passed 
your pen, and from you is come to the 
knowledge of others ?" John Knox an- 
swered, " My lord secretary, before I repent 
I must be taught of my offence." " Offence !" 
said Lethington ; " if there were no more 
but the convocation of the queen's lieges, 
the offence cannot be denied." " Remember 
yourself, my lord," said the other, " there 
is a difference betwixt a lawful convoca- 
tion and an unlawful. If I have been 
guilty in this, I offended often since I came 
last into Scotland : for what convocation of 
the brethren has ever been to this hour, unto 
the which my pen served not ? And before 
this no man laid it to my charge as a crime." 
" Then was then," said Lethington, " and 
now is now ; we have no need of such con- 
vocations as sometimes we have had." 
John Knox answered, " The time that has 
been is even now before my eyes ; for I 
see the poor flock in no less danger than it 
has been at any time before, except that the 
devil has gotten a visorne [mask] upon his 
face. Before he came in with his own face, 
discovered by open tyranny, seeking the de- 
struction of all that has refused idolatry ; 
and then, I think, ye will confess the bre- 
thren lawfully assembled themselves for de- 
fence of their lives. And now the devil 
comes, under the cloak of justice, to do that 
which God would not suffer him to do by 
strength." " What is this ?" said the queen ; 
" Methinks, ye trifle with him. Who gave 
him authority to make convocation of my 
lieges ? Is not that treason ?" " No, ma- 
dam," said the lord Ruth v en ; " for he 
makes convocation of the people to hear 
prayer and sermon almost daily, and what- 
ever your grace or others will think thereof, 
we think it no treason." " Hold your 
peace," said the queen, " and let him make 
answer for himself." " I began, madam," 



said John Knox, "to reason with the se- 
cretary — whom I take to be a better dia- 
lectician than your grace is — that all con- 
vocations are not unlawful ; and now my 
lord Ruthven has given the instance, which 
if your grace will deny, I shall address me 
for the proof." " I will say nothing," said 
the queen, " against your religion, nor 
against your convening to your sermons : 
but what authority have you to convocate 
my subjects when you will, without my 
commandment." " I have no pleasure," 
said John Knox, " to decline from the for- 
mer purpose ; and yet, madam, to satisfy 
your grace's two questions, I answer, that 
at my will I never convened four persons 
in Scotland, but at the order which the bre- 
thren have appointed. I have given divers 
advertisements, and great multitudes have 
assembled thereupon. And if your grace 
complain, that this has been done without 
your grace's commandment, I answer, so has 
all that God has blessed within this realm 
from the beginning of this action : and, 
therefore, madam, I must be convicted by 
a just law, that I have done against the 
duty of God's messenger in writing of this 
letter, before I can either be sorry, or yet 
repent for the doing of it, as my lord secre- 
tary would persuade me ; for what I have 
done, I have done at the commandment of 
the general kirk of this realm ; and, there- 
fore, I think, I have done no wrong." " You 
shall not escape so," said the queen. " Is it 
not treason, my lords, to accuse a prince of 
cruelty ? I think there are acts of parlia- 
ment against such whisperers." That was 
granted of many. " But whereuntil," said 
John Knox, "can I be accused?" " Read 
this part of your own bill," said the queen, 
which began, " These fearful summonses is 
directed against them — to wit, the brethren 
foresaid — to make, no doubt, a preparative 
on a few, that a door may be opened to 
execute cruelty upon a greater multitude." 
" Lo," said the queen, " what say you to 
that ?" While many doubted what the 
said John should answer, he said unto the 
queen, " Is it lawful for me, madam, to an- 
swer for myself? or shall I be condemned be- 
fore I be heard ?" " Say what you can," 
said she ; " for I think you have enough 
2 p 



298 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1563 



ado." " I will first then desire this of your 
grace, madam, and of this most honourable 
audience, whether if your grace knows not, 
that the obstinate papists are deadly ene- 
mies to all such as profess the evangel of 
Jesus Christ, and that they most earnestly 
desire the extermination of them, and of 
the true doctrine that is taught within this 
realm ?" The queen held her peace : but all 
the lords, with common voice, said, " God for- 
bid that either the lives of the faithful, or 
yet the staying of the doctrine, stood in the 
power of the papists : for just experience has 
taught us Avhat cruelty lies in their heart." 
" I must proceed then," said John Knox, 
" seeing that I perceive all will grant that 
it were a barbarous cruelty to destroy such 
a multitude as profess the evangel of Christ 
within this realm, which oftener than once 
or twice they have attempted to do by 
force, as things done of late days do testify, 
whereof they, by God and by his providence, 
being disappointed, have invented more 
crafty and dangerous practices, to wit, to 
make the prince party under colour of law ; 
and so what they could not do by open 
force, they shall perform by crafty deceit : 
for who thinks, my lords, that the insatia- 
ble cruelty of the papists — within this 
realm, I mean — shall end in the murdering 
of these two brethren now unjustly sum- 
moned, and more unjustly to be accused. 
I think no man of judgment can so esteem, 
but rather the direct contrary, that is, that 
by this few number they intend to prepare 
a way to their bloody enterprise against the 
whole ; and therefore, madam, cast up when 
you list the acts of your parliament. I have 
offended nothing against them, for I accuse 
not in my letter your grace, nor yet your 
nature of cruelty ; but I affirm yet again, 
that the pestilent papists, who have inflam- 
ed your grace without cause against these 
poor men at this present, are the sons of 
the devil ; and therefore must obey the de- 
sires of their father, who has been a liar 
and a manslayer from the beginning." " You 
forget yourself," said one ; " you are not 
now in the pulpit." " I am in the place," 
said the other, " where I am demanded of 
conscience to speak the truth ; and there- 
fore the truth I speak, impugn it whoso 



list. And hereunto I add, madam, that ho- 
nest, gentle, and meek natures by appear- 
ance, by wicked and corrupt counsellors, 
may be subverted and altered to the direct 
contrary. Example we have of Nero, 
whom in the beginning of his empire, we 
find having some natural shame ; but after 
his flatterers had encouraged him in all im- 
piety, alleging, that nothing was either un- 
honest or yet unlawful in his personage, 
who was emperor above others ; when he 
had drank of this cup, I say, to what enor- 
mities he fell the histories bear witness. 
And now, madam, to speak plainly, papists 
and conjured enemies of Jesus Christ, have 
your grace's ear patent at all times. I as- 
sure your grace they are dangerous coun- 
sellors, and that your mother found." As 
this was said, Lethington smirked [smiled], 
and spoke secretly to the queen in her ear ; 
what it was the table heard not. But imme- 
diately she addressed her visage and speech 
to John Knox, and said, " Well, you speak 
fair enough here before my lords, but the 
last time that I spoke with you secretly, you 
caused me weep many salt tears, and said 
to me stubbornly, you set not by my greet- 
ing." " Madam," said the other, " because 
now the second time your grace has bur- 
dened me with that crime, I must answer, 
lest, for my silence, I should be held guilty. 
If your grace be ripely remembered, the 
laird of Dun, yet living, can testify the 
truth, who was present at that time where- 
of your grace complains. Your grace ac- 
cused me that I had irreverently handled 
you in the pulpit ; that I denied. You 
! said, What ado had I to speak of your mar- 
riage ? What was I, that I should meddle 
with such matters ? I answered, As touch- 
ing nature, I was a worm of this earth, and 
yet a subject of this commonwealth ; but 
as touching the office whereunto it had 
pleased God to place me, I was a watch- 
j man, both over the realm, and over the 
i kirk of God gathered within the same ; by 
I reason whereof I was bound in conscience 
to blow the trumpet publicly, so oft as ever 
I saw any upfall or apparent danger, either 
of the one or the other. But so it was, that 
a certain bruit affirmed that traffic of mar- 
riage was betwixt your grace and the Spa- 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



299 



uish ally ; whereunto I said, that if your 
nobility and states did agree, unless both 
you and your husband should be so straitly 
bound, that neither of you might hurt this 
commonwealth, nor yet the poor kirk of 
God within the same, that in that case I 
would pronounce that the consenters were 
traitors to this commonwealth, and enemies 
to God and to his truth planted with [in] the 
same. At these words, I grant your grace 
stormed, and bursted forth into an unrea- 
sonable weeping. What mitigation the 
laird of Dun would have made, I suppose 
your grace has not forgotten. But while 
that nothing was able to stay your weep- 
ing, I was compelled to say, I take God to 
record, that I never took pleasure to see 
any creature weep, yea, not my children 
when my own hands had beaten them, much 
less can I rejoice to see your grace make 
such regret ; but seeing I have offered your 
grace no such occasion, I must rather suffer 
your grace to take your own pleasure, or 
that I dare conceal the truth, and so betray 
both the kirk of God and my common- 
wealth. These were the most extreme 
words that I spoke that day." After that 
the secretary had secretly conferred with 
the queen, he said, " Mr Knox, you may 
return to your house for this night." " I 
thank God and the queen's majesty," said 
the other. " And, madam, I pray God to 
purge your heart from papistry, and to pre- 
serve you from the counsel of flatterers ; 
for how pleasant that they appear to your 
ears and corrupt affections for the time, ex- 
perience has taught us in what perplexity 
they have brought famous princes." Le- 
thington and the master of Maxwell were 
that night the two stoops of her chair. 

John Knox being departed, the table of 
the lords, and others that were present, 
were demanded every man by his vote, If 
John Knox had not offended the queen's 
majesty? The lords voted uniformly they 
could find no offence. The queen was 
passed to her cabinet. The flatterers of the 
court, and Lethington principally, raged. 
The queen was brought again, and placed 
in her-chair, and they commanded to vote 
over again ; which thing highly offended 
the whole nobility, and they began to speak 



in open audience, " What ! shall the laird of 
Lethington have power to control us : or 
shall the presence of a woman cause us to 
offend God, and to condemn an innocent 
against our consciences for pleasure of any 
creature?" And so the whole nobility ab- 
solved John Knox again, and praised God 
for his modesty, and for his plain and sen- 
sible answers. Yet before the end, one 
thing is to be noted, to wit, that among so 
many placeboes, we mean the flatterers of 
the court, there was not one that plainly 
durst condemn the poor man that was ac- 
cused, the same God ruling their tongues 
that some time ruled the tongue of Balaam, 
when gladly he would have cursed God's 
people. This perceived, the queen began 
to upbraid Mr Henry Sinclair, then bishop 
of Ross, and said, hearing his vote to agree 
with the rest, " Trouble not the bairn, 1 
pray you, trouble him not ; for he is newly 
wakened out of his sleep. Why should 
not the old fool follow the footsteps of 
them that have passed before him ?" The 
bishop answered coldly, " Your grace may 
consider, that it is neither affection to the 
man, nor yet love to his profession, that 
moved me to absolve him; but the simple 
truth that plainly appears in his defence, 
draws me after it, albeit that others would 
condemn him and it." This being said, the 
lords and whole assessors arose and depart- 
ed. That night were neither dancing nor 
fiddling in the court, for madam was disap- 
pointed of her purpose, which was to have 
had John Knox in her will by vote of her 
nobility. 

John Knox, absolved by the votes of the 
greatest part of the nobility from the crime 
intended against him, even in the presence 
of the queen, she raged, and the placeboes 
of the court stormed ; and so began new 
assaults to be made at the hands of the said 
John, to confess an offence, and to put him 
in the queen's will, and they should pro- 
mise that his greatest punishment should 
be to go within the castle of Edinburgh, and 
immediately to return to his own house. 
He answered, " God forbid that my confes- 
sion should condemn those noblemen, that 
of their conscience, and with displeasure 
of the queen, have absolved me. And far- 



300 



HISTORY OF THE 



RE FORM ATI ON 



[a. d. 1563 



ther, I am assured, you will not in earnest 
desire me to confess an offence, unless 
that therewith you would desire me to 
cease from preaching : for how can I ex- 
hort others to peace and christian quiet- 
ness, if I confess myself an author and 
mover of sedition ?" 

The general assembly of the kirk ap- 
proached, which began the 25th day of 
December 1563, But the just petitions of 
the ministers and commissioners of the 
kirks, were despised at the first, and that 
with these words, " As ministers will not 
follow our counsels, so will we suffer mi- 
nisters to labour for themselves, and see 
what speed they come." And then the 
whole assembly said, " If the queen will 
not provide for our ministers, we must ; 
for both third and two parts are rigorously 
taken from us, and from our tenants." " If 
others," said one, " will follow my counsel, 
the guard and the papists shall complain as 
long as our ministers have done." At these 
words, the former sharpness was coloured, 
and the speaker alleged, that he meant not 
of all ministers, but of such to whom the 
queen was no debtor; for what third re- 
ceived she of burghs ? Christopher Good- 
man answered, " My lord secretary, if you 
can show me what just title either the 
queen has to the third, or the papists either 
to the two parts, then I think I should re- 
solve you whether she were debtor to mi- 
nisters within burghs or not." But thereto 
he received this check for answer, " Ne sit 
peregrinus curiosus in aliena republicaP 
That is, " Let not a stranger be curious in 
a strange commonwealth." The man of 
God answered, " Albeit in your policy I 
am a stranger, yet so am I not in the church 
of God ; and therefore the care thereof 
pertains no less to me in Scotland than if I 
were in the midst of England." 

Many wondered at the silence of John 
Knox, for in all these quick reasonings he 
opened not his mouth ; the cause whereof 
he himself expressed in these words : 
" Right honourable and beloved brethren, 
I have travailed, since my last arrival with- 
in this realm, in an upright conscience be- 
fore my God, seeking nothing more, as he 



is my witness, than the advancement of his 
glory, and the stability of his church with- 
in this realm ; and yet of late days I have 
been accused as a seditious man, and as one 
that usurps unto myself power that be- 
comes me not. True it is, I have given ad- 
vertisements to the brethren in divers quar- 
ters, of the extremity intended against cer- 
tain faithful for looking to a priest going 
to mass, and for observing of those that 
transgressed just laws ; but that thereuntil 
I have usurped farther power than is given 
unto me, till that by you I be condemned, I 
utterly deny : for I say, that by you — that 
is, by the charge of the general assembly — I 
have as just power to advertise the brethren 
from time to time of dangers appearing, as 
that I have to preach the word of God in the 
pulpit of Edinburgh ; for by you was I ap- 
pointed to the one and to the other \ and, 
therefore, in the name of God, I crave your 
judgment. The danger that appeared to 
me in my accusation was not so fearful as 
the words that came to my ears were do- 
lorous to my heart ; for these words were 
plainly spoken, and that by some protes- 
tants, ' What can the pope do more than 
send forth his letters and require them to 
be obeyed ?' Let me have your judgments 
therefore, whether that I have usurped any 
power to myself, or if I have but obeyed 
your commandment." 

The flatterers of the court, amongst 
whom Sir John Ballenden, justice-clerk, 
was then not the least, began to storm, 
and said, " Shall we be compelled to justify 
the rash doings of men ?" " My lord," said 
John Knox, " you shall speak your plea- 
sure for the present ; of you I crave no- 
thing, but if the church that is here pre- 
sent, do not either absolve me or else con- 
demn me, never shall I in public or in pri- 
vate, as a public minister, open my mouth 
in doctrine or in reasoning." After long 
contention, the said John being removed, 
the whole kirk found, that a charge M as 
given unto him to advertise the brethren 
in all quarters as often as ever danger ap- 
peared ; and therefore avowed that fact not 
to be his only, but to be the fact of them 
all. Thereat were the queen's claw-backs 



Book IV.J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



301 



more enraged than ever they were, for 
some of them had promised to the queen to 
get the said John convicted, both by the 
council and by the church ; and being frus- 
trate of both, she and they thought them- 
selves not a little disappointed. 

In the very time of the general assembly 
there comes to public knowledge a heinous 
murder, committed in the court, yea, not 
far from the queen's own lap ; for a French 
woman that served in the queen's chamber 
had played the whore with the queen's own 
apothecary ; the woman conceived and bore 
a child, whom with common consent, the 
father and the mother murdered ; yet were 
the cries of a new born child heard, search 
was made, the child and mother were both 
deprehended, and so were both the man 
and the woman condemned to be hanged 
upon the public street of Edinburgh. The 
punishment was notable, because the crime 
was heinous : but yet was not the court 
purged of whores and whoredom, which was 
the fountain of such enormities, for it was 
well known that shame hastened marriage 
betwixt John Semple, called the dancer, 
aud Mary Livingston, surnamed the lusty. 
What bruit the Marys, and the rest of the 
dancers of the court had, the ballads of that 
age did witness, which we for modesty's 
sake omit;* but this was the common 
complaint of all godly and wise men, that 
if they thought that such a court should 
long continue, and if they looked for no 
other life to come, they would have wished 
their sons and daughters rather to have 
been brought up with fiddlers and dancers, 



* A good deal of the poetry of Mary's l'eign 
has been preserved. It occupies about 300 pages 
of the third volume of Sibbald's Chronicle of 
Scotish poetry. Some pieces are abundantly li- 
centious ; but what relates to the queen is rather 
adulatory than otherwise. The songs which 
Knox refers to have not come down to us ; at 
least, they are not in Sibbald's collection, which 
professes to gather up the fragments of what 
was worth preserving from the thirteenth cen- 
tury to the seventeenth. It must have been the 
desire of both parties in the kingdom that these 
songs should not be preserved. The reformers 
would desire their suppression for the sake of 
public morals, and the papists that they might 
not perpetuate the shame of their favourite 
queen.— Ed. 

f Knox's mind was not free from supersti- 
tion, as we have seen in what he says about 



and to have been exercised in flinging upon 
a floor, and in the rest that thereof follows, 
than to have been nourished in the com- 
pany of the godly, and exercised in virtue, 
which in that court was hated, and filthi- 
ness not only maintained, but also reward- 
ed; witness the lordship of Abercorn, the 
barony of Auchtermuchty, and divers others 
pertaining to the patrimony of the crown, 
given in inheritance to skippers, dancers, 
and dalliers with dames. This was the be- 
ginning of the regimen of Mary queen of 
Scots, and these were the fruits that she 
brought forth of France. " Lord, look thou 
upon our miseries, and deliver us from the 
tyranny of that whore, for thy own mer- 
cy's sake." 

God from heaven, and upon the face of 
the earth, gave declaration that he was 
offended at the iniquity that was commit- 
ted even within this realm ; for upon the 
20th day of January there fell wet [rain] in 
great abundance, which in the falling freez- 
ed so vehemently, that the earth was but 
one sheet of ice ; the fowls both great and 
small freezed, and might not fly, — many 
died, and some were taken and laid beside 
the fire, that their feathers might resolve; 
and in that same month the sea stood still, 
as was clearly observed, and neither ebbed 
nor flowed the space of twenty-four hours. 
In the month of February, the fifteenth 
and eighteenth days thereof, were seen in 
the firmament battles arrayed, spears, and 
other weapons, and as it had been the join- 
ing of two armies, f These things were 
not only observed, but also spoken and 



witchcraft. Here he speaks of certain natural 
appearances as expressions of the Divine displea- 
sure against the wickedness of the people. The 
cessation of the tide for twenty-four hours was 
probably owing to an earthquake in some other 
part of the world, as it is on record, that at the 
time of the earthquake in Lisbon, last century, 
the rivers and lakes of Scotland were visibly af- 
fected. The battle in the heavens must have 
been the Aurora Borealis, or Northern lights, 
which in our climate, may not appear for many 
years together ; and when seen for the first 
time in an age, they cause much alarm. Half 
a century ago, they were frequent, and remark- 
ably brilliant. They were spoken of then by 
old people as something unknown in former 
times ; and I believe few young persons of the 
present age ever saw them. We happened to 
be at war with our brethren in America, at the 



302 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1563 



constantly affirmed by men of judgment 
and credit. But the queen and our court 
made merry ; there was banquetting upon 
banquetting ; the queen would banquet all 
the lords ; and that was done upon policy, 
to remove the suspicion of her displeasure 
against them, because that they would not 
at her devotion condemn John Knox. To 
remove, we say, that jealousy, she made 
the banquet to the whole lords, whereat 
she would have the duke amongst the rest. 
It behoved them to banquet her again; and 
so did banquetting continue till Fastron- 
even * and after. But the poor ministers 
were mocked and reputed as monsters ; the 
guard, and the affairs of the kitchen were 
so griping, that the ministers' stipends 
could not be had ; and yet at the assembly 
preceding, solemn promise was made in 
the queen's name, by the mouth of the se- 
cretary Lethington, in the audience of 
many of the nobility, and of the whole as- 
sembly, who affirmed, that he had com- 
mandment of her highness to promise unto 
them full contentation to all the ministers 
within the realm of things bygone, and of 
such order to be kept in all times to come, 
that the whole body of the protestants 
should have occasion to stand content ; the 
earl of Murray affirmed the same, with 
many other fair promises given by writ by 
Lethington himself ; as in the register of 
the acts done in the general assembly may 
be seen ; but how that, or yet any other 
thing promised by her or in her name, unto 
the kirk of God, was observed, the world 
can witness. 

The ministers perceiving all things tend 
to ruin, discharged their conscience in pub- 
lic and in private, but they received for 
their labours indignation and hatred ; and 



time above-mentioned ; and the battles in the 
sky were supposed to have some relation to 
those in the western hemisphere. I recollect 
one fine winter evening — it must have been 
about the year 1780 — when the whole heavens 
were in a blaze ; light aerial spears were darting 
from one point to another, and we thought we 
even heard bullets whizzing in our ears. I was 
very thoughtlessly making merry with some- 
thing, when an old servant of my father's 
gravely reproved me, and asked if I did not see 
what was gaun on in the lift [sky] ? The phe- 
nomena are believed to be electrical; but why 



among others, that worthy servant of God, 
Mr John Craig, speaking against the mani- 
fest corruption that then without shame or 
fear declared the self, said, sometimes were 
hypocrites known by their disguised habits, 
and we had men to be monks, and women 
to be nuns ; but now all things are so 
changed, that we cannot discern the earl 
from the abbot, nor the nun from such as 
would be held noblewomen ; so that we 
have got a new order of monks and nuns ; 
" but," said he, " seeing ye ashame not of 
that unjust profit, would to God that there- 
with ye had the cowl of the nun, the veil, 
yea, and the tail joined withal, that so ye 
might appear in your own colours." This 
liberty did so provoke the choler of Le- 
thington, that in open audience he gave 
himself unto the devil, if that ever after that 
day he should regard what became of the 
ministers, but he should do what he could 
that his companions should have a scare 
with him ; " and let them bark and blow," 
said he, " as loud as they list." And so that 
was the second time that he had given his 
defiance to the servants of God. And here- 
upon arose whispering and complaints, all 
by the flatterers of the court, complaining 
that men were not charitably handled. 
Might not sins be reproved in general, al- 
beit that men were not so specially taxed, 
that all the world might know of whom 
the preacher spoke ? Whereunto was this 
answer made, " Let men ashame publicly 
to offend, and the ministers shall abstain 
from specialities ; but so long as protestants 
are not ashamed manifestly to do against 
the evangel of Jesus Christ, so long cannot 
the ministers of God cease to cry, that God 
will be revenged upon such abusers of his 
holy word." And thus had the servants of 



they should visit us so rarely, is not easily ex- 
plained. In Lapland and Greenland, they are 
almost as common as the moon, and as useful 
during their long winter. 

" Even in the depth of polar night, they find 
A wondrous day, enough to light the chase, 
And guide their airy steps to Finland fairs." 

Thomson's Seasons. 

In the list of remarkable events in the Edin- 
burgh Almanack, their first appearance is dated 
1716, which must mean their first appearance iu 
the memory of men then living. — Ed. 

* The evening before the first day of lent. — Ed. 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



303 



God a double battle, fighting upon the one 
side against the idolatry and the rest of the 
abominations maintained by the queen ; 
and upon the other part, against the un- 
thankfulness of such as sometimes would 
have been esteemed the chief pillars of the 
church within the realm. 

The threatenings of the preachers w r ere 
fearful, but the court thought itself in such 
security that it could not miscarry. The 
queen, after the banquetting, kept a diet 
by the direction of Monsieur la Usurie 
Frenchman, who had been acquainted with 
her malady before, being her physician : 
and thereafter she, for her second time, 
made her progress to the north, and com- 
manded to ward in the castle of Edinburgh 
the earl of Caithness, for a murder commit- 
ted by his servants upon the earl of Mar- 
shall's men ; he obeyed, but he was sudden- 
ly relieved ; for such bloodthirsty men and 
papists, such as he, are best subjects to our 
queen. " Thy kingdom come, O Lord ; for 
in this realm is nothing — among such as 
should punish vice and maintain virtue — 
but abomination abounding without bri- 
dle." 

The flatterers of the court did daily en- 
rage against the poor preachers ; happiest 
was he that could invent the most bitter 
taunts and disdainful mockings of the mi- 
nisters. And at length they began to jest 
at the term idolatry, affirming, that men 
wist not what they spake, when they called 
the mass idolatry. Yea, some proceeded 
farther, and feared not at open tables to 
affirm, that they would sustain the argu- 
ment, that the mass was no idolatry. 
These things coming to the ears of the 
preachers, they were proclaimed in the 
public pulpit of Edinburgh, with this com- 
plaint, direct by the speaker to his God. 
" O Lord, how long shall the wicked pre- 
vail against the just ? How long shalt thou 
suffer thyself and thy blessed evangel to be 
despised of men, of men, w r e say, that boast 
themselves defenders of thy truth ; for of 
thy manifest and known enemies we com- 
plain not ; but of such as unto whom thou 
hast revealed thy light : for now it comes 
unto our ears, that men, not papists, we 



say, but chief protestants, will defend the 
mass to be no idolatry. 'If so were, O Lord, 
miserably have I been deceived, and miser- 
ably, O Lord, have I deceived thy people, 
which thou, O Lord, knowest I have ever 
more abhorred than a thousand deaths. 
But," said he, turning his face toward the 
place where such men, as so had affirmed, 
sat, " If I be not able to prove the mass to 
be the most abominable idolatry that ever 
w r as used since the beginning of the world, 
I offer myself to suffer the punishment ap- 
pointed by God to a false teacher ; and it 
appears to me," said the preacher, " that the 
affirmer should be subjected to the same 
law : for it is the truth of God that you per- 
secute and blaspheme : and it is the inven- 
tions of the devil, that obstinately against 
his word you maintain. Whereat, albeit 
now ye flirt and ye fleir, as though all 
that were spoken were but wind, yet I am 
as assured, as I am assured that my God 
liveth, that some that hear this your defec- 
tion and railing against the truth and servants 
of God, shall see a part of God'sjudgments 
poured forth upon this realm — and princi- 
pally upon you that fastest cleave to the fa- 
vour of the court — for the abominations 
that are by you maintained." Albeit that 
such vehemency provoked tears of some, 
yet those men that knew themselves guilty, 
in a mocking manner said, " We must re- 
cant, and burn our bill, for the preachers 
are angry." 

The general assembly, held in June, 
1564, approached, unto the which a great 
part of the nobility, of those that are called 
protestants, convened : some for assistance 
of the ministers, and some to accuse them, 
as we will after hear. 

A little before these troubles, which 
Satan raised in the body of the church, 
began one Davie, an Italian, to grow great 
in the court. The queen used him for se- 
cretary, in things that appertained to her 
secret affairs, in France or elsewhere. 
Great men made court unto him, and their 
suits were the better heard ; but of his be- 
ginning and progress, we delay now farther 
to speak, because that his end will require 
the description of the whole, and refer it 



304. HISTORY OF TH 

unto such, as God shall raise up to do the 
same.* 

The first day of the general assembly the 
courtiers, nor the lords that depended upon 
the court, presented not themselves in ses- 
sion with their breth ren ; whereat many 
wondered. An ancient and honourable 
man, the laird of Lundie, said, " Nay, I 
■wonder not at their present absence ; but I 
wonder that at our last assembly, they drew 
themselves apart, and joined not with us, 
but drew from us some of our ministers, 
and willed them to conclude such things as 
were never proponed in the public assembly, 
which appears to me to be a thing very pre- 
judicial to the liberty of the church : and, 
therefore, my judgment is, that they shall 
be informed of this offence, which the whole 
brethren have conceived of their former 
fault; humbly requiring them, that if they 
be brethren, that they will assist their bre- 
thren with their presence and counsel, for 
we had never greater need. And if they 
be minded to fall back from us, it were 
better we knew it now than afterwards." 
Thereto agreed the whole assembly, and 
gave commission to certain brethren, to 
signify the minds of the assembly to the 
lords, which was done the same day after- 
noon. The courtiers at first seemed not 
a little offended, that they should be 
as it were suspected of defection : yet, 
nevertheless, upon the morrow, they joined 
to the assembly, and came unto it. But they 
drew again themselves, like as they did be- 
fore, apart, and entered into the inner 
council-house. They were the duke's 
grace, the earls Argyle, Murray, Morton, 
Glencairn, Marshall, Rothes, the master of 
Maxwell, secretary Lethington, the justice 
clerk, the clerk of register, and comptroller, 
the laird of Pitarrow. 

After a little consultation, they directed 
a messenger, Mr George Hay, then called 
the minister of the court, requiring the 
superintendents, and some of the learned 
ministers, to confer with them. The assem- 
bly answered, " That they convened to de- 
liberate upon the common affairs of the 



* From this it appears that Knox did not in- 
tend to bring down his history so far as to the 
death of Ilizzio, which event is related in the 



E REFORMATION [a. d. 1564. 

kirk ; and that, therefore, they could not 
lack their superintendents, and chief minis- 
ters, whose judgments were so necessary, 
that without them the rest should sit as it 
were idle : and, therefore, willed them— as 
of before— that if they acknowledged them- 
selves members of the kirk, that they would 
join with their brethren, and propone in 
public such things as they pleased; and so 
they should have the assistance of the 
whole in all things that might stand with 
God's commandment. But to send from 
themselves a portion of their company, they 
understood that thereof hurt and slander 
might arise, rather than any profit or com- 
fort unto the kirk: for they feared, that all 
men should not stand content with the con- 
clusion, where the conference and reasons 
were but heard of a few." 

This answer was not given without 
cause ; for no small travail was made, to 
have drawn in some ministers to the fac- 
tion of the courtiers, and to have sustained 
their arguments and opinions. But when 
it was perceived by the most politic 
amongst them, that they could not prevail 
by that means, they proponed the matter in 
other terms, purging themselves, first, that 
they never meant to separate themselves 
from the society of their brethren ; but, be- 
cause they had certain heads to confer with 
certain ministers ; therefore, for avoiding of 
confusion, they thought it more expedient 
to have the conference before a few, rather 
than in the public audience. But the as- 
sembly did still reply, " That secret confe- 
rence would they not admit in those heads 
that should be concluded by general vote." 
The lords promised, " That no conclusion 
should be taken, neither yet vote required, 
till that both the propositions and the rea- 
sons should be heard, and considered of the 
whole body." And upon that condition 
were directed unto them, with express 
charge to conclude nothing without the 
knowledge and advice of the assembly, the 
laird of Dun, superintendent of Angus, the 
superintendents of Lothian and Fife, Mr 
John Row, Mr John Craig, William Christi- 



fifth hook, which is another evidence that it is 
not of Knox's writing. — Ed. 



Bcok IV.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



305 



8on, Mr David Lindsay, ministers, with the 
rector of St Andrews, and Mr George Hay, 
the superintendent of Glasgow. Mr John 
Willock was moderator, and John Knox 
waited upon the scribe. And so they were 
appointed to sit with the brethren. And 
that because the principal complaint con- 
cerned John Knox, he was also called for. 

Secretary Lethington began the harangue, 
which contained these heads : First, How 
much we were indebted unto God, by whose 
Providence, we had liberty of religion under 
the queen's majesty, albeit that she was not 
persuaded in the same. Secondly, How 
necessary a thing it was that the queen's 
majesty by all good offices— so spoke he — 
of the part of the church, and of the minis- 
ters, principally should be retained in that 
constant opinion, and that they unfeignedly 
favoured her advancement, and procured her 
subjects to have a good opinion of her. 
And, last, How dangerous a thing it was, 
that ministers should be noted one to dis- 
agree from another, in form of prayer for 
her majesty, or in doctrine concerning obe- 
dience to her authority. " And in these 
two last heads," said he, " we desire you 
all to be circumspect; but especially we 
most crave of you our brother, John Knox, 
to moderate yourself, as well in form of 
prayer for the queen's majesty, as in doc- 
trine that ye propone concerning her estate 
and obedience : neither shall you take this," 
said he, " as spoken to your reproach, * quia 
mens interdum in corpore pulchro? but be- 
cause that others, by your example, may 
imitate the like liberty, albeit not with the 
same modesty and foresight ; and what 
opinion that may engender in the people's 
heads, wise men do foresee," &c. The said 
John prepared him for answer as follows : 
" If such as fear God have occasion to praise 
him that because idolatry is maintained, the 
servants of God despised, wicked men 
placed again in honour and authority — Mi- 
Henry Sinclair was a short time before 
made president, who before durst not have 
sat in judgment — and, finally," said he, " if 
we ought to praise God because that vice 
and impiety overflow this whole realm 
without punishment, then have we occa- 
sion to rejoice and to praise God : but if 



these and the like use to provoke God's 
vengeance against realms and nations, then, 
in my judgment, the godly within Scotland 
ought to lament and mourn, and so to prevent 
God's judgments, lest that he, finding all in 
a like security, strike in his hot indigna- 
tion, beginning, perchance, at such as think 
they offend not." " That is a head," said 
Lethington, " whereunto you and I never 
agreed ; for how are you able to prove, 
that ever God struck or plagued any nation 
or people for the iniquity of their prince, 
if they themselves lived godly ?" " I 
looked," said he, " my lord, to have had 
audience, till I had absolved the other two 
parts ; but seeing it pleases your lordship 
to cut me off before the midst, I will an- 
swer to your question. The scripture of 
God shows to me, that Jerusalem and 
Judah were punished for the sin of Man- 
asseh ; and if you will allege, that they 
were punished because they were wicked, 
and offended with their king, and not be- 
cause the king was wicked ; I answer, that 
albeit that the Spirit of God makes for me, 
saying in express words, ' For the sins of 
Manasseh,' yet I will not be so obstinate as 
to lay the whole sin, and the plagues that 
thereof followed, upon the king, and utter- 
ly absolve the people ; but I will grant with 
you, that the whole people offended with 
the king. But how, and in what fashion, I 
fear that you and I shall not agree. I doubt 
[not] but the whole multitude accompanied 
him in all the abominations which he did, 
for idolatry and a false religion has ever 
been, is, and will be pleasant to the most 
part of men. But to affirm that all Judah 
committed really the acts of his impiety, is 
but to affirm, that which neither has cer- 
tainty, nor yet appearance of truth : for who 
can think it to be possible, that all those of 
Jerusalem should so shortly turn to exter- 
nal idolatry, considering the notable refor- 
mation lately before had in the days of 
Hezekiah : but yet says the text, ' Manasseh 
made Judah and the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem to err.' True it is j for the one part, 
as I have said, willingly followed him in his 
idolatry, and the other, by reason of his 
authority, suffered to defile Jerusalem, and 
the temple of God with all abominations ; 
2Q 



306 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1564 



and so were they all criminal of his sin, the 
one by act and deed, the other by suffering 
and permission. Even as whole Scot- 
land is this day guilty of the queen's ido- 
latry, and ye, my lords, especially above 
all others." " Well," said Lethington, 
"that is the chief head wherein we never 
agreed ; but of that we shall speak here- 
after. What will you say as touching the 
moving of the people to have a good opi- 
nion of the queen's majesty, and as concern- 
ing obedience to be given to her authority, 
as also of the form of the prayer which 
commonly ye use ?" &c. 

" My lord," said he, " more earnestly to 
move the people, or yet otherwise to pray 
than heretofore I have done, a good con- 
science will not suffer me ; for He who 
knows the secrets of hearts, knows that 
privately and publicly 1 have called unto 
God for her conversion, and have willed 
the people to do the same, showing them 
the dangerous estate wherein not only she 
herself stands, but also of the whole realm, 
by reason of her indurate blindness," &c. 

" That is it," said Lethington, " wherein 
we find greatest fault. Your extremity 
against her mass in particular, passes mea- 
sure. You call her a slave to Satan ; you 
affirm, that God's vengeance hangs over the 
realm, by reason of her iniquity. And what 
is this else, but to raise up the hearts of the 
people against her majesty, and against them 
that serve her ?" Then there was heard 
an acclamation of the rest of the flatterers, 
that such extremity could not profit. The 
master of Maxwell said in plain words, " If 
I were in the queen's majesty's place, I 
would not suffer such things as I hear." 
" If the words of preachers," said John 
Knox, " shall always be reft to the worst 
part, then it will be hard to speak any 
thing so circumspectly — provided that the 
truth be spoken — which shall not escape 
the censure of the calumniator. The most 
vehement, and, as you speak, excessive man- 
ner of prayer, that I use in public is this : — 
' O Lord, if thy good pleasure be, purge the 
heart of the queen's majesty from the venom 
of idolatry, and deliver her from the bon- 
dage and thraldom of Satan, in the which 
she has been brought up, and yet remains, 



for the lack of true doctrine ; and let her 
see, by the illumination of thy Holy Spirit, 
that there is no mean to please thee but 
Jesus Christ thy only Son, and that Jesus 
Christ cannot be found but in thy holy 
word, nor yet received but as it prescribes, 
which is to renounce our own wits, and 
preconceived opinions, and worship thee as 
thou commandest ; that in so doing she may 
avoid that eternal damnation which abides 
all obstinate and impenitent unto the end ; 
and that this poor realm may also escape 
that plague and vengeance which inevitably 
follows idolatry maintained against thy 
manifest word, and the open light thereof.' 
This," said he, " is the form of my common 
prayer, as yourselves can witness. Now, 
what is worthy reprehension in it I would 
hear," &c. 

" There are three things," said Lething- 
ton, " that never liked me. And the first is, 
you pray for the queen's majesty with one 
condition, saying, ' Illuminate her heart, if 
thy good pleasure be ;' whereby it may ap- 
pear, that you doubt of her conversion. 
Where have you example of such prayer?" 
" Wheresoever the examples are," said the 
other, " I am assured of the rule, which is 
this, ' If we shall ask any thing according 
to his will, he will hear us.' And our 
Master, Christ Jesus, commanded us to pray 
unto our Father, ' Thy will be done.' " 
" But," said Lethington, " wherever found 
you any of the prophets so to have prayed ?" 
" It sufficeth me," said the other, " my lord, 
that the master and teacher both of pro- 
phets and apostles has taught me so to 
pray." " But in so doing," said he, " you 
put a doubt in the people's head of her con- 
version." " Not I, my lord," said the 
other ; " but her own obstinate rebellion 
causes more than me doubt of her con- 
version." " Wherein," said he, " rebels she 
against God ?" " In all the actions of her 
life," said the other ; but in these two heads 
especially. Former, That she will not hear 
the preaching of the blessed evangel of Jesus 
Christ. And, secondly, That she maintans 
that idol the mass." " She thinks not that 
rebellion," said Lethington, " but good reli- 
gion." " So thought they," said the other, 
" that sometimes offered their children 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



307 



unto Moloch, and yet the Spirit of God 
affirms, that they offered ' them unto 
devils, and not unto God.' And this day 
the Turks think themselves to have a better 
religion than the papists have ; and yet, I 
think, you will excuse neither of them 
both from committing" rebellion against 
God : neither yet justly can you do the 
queen, unless that you will make God to 
be partial." a But yet," said Lethington, 
" why pray you not for her without moving 
any doubt ?" " Because," said the other, 
" I have learned to pray in faith ; now 
faith,- you know, depends upon the word of 
God, and so it is that the word teaches me, 
that prayers profit the sons and daughters 
of God's election, of which number, whe- 
ther she be one or not, I have just cause to 
doubt ; and, therefore, I pray God ' illumi- 
nate her heart, if his good pleasure be.' " 
" But yet," said Lethington, " you can pro- 
duce the example of none that so has pray- 
ed before you." " Thereto 1 have already 
answered," said John Knox. " But, yet, 
for farther declaration, I will demand one 
question, which is this, whether if you 
think that the apostles prayed themselves as 
they commanded others to pray '?" " Who 
doubts of that?" said the whole company \ 
that were present, " Well then," said I 
John Knox, " I am assured that Peter said ; 
these words to Simon Magus, ' Repent 
therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray 
to God, that if it be possible the thought 
of thine heart may be forgiven thee.' Here j 
we may clearly see, that Peter joins a 
condition with his commandment, that : 
Simon should repent and pray, to wit, if it ' 
were possible that his sin might be for- 
given ; for he was not ignorant that some 
sins were unto the death, and so without 
all hope of repentance or remission. And 
think you not, my lord secretary," said he, 
" but the same doubt may touch my heart 
as touching the queen's conversion, that 
then touched the heart of the apostle ?" 
" I would never," said Lethington, " hear 
you or any other call that in doubt." "But 
your will," said the other, " is no assurance 
to my conscience. And, to speak freely, 
my lord, I wonder if you yourself doubt not 
of the queen's conversion ; for more evi- 



dent signs of induration have appeared, and 
still do appear in her, than Peter outward- 
ly could have espied in Simon Magus : for 
albeit sometimes he was a sorcerer, yet 
joined he wdth the apostles, believed, and 
was baptized ; and albeit that the venom of 
avarice remained in his heart, and that he 
would have bought the Holy Ghost, yet 
when he heard the fearful threatenings of 
God pronounced against him, he trembled, 
desired the assistance of the prayers of the 
apostles, and so humbled himself, so far as 
the judgment of men could pears [see], like 
as a true penitent, and yet we see that Peter 
doubts of his conversion. Why then may 
not all the godly justly doubt of the con- 
version of the queen, who has used idolatry, 
which is no less odious in the sight of God 
than is the other, and still continues in the 
same, yea, that despises all threatenings, 
and refuses all godly admonitions r" " Why 
say you that she refuses admonition ?" said 
Lethington. " She will gladly hear any 
man." " But what obedience to God," 
said the other, " or to his word, ensues of 
all that is spoken unto her ? Or when shall 
she be seen to give her presence to the 
public preaching '?" " I think never," said 
Lethington, " so long as she is thus entreat- 
ed." " And so long," said the other, "you 
and all others must be content that I pray 
so as that I may be assured to be heard of my 
God, that is, that his good will may be 
done, either in making her comfortable to 
his church, or if that he has appointed her 
to be a scourge unto the same, that we may 
have patience, and she may be bridled." 

" Well," said Lethington, " let us come 
to the second head. Where find ye that 
the scripture calls any the bond slaves of 
Satan ? or that the prophets of God speak 
so irreverently of kings and princes ?" 
" The scripture," said John Knox, " says, 
that * by nature we are all the sons of 
wrath.' Our Master Christ Jesus affirms, 
that 'such as do sin are servants to sin,' 
and that it is the only Son of God that 
sets men at freedom. Now w T hat difference 
is there betwixt the sons of wrath, the ser- 
vants of sin, and the slaves to the devil, I 
understand not, except I be taught. And 
if the sharpness of the term offend you, I 



308 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1564 



have not invented that phrase of speaking, 
but have learned it out of God's scriptures ; 
for these words I find spoken unto Paul, 
* Behold I send thee unto the Gentiles, to 
open their eyes, that they may turn from 
darkness to light, and from the power of 
Satan unto God.' Mark these words, my 
lord, and stir not at the speaking of the 
Holy Ghost. And the same apostle, writ- 
ing to his scholar Timothy, says, ' Instruct 
with meekness those that are contrary 
minded, if that God at any time will give 
them repentance, that they may know the 
truth, and that they may come to amend- 
ment out of the snare of the devil, which 
are taken of him at his will.' If your lord- 
ship do rightly consider these sentences, 
you shall not only find my words to be the 
words of the Holy Ghost, but also the con- 
dition which I use to add, to have the as- 
surance of God's scriptures." " But they 
speak nothing- against kings in special," 
said Lethington, " and yet your continual 
crying is, 4 The queen's idolatry, the queen's 
mass, will provoke God's vengeance.' " " In 
the former sentences," said the other, " I 
hear not kings and queens excepted, but 
all unfaithful are pronounced^ to stand in 
one rank, and to be in bondage to one ty- 
rant the devil. But, belike, my lord," said 
he, " ye little regard the estate wherein 
they stand, when ye would have them so 
flattered, that the danger thereof should 
neither be known, nor yet declared to the 
poor people." " Where will ye find," said 
Lethington, " that any of the prophets did 
so entreat kings and queens, rulers or ma- 
gistrates ?" " In more places than one," 
said the other, " Ahab was a king, and 
Jezebel was a queen, and yet what the 
prophet Elijah said to the one and to the 
other, I suppose ye are not ignorant." 
" That was not cried out before the peo- 
ple," said Lethington, " to make them 
odious unto their subjects." ' : That Elijah 
said, ' Dogs shall lick the blood of Ahab,' " 
said John Knox, " ' and eat the flesh of Je- 
zebel,' the scripture assures me ; but that 
it was whispered in their own ear, or in a 
corner, I read not. But the plain contrary 
appears to me, which is, that both the peo- 
ple and the court understood well enough 



what the prophet had pronounced ; for so 
witnessed Jehu, after that God's vengeance 
had stricken Jezebel." " They were singu- 
lar motions of the Spirit of God," said Le- 
thington, " and appertain nothing to this 
our age." " Then hath the scripture far 
deceived me," said the other; "for St Paul 
teacheth me, that * whatsoever is written 
within the holy scriptures, the same things 
are written for our instruction.' And my 
Master says, that ' every learned and wise 
scribe brings forth of his treasure both 
things old and things new.' And the pro- 
phet Jeremiah affirms, that every realm 
and every city that likewise offendeth, as 
then did Jerusalem, should likewise be pu- 
nished. Why then that the facts of the 
ancient prophets, and the fearful judgments 
of God executed before us upon the dis- 
obedient, appertain not unto this our age, I 
neither see nor yet can understand. But 
now, to put end to this head, my lord," 
said he, " the prophets of God have not 
spared to rebuke wicked kings, as well in 
their face as before the people and subjects. 
Elisha feared not to say to king Jehoram, 
1 What have I to do with thee ? Get thee 
to the prophets of thy father, and to the 
prophets of thy mother ; for as the Lord 
God of Hosts lives, in whose sight I stand, 
if it were not that I regard the presence of 
Jehoshaphat king' of Judah, I would not look 
towards thee nor see thee.' Plain it is, that 
the prophet was a subject in the kingdom 
of Israel, and yet how little reverence he 
gives to the king we hear. Jeremiah the 
prophet was commanded to cry to the king 
and to the queen, and to say, ' Behave 
yourselves lowly, execute justice and judg- 
ment, or else your carcases shall be casten to 
the heat of the day, and unto the frost of 
the night.' Unto Cononiah, Sallum, and Ze- 
dekiah he speaks in special, and shows unto 
them, in his public sermons, their miserable 
ends ; and therefore ye ought not to think 
it strange, my lords," said he, <; albeit that 
the servants of God tax the vices of kings 
and queens, even as well as of other offend- 
ers, and that because their sins are more 
noisome to the commonwealth than are the 
sins of inferior persons." 

The most part of this reasoning, secretary 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



309 



Lethington leaned on the master of Max- 
well's breast, who said, " I am almost weary; 
I would that some other would reason on 
the chief head, which is not touched." 

Then the earl of Morton chancellor, com- 
manded Mr George Hay to reason against 
John Knox, on the head of the obedience 
due unto magistrates, who began so to do. 
Unto whom John Knox said, " Brother, 
that you shall reason in my contrary I am 
well content, because I know you both a 
man of learning and modesty ; but that ye 
shall oppone yourself in the truth whereof 
I suppose your own conscience is no less 
persuaded than is mine, I cannot well ap- 
prove ; for I would be sorry that I and you 
should be reputed to reason as two scholars 
of Pythagoras, to show the quickness of 
our ingyne [genius], as it were, to reason 
on both parts. I do protest here before 
God, that whatsoever I sustain, I do the 
same of conscience ; yea, I dare no more 
sustain a proposition known to myself un- 
true, than that I dare teach false doctrine 
in the public place ; and therefore, brother, 
if conscience move you to oppone yourself 
to that doctrine which you have heard of 
my mouth in that matter, do it boldly, it 
shall never offend me : but that you shall 
be found to oppone yourself unto me, you 
being persuaded in the same truth, I say 
yet again, it pleases me not ; for therein 
may be greater inconvenience than either 
you or I do consider for the present." 

The said Mr George answered, " That 
I would oppone myself unto you as willing 
to impugn or confute that head of doctrine, 
which not only you, but many others, yea, 
and I myself have affirmed, far be it from 
me ; for so should I be found contrarious 
to myself : for my lord secretary knows 
my judgment on that head." " Marry," 
said the secretary, "you are the well worst 
of the two ; for I remember yet our rea- 
soning when the queen was in Carrick." 
" Well," said John Knox, " seeing, brother, 
that God has made you one to occupy the 
chair of verity, wherein I am assured we 
agree in all principal heads of doctrine, let 
it never be said that we disagree in dispu- 
tation." John Knox was moved thus to 



speak, because he understood more of the 
craft than the other did'. 

" Well," said Lethington, " I am some- 
what better provided in this last head than 
I was on the other two. Mr Knox," said 
he, " yesterday we heard your judgment 
upon the 13th to the Romans ; we heard 
the mind of the apostle well opened ; we 
heard the causes why God has established 
powers upon the earth ; we heard the ne- 
cessity that mankind has of the same ; and 
we heard the duty of magistrates sufficient- 
ly declared : but in two things I was offend- 
ed, and I think some more of my lords that 
then were present. The one was, you made 
difference betwixt the ordinance of God 
and the persons that were placed in autho- 
rity; and you affirmed, that men might re- 
sist the persons, and yet not offend God's 
ordinance. This is the one — the other you 
had no time to explain ; but this methought 
you meant, that subjects were not bound 
to obey their princes if they commanded 
unlawful things, but that they might resist 
their princes, and were not ever bound to 
suffer." " In very deed," said the other, 
" you have both rightly marked my words 
and understood my mind ; for of the same 
judgment have I long been, and so yet I 
remain." " How will you prove your di- 
vision and difference," said Lethington, 
" and that the person placed in authority 
may be resisted, and God's ordinance not 
transgressed, seeing- that the apostle says, 
' He that resists the powers, resists the or- 
dinance of God ?' " " My lord," said he, 
" the plain words of the apostle make the 
difference, and the facts of many approved 
by God, prove my affirmative. First, the 
apostle affirms, that the powers are ordain- 
ed of God for the preservation of quiet 
and peaceable men, and for the punishment 
of malefactors ; whereof it is plain, that 
the ordinance of God and the power given 
unto man is one thing, and the person clothed 
with the power or with the authority, is 
another ; for God's ordinance is the preser- 
vation of mankind, the punishment of vice, 
and the maintaining of virtue, which is in 
itself holy, just, constant, stable, and per- 
petual ; but men clothed with the authority, 



310 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1564 



are commonly profane and unjust; yea, 
they are mutable and transitory, and sub- 
ject to corruption, as God threatened them 
by his prophet David, saying-, ' I have said, 
Ye are gods, and every one of you the sons 
of the Most High ; but ye shall die as 
men, and ye princes shall fall like others.' 
Here, I am assured, the persons, the soul, 
and body, of wicked princes are threatened 
with death ; I think, that so ye will not 
affirm is the authority, the ordinance, and 
the power wherewith God has endowed 
such persons ; for, as I have said, as it is 
holy, so it is the permanent will of God. 
And now, my lord, that the prince may be 
resisted, and yet the ordinance of God not 
violated, it is evident, for the people resist- 
ed Saul, when he had sworn by the living 
God that Jonathan should die ; the people, 
I say, swore in the contrary, and delivered 
Jonathan, so that a hair of his head fell not. 
Now Saul was their anointed king, and 
they were his subjects, and yet they so re- 
sisted him, that they made him no better 
than mansworn." " I doubt," said Le- 
thington, " if in so doing the people did 
well." " The Spirit of God," said the 
other, * accuses them not of any crime, 
but rather praises them, and condemns the 
king, as well for his foolish vow and law 
made without God, as for his cruel mind, 
that so severely would have punished an 
innocent man ; but herein will not I stand, 
this that follows shall confirm the former. 
This same Saul commanded Abimelech and 
the priests of the Lord to be slain, because 
they had committed treason, as he alleged, 
for intercommuning with David : his guard 
and principal servants would not obey his 
unjust commandment; butDoeg the king's 
flatterer, put the king's cruelty in execu- 
tion. I will not ask your judgment, whe- 
ther that the servants of the king, in not 
obeying his commandment, resisted God or 
not ; or whether Doeg, in murdering the 
priests, gave obedience to a just authority : 
for I have the Spirit of God, speaking by 
the mouth of David, to assure me as well 
of the one as of the other; for he, in his 
52d Psalm, condemns that fact as a most 
cruel murder ; and affirms, that God would 



punish, not only the commander, but also 
the merciless executor; and, therefore, I 
conclude, that they who gainstood his com- 
mandment, resisted not the ordinance of 
God. And now, my lord, to answer to the 
place of the apostle, who affirms, that such 
as resist the power resist the ordinance of 
God ; I say, that the power in that place 
is not to be understood of the unjust com- 
mandment of men, but of the just power 
wherewith God has armed his magistrates 
and lieutenants to punish sin and to main- 
tain virtue. As if any man should enter- 
prise to take from the hands of a lawful 
judge a murderer, an adulterer, or any 
other malefactor who by God's law deserved 
the death, this same man resisted God's or- 
dinance, and procured to himself vengeance 
and damnation, because that he stayed 
God's sword to strike. But so it is not, 
, if that men in the fear of God oppone them- 
selves the fury and blind rage of princes ; 
: for so they resist not God, but the devil, 
who abuses the sword and authority of 
God." " I understand sufficiently," said 
I Lethington, " what you mean ; and unto 
the one part I will not oppone myself, but 
| 1 doubt of the other; for if the queen 
: would command me to slay John Knox, 
because she is offended at him, I would not 
| obey her : but and if she would command 
others to do it, or yet by a colour of jus- 
tice take his life from him, I cannot tell if 
j I be found to defend him against the queen 
; and against her officers." " Under protes- 
| tation," said the other, " that the auditor 
thinks not that I speak in favour of myself, 
I say, my lord, that if you be persuaded of 
my innocence, and if God had given you 
such power or credit as might deliver me, 
and yet suffered me to perish, that in so 
doing you should be criminal and guilty of 
my blood." " Prove that, and win the 
play," said Lethington. " Well, my lord," 
said the other, " remember your promise, 
and I shall be short in my probation. The 
prophet Jeremiah was apprehended by the 
priests and prophets — who were a part of 
the authority within Jerusalem — and by 
the multitude of the people, and this sen- 
tence was pronounced against him, * Thou 



Bock IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



311 



shalt die the death; for thou hast said, This 
house shall he like Shiloh, and this city 
shall be desolate without an inhabitant.' 
The princes hearing the uproar, came from 
the king's house, and sat down in judgment 
in the entry of the new gate of the Lord's 
house. And there the priests and prophets, 
before the princes, before all the people, 
intended their accusation in these words : — 
* This man is worthy to die ; for he has 
prophesied against this city, as your ears 
have heard.' Jeremiah answered, * That 
whatsoever he had spoken proceeded from 
God ; and therefore,' said he, ' as for me, 
behold 1 am in your hands, do with me as 
ye think good and right. But know ye 
for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye 
6hall surely bring innocent blood upon 
yourselves, and upon this city, and upon 
the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the 
Lord has sent me unto you to speak all 
these words.' Now, my lord, if the princes 
and the whole people should have been 
guilty of the prophet's blood, how shall ye 
or others be judged innocent before God, 
if ye shall suffer the blood of such as have 
not deserved death to be shed, when that 
ye may save it ?" 

u The cases are not like," said Lething- 
ton. " And I would learn," said the other, 
4t whereuntil the dissimilitude stands." 
" First," said Lethington, " the king had 
not condemned him to death. And next, 
the false prophets, the priests, and the peo- 
ple, accused him without a cause ; and 
therefore they could not be but guilty of 
his blood." " Neither of these," said John 
Knox, " fights against my argument ; for 
albeit that neither the king was present, 
nor yet had condemned him, yet were the 
princes and chief counsellors there sitting 
in judgment, who represented the king's 
person and authority, hearing the accusa- 
tion laid unto the charge of the prophet ; 
and therefore he forewarns them of the 
danger, as before is said, to wit, that in case 
he should be condemned, and so put to 
death, that the king, the council, and the j 
whole city of Jerusalem, should be guilty of ) 
his blood, because he had committed no 



crime worthy of the, death. And if ye 
think that they should all have been cri- 
minal only, because they all accused him, 
the plain text witnesses the contrary ; for 
the princes defended him, and so no doubt 
did a great part of the people ; and yet he 
boldly affirms, that they should be all 
guilty of his blood if that he should be 
put to death. And the prophet Ezekiel 
gives the reason why all are guilty in a 
common corruption, because, says he, ' I 
sought a man amongst them that should 
make up the hedge, and stand in the gap 
before me for the land, that I should not 
destroy it, but I found none ; therefore, I 
have poured forth my indignation upon 
them.' Hereof, my lord, it is plain," said 
he, " that God craves not only that a man 
do no iniquity in his own person, but also 
that he oppone himself to all iniquity, so 
far forth as in him lies." 

" Then will you," said Lethington, "make 
subjects to control their princes and rulers." 
" And what harm," said the other, " should 
the commonwealth receive, if the corrupt 
affections of ignorant rulers were moderat- 
ed, and so bridled by the wisdom and dis- 
cretion of godly subjects, that they should 
do wrong nor violence to no man ?" " All 
this reasoning," said Lethington, " is out 
of purpose ; for we reason as though the 
queen should become such an enemy to our 
religion, that she should persecute, and put 
innocent men to death ; which I am as- 
sured she never thought, nor never will 
do. For if I should see her begin at that 
end, yea, or if I should suspect any such 
thing in her, I should be as forward in that 
argument as you are, or as any other with- 
in the realm ; but there is no such a thing. 
Our question is, whether we may and 
ought suppress the queen's mass ? or whe- 
ther that her idolatry shall be laid to our 
charge ?" " What you may," said John 
Knox, " by force, I dispute not ; but what 
you may and ought to do by God's express 
commandment, that can I tell. Idolatry 
ought not only to be suppressed, but the 
idolater ought to die the death, unless we 
w ill accuse God."* " I know," said Leth- 



* Every intelligent reader must perceive that 
Knox conducts his argument with admirable 



dexterity, while proceeding all along upon an 
erroneous principle, namely, that the law of 



312 



HISTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1564 



ington, " the idolater is commanded to die 
the death ; but by whom ?" " By the peo- 
ple of God," said the other : " for the 
commandment was made to Israel, as you 
may read, ' Hear, Israel,' says the Lord, 
* the statutes and the commandments of 
the Lord thy God.' Yea, a commandment 
is given, ' That if it be heard that idolatry 
is committed in any one city, that inquisi- 
tion shall be taken, and if it be found true, 
that then the whole body of the people 
shall arise and destroy that city, sparing 1 in 
it neither man, woman, nor child.' " " But 
there is no commaudment given to the 
people to punish their king," said the se- 
cretary, " if he be an idolater." " I find 
no privilege granted unto kings," said the 
other, " by God, more than unto the peo- 
ple, to offend God's majesty." " I grant," 
said Lethington ; " but yet the people may 
not be judge unto their king to punish him, 
albeit he is an idolater." " God," said the 
other, "is the universal judge, as well to 
king as to the people; so that what his 
word commands to be punished in the one, 
is not to be absolved in the other." " We 
agree in that," said Lethington ; " but the 
people may not execute God's judgment, 
but must leave it unto himself, who will 
either punish it by death, by war, by im- 
prisonment, or by some other kind of his 



Moses, which required idolaters to be punished 
with death, was binding on christians. Leth- 
ington maintained the same principle; and, 
hence, though one of the ablest men of his day, 
he argues like a mere child ; for, by admitting 
Knox's premises, it was impossible to avoid his 
conclusion. Had the secretary understood, that 
the peculiarities of the law of Moses were 
meant for the Israelites only, and were confined 
to the land of promise, which they received on 
the express condition that they should suffer no 
idol in it ; and had he known that christian 
churches were distinct from, and independent 
of, the kingdoms of this world, he could have 
maintained his argument to advantage. He 
might have said, Mr Knox, you profess to be 
pastor of a church of Christ, which as such has 
nothing to do with affairs of state. You and your 
brethren have a right to superintend your own 
affairs, and take cognizance of the principles and 
conduct of all within your own body, to censure 
them, to reprove them with all necessary plain- 
ness and severity, and excommunicate such as 
retuse to be reclaimed from their sinful prac- 
tices. But the queen and her court do not be- 
long to your spiritual community. They are 
what the apostle Paul calls without the church, 
of whom he says, " What have 1 to do to judge 



plagues." " I know," said John Knox, "the 
last part of your reason to be true; but 
for the first, to wit, that the people, yea, or 
a part of the people, may not execute God's 
judgment against their king, being an of- 
fender, I am assured you have no other 
warrant except your own imagination, and 
the opinion of such as more fear to offend 
princes than God." 

" Why say you so ?'* said Lethington. 
" I have the judgments of the most famous 
men within Europe, and of such as you 
yourself will confess both godly and learn- 
ed." And with that he called for his papers, 
which produced by Mr Robert Maitland, 
he began to read with great gravity the 
judgment of Luther, Melancthon, the minds 
of Bucer, Musculus, and Calvin, how chris- 
tians should behave themselves in time of 
persecution ; yea, the book of Baruch was 
not omitted, with this conclusion : " The 
gathering of these things, 5 ' said he, " has 
cost me more travail, than I took these 
seven years in reading of any commenta- 
ries." " The more pity," said the other ; 
" and, yet, what you have profited your 
own cause, let others judge. But as for my 
argument, I am assured, you have infirmed 
it nothing. For your first two witnesses 
speak against the anabaptists, who deny 
that christians should be subjects unto 



them who are without ? Do not ye judge them 
that are within? but them who are without 
God judgeth." And he might have followed 
this up by a reference to the uniform practice of 
the apostles, who never interfered with the civil 
government of any country, or taught christians 
to rise up against their idolatrous rulers. The 
apostles laboured eveiy where to turn men from 
idols to serve the living God ; but they never 
thought of putting to death those who would 
not be so turned. Surely if the law of Moses 
was binding on our Scots reformers, it must 
have been equally binding on the twelve apostles, 
who had been born and brought up under it. I 
might say more on this subject, but I have writ- 
ten largely upon it in my Letters to a Cove- 
nanter, which the reader may consult if he 
please. These remarks are not meant to dero- 
gate from the intrepidity and integrity of our 
reformer, who was honest in making use of the 
light which he had. God is pleased to bless the 
labours of those who do so, more than those of 
more enlightened, but less faithful men ; and 
Knox, with all his mistakes, was honoured to 
be the instrument of greater benefit to his coun- 
try, than almost any other man of any age. — 
Ed. 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND, 



313 



magistrates, or yet that it is lawful for a j 
christian to be a magistrate, which opinion j 
I no less abhor than you, or any others that 1 
live do. The others speak of christians 
subject unto tyrants and infidels, so dis- 
persed that they have no other force but 
only to sob to God for deliverance. That 
such, indeed, should hazard any further 
than these godly men wills them, I could 
not hastily be of counsel. But my argu- 
ment has another ground ; for I speak of 
one people assembled together in one body 
of a commonwealth, unto whom God has 
given sufficient force, not only to resist, but 
also to suppress all kind of open idolatry : 
and such a people, yet again I affirm, are 
bound to keep their land clean and unpol- 
luted. And that this my division shall not 
appear strange unto you, you shall under- 
stand, that God required one thing of Abra- 
bam and of his seed, when he and they . 
were pilgrims and strangers in Egypt and \ 
Canaan ; and one other thing required he of 
them, when they were delivered from the 
bondage of Egypt, and the possession of the 
land of Canaan granted unto them. At the 
first, and during all time of their bondage, 
God craved no more, but that Abraham 
should not defile himself with idolatry; 
neither was he, nor yet his posterity, com- 
manded to destroy the idols that were in 
Canaan or in Egypt. But when God gave 
unto them the possession of the land, he j 
gave unto them this strait commandment, ! 
1 Beware that thou make confederacy or I 
league with the inhabitants of this land ; 
give not thy sons unto their daughters, nor 
yet give thy daughters to their sons. But j 
thus shall ye do unto them : cut down their j 
groves, destroy their images, break down 
their altars, and leave you no kind of re- | 
membrance of those abominations, which 
the inhabitants of the land used before : for j 
ye are an holy people unto the Lord thy 
God. Defile not thyself, therefore, with 
their gods.' To this same commandment, 
I say, are ye, my lords, and all such as have 
professed the Lord Jesus within this realm, 
bound. For God has wrought no less 
miracle upon you both spiritual and corpo- 
real, then he did upon the carnal seed of 
Abraham. For in what estate your bodies, [ 



and this poor realm were, within these seven 
years, yourselves cannot be ignorant : ye 
and it were both in the bondage of a strange 
nation ; and what tyrants reigned over your 
conscience, God perchance may yet once 
again let you feel, because that ye do not 
rightly acknowledge the benefit received. 
When our poor brethren before us gave 
their bodies to the names of fire for the tes- 
timony of the truth, and when scarcely 
could ten be found in a country, that rightly 
knew God, [it] had been foolishness either 
to have craved of the nobility, or of the 
subjects, the suppressing of idolatry; for 
that had been nothing but to have exposed 
the simple sheep in a prey to the wolves : 
but since that God has multiplied know- 
ledge, yea, and has given the victory to his 
truth, even in the hands of his servants, if 
ye suffer the land again to be defiled, ye 
and your princess both shall drink the cup 
of God's indignation ; she, for her obstinate 
abiding in manifest idolatry, in this great 
light of the evangel of Jesus Christ, and 
ye, for your permission and maintaining of 
her in the same." 

Lethington said, " In that point we will 
never agree. And where find ye, I pray 
you, that ever any of the prophets or of the 
apostles taught such a doctrine, that the 
people should be plagued for the idolatry of 
their prince; or yet, that the subjects might 
suppress the idolatry of their rulers, or pun- 
ish them for the same ?" " What was the 
commission given to the apostles, my lord," 
said he, " we know; it was to preach, and 
plant the evangel of Jesus Christ, where 
darkness before had dominion : and, there- 
fore, it behoved them, first to let them see 
the light, before they should will them to 
put to their hands to suppress idolatry. 
What precepts the apostles gave unto the 
faithful in particular, other than that they 
commanded all to flee from idolatry, I will 
not affirm. But I find two things which 
the faithful did. The one was, that they 
assisted their preachers, even against their 
rulers and magistrates. The other was, 
they suppressed idolatry wheresoever God 
gave unto them force, asking no license 
at the emperor, or of his deputes. Read 
the ecclesiastical history, and you shall find 
2 ft 



31* 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 15C4 



examples sufficient. And 
trine of the prophets, we know, that they 
were interpreters of the law of God ; and 
we know, that they spake as well unto the 
kings as unto the people. I read that nei- 
ther of both would hear them ; and, there- 
fore, came the plague of God upon both. 
But that they more flattered the kings, 
than they did the people, I cannot be per- 
suaded. Now, God's law pronounces death, 
as before I have said, to idolaters, without 
exception of any person. Now, how the 
prophets could rightly interpret the law, 
and show the causes of God's judgments, 
which ever they threatened should follow 
idolatry, and for the rest of abominations 
that accompany it — for it is never alone ; 
but still a corrupt religion brings with it a 
filthy and corrupt life — how, I say, the pro- 
phets could reprove the vices, and not show 
the people their duty, I understand not; 
and, therefore, I constantly believe, that 
the doctrine of the prophets was so sensi- 
ble, that the kings understood their own 
abominations, and the people understood 
what they ought to have done, in punish- 
ing and repressing them. But because 
that the most part of the people were no 
less rebellious unto God then were their 
princes, therefore the one and the other 
conjured against God, and against his ser- 
vants. And yet, my lord, the facts of some 
prophets are so evident, that easily thereof 
we may collect what doctrine they taught : 
for it were no small absurdity to affirm, 
that their facts should repugn to their doc- 
trine." " I think," said Lethington, " you 
mean of the history of Jehu. What will 
you prove thereby ?" " The chief head," 
said John Knox, " that you deny, to wit, 
that the prophets never taught that it ap- 
pertained to the people to punish the ido- 
latry of their kings ; the contrary whereof 
I affirm. And for the probation, I am 
ready to produce the fact of a prophet. 
For you know, my lord," said he, " that 
Elifeha sent one of the children of the pro- 
phets to anoint Jehu, who gave him in com- 
mandment to destroy the sons of his master 
Ahab for the idolatry committed by him, 
and for the innocent blood that Jezebel his 
wicked wife had shed; which he obeyed, 



as to the doc- ) and put in full execution; for the which 



God promised unto him the stability of the 
kingdom to the fourth generation. Now," 
said he, " here is the fact of a prophet, that 
proves that subjects were commanded to 
execute God's judgment upon their king 
and prince." " There is enough," said 
Lethington, " to be answered thereunto ; 
for Jehu was a king before he put any thing 
in execution ; and besides this, the fact is 
extraordinary, and ought not to be imi- 
tated." « My lord," said the other, "he 
was a mere subject, and no king when the 
prophet's servant came unto him ; yea, and 
albeit that his fellow captains, hearing of 
the message, blew the trumpet, and said 
' Jehu is king,' yet I doubt not but Jezebel 
both thought and said, « He was a traitor ;' 
and so did many others that were in Israel 
and in Samaria. And as touching that you 
allege, that the fact was extraordinary, and 
is not to be imitated, I say, that it had the 
ground of God's ordinary judgment, which 
commands the idolater to die the death ; 
and, therefore, I yet again affirm, that it is 
to be imitated of all those that prefer the 
true honour, the true worship and glory of 
God, to the affections of flesh, and of wicked 
princes." " We are not bound to imitate ex- 
traordinary examples," said Lethington, 
" unless we have like commandment and 
assurance." " I grant," said the other, " if 
the example repugn to the law ; as, if an 
avaricious and deceitful man would borrow 
gold, silver, raiment, or any other necessa- 
ries, from his neighbours, and withhold 
the same, alleging, that so they might do 
and not offend God, because the Israelites 
at their departing from Egypt did so to the 
Egyptians. The example served to no pur- 
pose unless that they could produce the 
like cause, and the like commandment that 
the Israelites had, and that because their 
fact repugned to this commandment of God, 
' Thou shalt not steal.' But where the ex- 
ample agrees with the law, and is, as it 
were, the execution of God's judgments ex- 
pressed in the same, I say that the example 
approved of God stands to us in place of a 
commandment : for, as God in his nature is 
constant and immutable, so can he not con- 
demn in the ages subsequent that which he 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



315 



has approved in his servants before us. But 
in his servants before us, He by his own 
commandment has approved, that subjects 
have not only destroyed their kings for 
idolatry, but also have rooted out their whole 
posterity, so that none of their race was 
left after to empire above the people of 
God." " Whatsoever they did," said 
Lethington, " was done at God's command- 
ment." " That fortifies my argument," 
said the other ; " for God by his command- 
ment has approved, that subjects punish 
their kings for idolatry and wickedness by 
them committed." " We have not the like 
commandment," said Lethington. " That 
I deny," said the other ; " for the com- 
mandment, that the idolater shall die the 
death is perpetual, as you yourself have 
granted ; you doubted only who should be 
the executors against the king, and I said 
the people of God, and have sufficiently 
proven, as 1 think, that God has raised up 
the people, and by his prophet has anointed 
a king to take vengeance upon the king 
and his posterity, which fact God, since 
that time, has never retracted ; and, there- 
fore, to me it remains for a constant and 
clear commandment to all people professing 
God, and having the power to punish vice, 
what they ought to do in the like case. If 
the people had enterprised any thing 
against God's commandment, we might 
have doubted whether they had done well 
or evil ; but seeing that God did bring the 
execution of his law again in practice, after 
it was come into oblivion and contempt, 
what reasonable man can doubt now of 
God's will, unless that he will doubt of all 
things which God renews not unto us by 
miracles, as it were from age to age. But 
I am assured, that the answer of Abraham 
unto the rich man, who being in hell, de- 
sired that Lazarus, or some of the dead, 
should be sent unto his brethren and 
friends, to forewarn them of his incredible 
pain and torment, and that they should be- 
have themselves so that they should not 
come into that place of torment ; the answer, 
I say, given unto him, shall confound all such 
as crave farther approbation of God's will 
than is already expressed within his holy 



scripture : for Abraham said, ' They have 
Moses and the prophets, whom if they will 
not believe, neither will they believe albeit 
that any of the dead should rise again.' Even 
so say I, my lord, that such as will not be 
taught what they ought to do, by the com- 
: mandment of God once given, and once put 
I in practice, will not believe nor obey, albeit 
! that God should send angels from heaven 
! to instruct that doctrine." " You have 
i produced but one example," said Lething- 
ton. " One sufficeth, " said the other ; 
" but yet, God be praised, we lack not 
others ; for the whole people conspired 
j against Amaziah king of Judah, after that 
he had turned away from the Lord, fol- 
lowed him to Lachish, and slew him, and 
took Uzziah and anointed him king instead 
I of his father. The people had not altoge- 
ther forgotten the league and covenant 
which was made betwixt their kings and 
them, at the inauguration of Joash his father, 
to wit, ' That the king and the people 
should be the people of the Lord,' and then 
should they be his faithful subjects ; from 
the which covenant, when that first the 
father, and after the son declined, they were 
both punished to the death, Joash by his own 
servant, and Amaziah by the whole people." 
" I doubt," said Lethington, " whether they 
did well or not." " It shall be free for 
you, " said the other, " to doubt as you 
please ; but where I find execution accord- 
ing to God's law, and God himself not to 
accuse the doers, I dare not doubt of the 
equity of their cause. And, farther, it ap- 
pears to me, that God gave sufficient ap- 
probation and allowance of their fact ; for 
he blessed them with victory, peace, and 
prosperity, the space of fifty-two years 
after." " But prosperity," said Lething- 
ton, " does not always prove that God ap- 
proves the facts of men." " Yes," said the 
other: " when the facts of men agree with 
the law of God, and are rewarded accord- 
ing to God's own promise, expressed in 
his law, I say, that the prosperity succeed- 
ing the fact is a most infallible assurance 
that God has approved that fact. Now so 
it is, that God has promised in his law, that 
when his people shall exterminate and de- 



316 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1564 



stroy such as decline from him, that he will 
bless them, and multiply them, as he has 
promised unto their fathers. But so it is, 
that Amaziah turned from God; for so 
the text does witness ; and plain it is the 
people slew their king- ; and like plain it is, 
that God blessed them : therefore, yet again 
conclude I, that God approved their fact, 
in so far as it was done according- to God's 
commandment, was blessed according - to his 
promise." " Well," said Lethington, " I 
think not the ground so sure, as I durst 
build my conscience thereupon." " I pray 
God," said the other, " that your con- 
science have no worse ground than this is, 
whensoever you shall begin that like work 
which God in your own eyes has already 
blessed. And now, my lord," said he, " I 
have but one example to produce, and then 
I will put an end to my reasoning 1 , because 
I weary longer to stand." — Commandment 
was given that he should sit down ; but he 
refused, and said, " Melancholious reasons 
would have some mirth intermixed." — 
" My last example," said he, " my lords, is 
this. Uzziah the king 1 , not content of his 
royal estate, malapertly took upon him to 
enter within the temple of the Lord, to 
burn incense upon the altar of incense ; 
' And Azariah the priest went in after him, 
and with him fourscore priests of the Lord, 
valiant men, and they withstood Uzziah the 
king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not 
unto Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord, 
but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, that 
are consecrated to offer incense ; g-o forth 
of the sanctuary, for thou hast transgressed, 
and you shall have no honour from the Lord 
God.' Hereof, my lords, I conclude, that 
subjects not only may, but also oug-ht to 
withstand and resist their princes, whenso- 
ever they do any thing that expressly re- 
pugns to God, his law, or holy ordinance." 

" They that withstood the king," said 
Lethington, " were not simple subjects, but 
were the priests of the Lord, and ligures of 
Christ, and such priests have we none this 
day, to withstand kings if they do wrong." 
" That the high priest was the figure of 
Christ," said the other, " I grant ; but that 
he was not a subject, that I deny ; for I am 
assured, that he in his priesthood had no 



prerogative above those that passed before 
him. Now, so it is, that Aaron was sub- 
ject unto Moses, and called him his lord. 
Samuel, being both prophet and priest, sub- 
jects himself to Saul, after he was inaugurate 
of the people. Zadok bowed before David, 
and Abiathar was deposed from the priest- 
hood by Solomon, which all confessing 
themselves subjects to the kings, albeit 
that therewith they ceased not to be the 
figures of Christ. And whereas you say, 
that we have no such priests this day, I 
might answer, that neither have we such 
kings this day as then were anointed at 
God's commandment, and sat upon the seat 
of David, and were no less the figures of 
Christ Jesus in their just administration, 
than were the priests in their appointed 
office. And such kings I am assured we 
have not now, more than we have such 
priests : for Jesus Christ being anointed in 
our nature, of God his Father, both King, 
Priest, and Prophet, has put end to all such 
external unction : and yet, I think, you will 
not say, that God has now diminished his 
graces from those whom he appoints am- 
bassadors betwixt him and his people, than 
that he does from kings and princes ; and, 
therefore, why that the servants of Jesus 
Christ may not as justly withstand kings 
and princes, that this day no less offend 
God's majesty than Uzziah did, I see not, 
unless that you will say, that we, in the 
brightness of the evangel, are not so straitly 
bound to regard God's glory, nor yet his 
commandment, as were the fathers who 
lived under the dark shadows of the law." 
" Well," said Lethington, " I will dip no 
farther into that head. But how resisted 
the priests the king ? They only spoke 
unto him without any farther violence in- 
tended." " That they withstood him," 
said the other, " the text assures me ; but 
that they did nothing but speak, I cannot 
understand ; for the plain text affirms the 
contrary, to wit, that they caused him 
hastily to depart from the sanctuary, yea, 
that he was compelled to depart ; which 
manner of speaking I am assured in the 
Hebrew tongue imports other thing than 
exhorting, or commanding by word." 
" They did that," said Lethington, " after 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



317 



that he was espied leprous." " They with- 
stood him before," said the other ; " but yet 
their last fact confirms my proposition so 
evidently, that such as would oppone them- 
selves unto it, must needs oppone them 
unto God ; for my assertion is, that kings 
have no privilege more than have the people, 
to offend God's majesty ; and if that so they 
do, that they are no more exempted from 
the punishment of the law than is any other 
subject; yea, and that subjects may not 
only lawfully oppone themselves to their 
kings, whensoever they do any thing that 
expressly repugns God's commandment, but 
also that they may execute judgment upon 
them according to God's law ; so that if the 
king be a murderer, adulterer, or idolater, 
he should suffer according to God's law, 
not as a king, but as an offender, and that 
the people may put God's law in execu- 
tion, this history clearly proveth : for as 
soon as the leprosy was espied in his fore- 
head, he was not only compelled to depart 
out of the sanctuary, but also he was re- 
moved from all public society and adminis- 
tration of the kingdom, and was compelled 
to dwell in a house apart, even as the law 
commanded, and got no greater prerogative 
in that case than any other of the people 
should have done; and this was executed 
by the people ; for it is no doubt but more 
were witnesses of his leprosy than the 
priests alone. But we find none oppone 
themselves to the sentence of God pro- 
nounced in his law against the leprous ; and, 
therefore, yet again say I, that the people 
ought to execute God's law, even against 
their princes, when that their open crimes 
by God's law deserve death, but es- 
pecially when they are such as may 
infect the rest of the multitude. And 
now," said he, " my lords, I will rea- 
son no longer; for I have spoken more 
than I intended." " And yet," said Leth- 
ington, <; I cannot tell what can be con- 
cluded." " Albeit ye cannot," said the other, 
" yet I am assured what 1 have proven, to 
wit, 4 1. That subjects have delivered an 
innocent from the hands of their king, and 
thereuntil offended not God. 2. That sub- 
jects have refused to strike innocents when 
a king commanded, and in so doing denied 



no just obedience. 3. That such as struck 
at the commandment of the king were re- 
puted murderers. 4. That God has not 
only of a subject made a king, but also has 
armed subjects against their natural kings, 
and commanded them to take vengeance 
upon them according to his law. 5. And, 
last, That God's people has executed God's 
law against their king, having no farther 
regard to him in that behalf than if that he 
had been the most simple subject within the 
realm.' And therefore, albeit ye will not 
understand what should be concluded, yet 
I am not assured, that not only may God's 
people, but also, that they are bound to do 
the same where the like crimes are commit- 
ted, and when he gives unto them the like 
power." 

" Well," said Lethington, " I think you 
shall not have many learned men of your 
opinion." " My lord," said the other, " the 
truth ceases not to be the truth, howsoever 
it be, that men either misknow it, or yet 
gainstand it. And yet," said he, " I lack 
not the consent of God's servants on that 
head." And with that he presented the 
secretary the apology of Magdeburgh ; and 
willed him to read the names of the minis- 
ters who had subscribed the defence of the 
town to be a most just defence ; and there- 
with added, " That to resist a tyrant, is not 
to resist God, nor yet his ordinance." 
Which when he had read, he scripped and 
said, " Homines obscuri." The other an- 
swered, " Dei tamen servir And so Le- 
thington arose and said, " My lords, ye 
have heard the reasons upon both parties, 
it becomes you now to decide, and to put 
an order to preachers, that they be uniform 
in doctrine. May we, think ye, take the 
queen's mass from her ?" While that some 
began to give their votes — for some Avere 
appointed, as it were, leaders to the rest — 
John Knox said, " My lords, I suppose 
that ye will not do contrary to your lord- 
ships' promise made to the whole assembly, 
which was, That nothing should be voted 
in secret till that first all matters should be 
debated in public, and that then the votes 
of the whole assembly should put end to 
the controversy. Now have I sustained 
the argument only, and have rather shown 



318 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 15G4 



my conscience in most simple manner, than 
that I have insisted upon the force and ve- 
hemence of any one argument ; and there- 
fore I, for my part, utterly dissent from all 
voting 1 , till that the whole assembly have 
heard the propositions and the reasons of 
both parties ; for I unfeignedly acknow- 
ledge, that many in that company are more 
able to sustain the argument than I am." 
" Think you it reasonable," said Lething- 
ton, " that such a multitude as is now con- 
vened, should reason and vote on these 
heads and matters that concern the queen's 
majesty's own person and affairs ?" " I 
think," said the other, " that whatsoever 
should bind the multitude, the multitude 
should hear, unless that they have resigned 
their power uuto their commissioners, which 
they have not done, so far as I understand ; 
for my lord justice-clerk heard them with 
one vote say, That in nowise could they 
consent that any thing should either here 
be voted or concluded." " I cannot tell," 
said Lethington, " if my lords that be here 
present, and that must bear the burdens of 
such matters, should be bound to their will. 
What say ye," said he, " my lords ? will ye 
vote in this matter, or will ye not vote ?" 
After long reasoning, some that were made 
for the purpose, said, " Why may not the 
lords vote, and then show unto the kirk 
whatsoever is done." " That appears unto 
me," said John Knox, " not only a back- 
ward order, but also a tyranny usurped 
upon the kirk : but for me, do as ye list," 
said he, " for as I reason, so I vote ; yet 
protesting as before, that I dissent from all 
voting, till that the whole assembly under- 
stand as well the questions as the reasons." 
" Well," said Lethington, " that cannot be 
done now, for the time is spent ; and there- 
fore, my lord chancellor," said he, " ask 
you the votes, and take every one of the 
ministers and one of us." And so was the 
rector of St Andrews commanded first to 
speak his conscience; who said, " I refer it 
to the superintendent of Fife, for I think 
we are both of one judgment : and yet," 
said he, " if ye will that I speak first, my 
conscience is, that if the queen oppone her- 
self to our religion, which is the only true 
religion, that in that case the nobility and 



states of this realm that have professed the 
true doctrine, may justly oppone them- 
selves unto her ; but as concerning her own 
mass, I know it is idolatry, but I am not 
yet resolved, whether that by violence we 
may take it from her or not." The su- 
perintendent of Fife said, " That same is 
my conscience." And so affirmed some of 
the nobility. But others voted frankly, 
That as the mass was abomination, so was 
it just and right that it should be repress- 
ed; and that in so doing, men did no more 
wrong to the queen's majesty than they 
that should by force take from her a poi- 
soned cup when she was going to drink it. 
At last, Mr John Craig, fellow minister 
with John Knox in the church of Edin- 
burgh, was required to give his judgment 
and vote; who said, " I will gladly show 
unto your honours what I understand ; but 
I greatly doubt whether my knowledge and 
conscience shall satisfy you, seeing that ye 
heard so many reasons, and are so little 
moved with them : but yet I shall not con- 
ceal from you my judgment, adhering first 
to the protestation of my brother, to wit, 
That our voting prejudge not the liberty 
of the general assembly. I was," said he, 
" in the university of Bononia, in the year 
of God 1562, where, in the place of the 
blackfriars of the same town, 1 saw in 
the time of their general assembly this 
conclusion set forth ; this same I heard 
reasoned, determined, and concluded. 

conclusio. 

' Principes omnes tam supremi, qaam 
inferiores, possunt et debent reformari, vel 
deponi per eos, per quos eliguntur, confir- 
mantur, vel admittuntur ad officium ; quo- 
ties a fide praestita subditis, per juramen- 
tum, deficiunt. Quoniam relatio juramenti 
subditorum et principum mutua est, et 
utrinque aequo jure servanda et reforman- 
da, juxta legem et conditionem juramenti, 
ab utraque parte facti.' That is, ' All 
rulers, be they supreme or be they inferior, 
may and ought to be reformed or deposed 
by those by whom they are chosen, con- 
firmed, or admitted to their office, as oft as 
they break their promise made by oath to 
their subjects ; because that the prince is 



Book IV.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



319 



no less bound to the subjects than are the 
subjects to their princes, and therefore 
ought it to be kept and reformed equally, 
according- to the law and condition of the 
oath that is made of either party.' 

" This conclusion, my lords, I heard sus- 
tained and concluded, as I have said, in a 
most notable auditory, The sustainer was 
a learned man, Mr Thomas de Finola, the 
rector of the university, a man famous in 
that country; Mr Vincsntius de Placentia, 
affirmed the conclusion to be most true 
and certain, agreeable both with the law of 
God and man. The occasion of the dispu- 
tation and conclusion, was a certain disor- 
der and tyranny that was attempted by the 
pope's governors, who began to make inno- 
vations in the country against the laws that 
were before established, alleging themselves 
not to be subject to such laws, by reason 
that they were not instituted by the people, 
but by the pope, who was king of that 
country ; and therefore they, having full 
commission and authority of the pope, 
might alter and change statutes and ordi- 
nances of the country, without all consent 
of the people. Against this their usurped 
tyranny, the learned and the people oppo- 
ned themselves openly : and when that all 
reasons which the pope's governors could 
allege were heard and confuted, the pope 
himself was fain to take up the matter, and 
to promise to keep not only the liberty of 
the people, but also that he should neither 
abrogate any law or statute, neither yet 
make any new law without their own con- 
sent. And, therefore," said he, "my lords, 
my vote and conscience is, that princes are 
not only bound to keep laws and promises 
to their subjects, but also, that in case 
they fail, they justly may be deposed; for 
the bond betwixt the prince and the people 
is reciprocal." Then started up a clawback 
of that corrupt court, and said, " Ye wot 
not what ye say ; for ye tell us what was 
done in Bononia; we are in a kingdom, 
and they are but a commonwealth." "My 
lord," said he, " my judgment is, that every 
kingdom is a commonwealth, or at least 
should be, albeit that every commonwealth 
is not a kingdom ; and, therefore, I think, 



that in a kingdom no less diligence ought 
to be taken that laws be not violated, than 
is in a commonwealth, because that the ty- 
ranny of princes, who continually reign in 
a kingdom, is more hurtful to the subjects 
than is the misgovern ment of those that 
from year to year are changed in free com- 
monwealths. But yet, my lords, to assure 
you and all others farther, that head was 
disputed to the uttermost ; and in the end it 
was concluded, that they spoke not of such 
things as were done in divers kingdoms and 
nations by tyranny and negligence of peo- 
ple, "But we conclude," said they, "what 
ought to be done in all kingdoms and com- 
monwealths, according to the law of God, 
and unto the just laws of men. And if by 
the negligence of the people, or by tyranny 
of princes, contrary laws have been made, 
yet may that same people, or their posteri- 
ty, justly crave all things to be reformed, 
according to the original institution of 
kings and commonwealths : and such as 
will not do so, deserve to eat the fruit of 
their own foolishness." 

Mr James Macgill, then clerk of register, 
perceiving the votes to be different, and 
hearing the bold plainness of the foresaid 
servant of God, said, " I remember that 
this same question was long debated once 
before this, in my house, and there, by 
reason that we were not all of one mind, it 
was concluded, that Mr Knox should in all 
our names have written to Mr Calvin for 
his judgment in the controversy." " Nay," 
said John Knox, " my lord secretary would 
not consent that I should write, alleging, 
that the greatest weight of the answer 
stood in the narrative, and therefore pro- 
mised that he would write, and that I 
should see it. But when," said he, " divers 
times I required him to remember his pro- 
mise, I found nothing but delay." Where- 
to the secretary did answer, " True it is, I 
promised to write, and true it is that Mr 
Knox required divers times me so to do ; 
but when I had ripely advised, and had 
more deeply considered the weight of the 
matter, I began to find more doubts than 
that I did before, and this one amongst 
others, — How durst I, being a subject, and 



320 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION. 



[a. d. 1551 



the queen's majesty's secretary, take upon 
me to seek resolution of controversies de- 
pending - betwixt her highness and her sub- 
jects, without her own knowledge and con- 
sent." Then was there an acclamation of 
the claw-backs of the court, as if Apollo 
had given his response. It was wisely and 
faithfully done. 

" Well," said John Knox, " let worldly 
men praise worldly wisdom as highly as 
they please, I am assured, that by such 
shifts, idolatry is maintained, and the truth 
of Christ Jesus is betrayed, whereof God 
will one day be revenged." At this and 
the like sharpness, many offended, the 
Toting ceased, and every faction began 
plainly to speak as affection moved them. 
Jolin Knox in the end was commanded yet 
to write to Mr Calvin, and to the learned 
in other churches, to know their judgments 
in that question, which he refused, showing 
this reason, " I myself am not only fully 
resolved in conscience, but also I have had 
the judgments in this and all other things 
that I have affirmed within this realm, of 
the most godly and learned that are known 



in Europe. I came not to this realm with- 
out their resolution ; and for my assurance 
I have the handwritings of many, and, 
therefore, if I should now move the same 
question again, what should I do other, but 
either show my own ignorance and forget- 
fulness, or else inconstancy ; and, therefore, 
it may please you to pardon me, albeit I 
write not. But I will teach you the surer 
way, which is this, that you write and com- 
plain upon me, that I teach publicly, and 
affirm constantly, such doctrine as offends 
you, and so shall you know their plain 
minds, and whether that I and they agree 
in judgment or not." Divers said the offer 
was good, but no man was found that would 
be the secretary, and so did that assembly 
and long reasoning break up. After which 
time the ministers, which were called pre- 
cise, were held of all the courtiers as 
monsters. In all that time the earl of 
Murray was so fremmed to [estranged from] 
John Knox, that neither by word nor by 
write was there any communication betwixt 
them. 



THE HISTORY 

OF 

THE REFORMATION OF RELIGION 

WITHIN 

THE REALM OF SCOTLAND. 



THE FIFTH BOOK. 



OF THE REFORMATION OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 



In the next month, which was July, the j 
queen went into Athol to the hunting- ; and j 
from thence she made her progress into 
Murray, and returned to Fife in September. 
All this while there was appearance of love 
and tender friendship betwixt the two 
queens ; for there were many letters, full 
of civility and compliments sent from either 
of them to the other in sign of amity ; 
besides costly presents for tokens.* And in 
the meantime, the earl of Lennox laboured 
to come home forth of England, and in the 
month of October he arrived at Holyrood- 
house, where he was graciously received by 
the queen's majesty ; namely, when he had | 
presented the queen of England her letters, 
written in his favour : and because he 
could not be restored to his lands without 
act of parliament, therefore, there was a 
parliament procured to be held at Edin- 
burgh the 13th day of December : but be- 
fore the queen would cause to proclaim a par- 
liament, she desired the earl of Murray, by 
whose means chiefly the said earl of Lennox 
came into Scotland ; that there should no 
word be spoken, or at least concluded, that 
concerned religion, in the parliament. But 



* There are two epigrams extant, written by 
George Buchanan, on a rich diamond sent from 
queen Mary to queen Elizabeth. 



he answered, That he could not promise it. 
In the meantime, the Hamiltons and the 
earl of Lennox were agreed. 

At the day appointed, the parliament 
was held at Edinburgh, where the said earl 
of Lennox was restored, after two and twen- 
ty years' exile ; he was banished and forfeited 
by the Hamiltons, when they had the rule. 
There were some articles given in by the 
church, especially for the abolition of the 
mass universally, and for punishment 01 
vice ; but there was little thing granted, 
save that it was statute, that scandalous 
livers should be punished first by prison, 
I and then publicly shown unto the people 
with ignominy ; but the same was not put 
in execution. In the end of this month of 
December, the general assembly of the 
church was held at Edinburgh. Many 
things were ordained for settling of the 
affairs of the church. 

In the end of January the queen passed 
to Fife, and visiting the gentlemen's houses, 
was magnificently banquetted every where, 
so that such superfluity was never seen be- 
fore within this realm ; which caused the 
wild fowl to be so dear, that partridges were 
sold for a crown a-piece.f At this time 



f Equal to JOd. sterling. 

2 s 



322 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. ». 1565 



was granted by an act of parliament, the 
confirmation of the feus of church lauds, at 
the desire of divers lords, whereof the earl 
of Murray was chief. During the queen's 
absence, the papists of Edinburgh went 
down to the chapel to hear mass ; and see- 
ing there was no punishment, they waxed 
more bold. Some of them thinking- thereby 
to please the queen, upon a certain Sunday 
in February they made an evening song 
of their own, setting two priests on the 
one side of the choir, and one or two on 
the other side, with Sandie Steven, min- 
strel — baptizing their children, and making 
marriages — who within eight days after 
[was] convicted of blasphemy, [for] alleging-, 
that he would give no more credit to the 
New Testament than to a tale of Robin 
Hood, except it were confirmed by the 
doctors of the church. The said supersti- 
tious evening song was the occasion of a 
great slander, for many were offended with 
it ; which being by the brethren declared to 
the lords of the privj r council, especially to 
the earl of Murray, who lamented the 
cause to the queen's majesty, showing her 
what inconveniency should come, if such 
things were suffered unpunished: and after 
sharp reasoning, it was promised, that the 
like should not be done hereafter. The 
queen also alleged, that they were a great 
number; and that she could not trouble 
their conscience. 

About the 20th of this month, arrived at 
Edinburgh, Henry Stewart, lord Darnley; 
from thence he passed to Fife : and in the 
place of Wemyss he was admitted to kiss 
the queen's hand : whom she liked so well, 
that she preferred him before all others, as 
shall hereafter, God willing, be declared. 
Soon after, in the month of March, the earl 
Bothwell arrived out of France, whereat 
the earl of Murray was highly offended, 
because of the evil report made to him of 
the lord Bothwell ; and passing immediate- 
ly to the queen's majesty, demanded of her 
if it was her will, or by her advice, that 
he was come home ; and seeing he was his 
deadly enemy, either he or the other should 
leave the country, and therefore desired 
that he might have justice. Her answer 
was, that seeing the earl Bothwell was a 



nobleman, and had done her service, she 
could not hate him ; nevertheless she would 
do nothing that might be prejudicial to the 
earl of Murray, but desired that the matter 
might be taken away. Within few days 
she caused summon the earl Bothwell. to 
answer to the course of law, the 2d of May, 
for the conspiracy which the earl of Arran 
had alleged two years before, and for the 
breaking of the ward of the castle. In the 
meanwhile, there was nothing in the court 
but banquetting, balling, and dancing, and 
other such pleasures as were meet to pro- 
voke the disordered appetite ; and all for 
the entertainment of the queen's cousin 
from England, the lord Darn'iey, to whom 
she did show all the expressions imaginable 
of love and kindness. 

Within few days, the queen being at 
Stirling, order was given to secretary Leth- 
ington to pass to the queen of England. 
The chief point of his message was, to de- 
clare to the queen of England, that the 
queen was minded to marry her cousin, the 
lord Darnley ; and the rather, because he 
was so near of blood to both queens : for 
by his mother he was cousin-german to the 
queen of Scotland, also of near kindred 
and of the same name by his father. His 
mother was cousin-german to the queen of 
England. Here mark God's providence ; 
king James the Fifth having lost his two 
sons, did declare his resolution to make 
the earl of Lennox his heir of the crown ; 
but he prevented by sudden death, that de- 
sign ceased. Then came the earl of Lennox 
from France, with intention to marry king 
James his widow, but that failed also : he 
marries Mary Douglas, and his son mar- 
rieth Mary, king James the Fifth his daugh- 
ter : and so the king's desire is fulfilled, to 
wit, the crown continueth in the name and 
in the family. The queen of England, ne- 
vertheless, showed herself nothing pleased 
therewith, but rather declared, that she 
would in nowise suffer her subjects to make 
such contracts or alliance that might be 
prejudicial to her, and for the same purpose 
sent a post to the queen with letters, 
wherein she complained greatly of the 
mind of our mistress, seeing the great af- 
fection she bore to her, intending to de- 



Book V.] 



OF RELIGION I 



N SCOTLAND. 



323 



clare her heretrix of her realm of England, 
providing only that she would use her 
counsel in marriage ; but she could not ap- 
prove her marriage with the lord Darnley, 
although he was their near cousin by birth, 
since he was below the rank of the queen 
by condition, being but a private subject. 
At the same time, she wrote to the earl of 
Lennox and to his son, commanding them 
to repair both into England. Some write, 
that all this was but counterfeit by the queen 
of England, and from her heart she was glad 
of the marriage : for by that means the suc- 
cession of the crown of England was secured, 
the lord Darnley being the right heir after 
the queen of Scotland ; and queen Elizabeth 
was not angry to see her married to one of 
inferior rank, for by that means she thought 
the Scots queen would be less proud. Dur- 
ing this time, there were certain letters 
directed to the brethren of Edinburgh, to 
Dundee, Fife, Angus, and Mearns, and 
other places, from the brethren of Kyle, 
and other places in the west country, de- 
siring the professors of the evangel in all 
places to remember what the eternal God 
had wrought, and how potently he had 
abolished all kind of idolatry and supersti- 
tion, and placed his word in this realm ; so 
that no man could say otherwise, but it 
M as the work of God ; who also had deli- 
vered this country from the bondage and 
tyranny of strangers. Nevertheless, by our 
slothfulness, we have suffered that idol the 
mass, not only to be planted again, but to 
increase so, that the maintainers thereof 
are like, by all appearance, to get the upper 
hand, which would be the occasion of our 
destruction. And for that the papists pur- 
posed to set up their idol at Easter follow- 
ing in all places, which was to be imputed 
to the slothfulness and want of godly zeal 
of the professors; therefore, they admo- 
nished the brethren to strive to avert the 
evil in time, and not to suffer such wicked- 
ness to continue and increase, lest that 
God's heavy wrath come upon us unawares 
like a consuming fire. By these letters, 
many brethren were animated, and their 
spirits wakened, minding to provide as God 
should give them grace. And first of all, 
by the advice of the most learned in Edin- 



burgh, there was a supplication made, and 
given to the queen's majesty by the super- 
intendent of Lothian, containing in effect, 
that the church in general of the realm had 
divers times most humbly craved of her 
majesty, that committers of adultery should 
be punished according to the law of God, 
and the acts of parliament, nevertheless 
they continued in their wickedness, and 
the papists of obstinate malice pretended 
nothing else but to erect and set up their 
idolatry and superstition, and especially at 
Easter day following they intended to put 
the same in practice, which the brethren and 
professors of the evangel could not suffer ; 
therefore wished her majesty to take heed 
of the matter. 

This supplication the secretary received 
of the hands of the superintendents of Lo- 
thian and Glasgow, and told them, in the 
queen's name, that there should be such 
provision made as should serve to their 
contentment ; and for the same purpose, 
the queen's majesty wrote to all such pla- 
ces as were suspected, especially to the 
bishop of St Andrews and Aberdeen — as 
was said— not to use any mass, and that they 
should not do any such thing as was feared 
by the protestants, or convene any coun- 
cil, and thereto commanded them. Now, 
the communion was administered in Edin- 
burgh the first day of April, 1565. At 
which time, because it was near Easter, 
the papists used to meet at their mass; and 
as some of the brethren were diligent to 
search such things, they having with them 
one of the bailiffs, took one Sir James Tar- 
bet, riding- hard, as lie had now ended the 
saying of the mass, and conveyed him, to- 
gether with the master of the house, and 
one or two more of the assistants, to the 
tolbooth, and immediately re-vested him 
with all his garments upon him, and so 
carried him to the market-cross, where 
they set him on high, binding the chalice 
in his hand, and himself fast tied to the 
said cross, w here he tarried the space of 
one hour, during which time, the boys ser- 
ved him with his Easter eggs. The next 
day following, the said Tarbet, with nis as- 
sistants, were accused and convicted by an 
assize, according to the act of parliament: 



3:24 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1535 



and albeit for the same offence he deserved 
death, yet for all punishment, he was set 
upon the market- cross for the space of 
three or four hours, the hangman standing 
by, and keeping hira, the boys and others 
w ere busy with eggs casting ; and some pa- 
pists there were that stopped [hindered] as 
far as they could ; and as the press of peo- 
ple increased about the cross, there appear- 
ed to have been some tumult. The pro- 
vost, Archibald Douglas, came with some 
halberdiers and carried the priest safe again 
to the tolbooth. The queen being adver- 
tised, and having received sinister infor- 
mation that the priest was dead, suddenly 
thought to have used and inflicted some 
extreme punishment ; for she thought that 
all this was done in contempt of her, and 
of her religion ; and it was affirmed, that 
the town should have been sacked, and a 
great number executed to death. She sent 
to such as she pleased, commanding them 
to come to her at Edinburgh suddenly with 
their whole forces ; and in the meantime, 
she sent her advocate, Mr Spence of Con- 
die, to Edinburgh, to take a sure trial of 
the matter. The provost and council wrote 
to the queen the truth of the matter as it 
was, desiring her majesty to take the same 
in good part, and not to give credit to false 
reports ; and therewith sent to her majesty 
the process and enrolment of the court of 
the priest convicted. Thus the queen's ma- 
jesty being informed of the truth by her 
said advocate, sent again and stayed the 
said meeting of men, and sent to the town 
a grave letter, whereof the copy follow- 
eth : 

The queen's letter to the provost, bailies, 
and council of Edinburgh. 

" Provost, bailies, and council of our city 
of Edinburgh, we received your letter from 
our advocate, and understand by this report 
what diligence you took to stay the tumult 
in the late disorder attempted at Edin- 
burgh ; wherein, as you did your duty in 
suppressing the tumult, so can we not take 
in good part, nor think ourself satisfied of 
so notorious a thing, without certain sedi- 
tious persons, who were pleased to do jus- 
tice perforce, and without the magistrates' 
authority, be condignly and really punished 



for their rashness and misbehaviour ; for if 
all private persons should usurp to take 
vengeance at their own hands, what lies in 
ours ? And to what purpose have good laws 
and statutes been established ? Since, there- 
fore, we have never been obstinate to the 
due punishment of any offenders prescribed 
by the laws, but have alw r ays maintained 
justice in that case without respect of per- 
sons, it is our will, and we command you, 
as you will answer to us upon your obe- 
dience and allegiance, that you will take 
before you certain of the most responsible 
persons who are declared authors of the 
said sedition, and usurpers of our authority; 
and to administer justice upon them, in 
such sort as we may know a sincerity on 
your parts, and our authority nowise slight- 
ed : but if you fail, persuade yourselves — 
and that shortly — we will not oversee it, 
but will account this contempt not only to 
be in the committers thereof, but in your- 
selves, who ought to punish it, and relieve 
us on our part, remitting the rest to your 
diligence and execution, which we look 
for so soon as reason will permit. 

" Subscribed with our hand at Stirling, 
this 24th of April, anno 1565." 
By this manner of writing and high 
threatening, may be perceived how grie- 
vously the queen's majesty would have 
been offended if the said Tarbet and mass- 
monger had been handled according to his 
demerit, being not only a papist idolater, 
but a manifest whoremaster, and a common 
fighter and blasphemer ; nevertheless, with- 
in few days, the queen charged the provost 
and bailies to set him at liberty, command- 
ing them further, that no man should trou- 
ble or molest him in any sort for whatso- 
ever cause, and soon after rewarded him 
with a benefice ; and likewise his assistants, 
John Low and John Kennedy, [w ere] set at 
liberty in the same manner. At this Easter- 
tide in Stirling, the queen made her do- 
mestic servants use papistical rites and ce- 
remonies ; and more, she persuaded others 
by fair means to do the same, and threaten- 
ed those that were most constant at the 
earl of CassilPs house. Upon the second 
day of May, 1565, convened at Edinburgh 
the earl of Murray with his friends in great 



Book V.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



325 



numbers, to keep the day of law against the 
earl Both well ; who being 1 called, appeared 
not, only the laird of Riccarton protested, 
that the personal absence of the earl Both- 
well should not be prejudicial to him, by 
reason that for just fear, which might hap- 
pen in the heart of any man, since he had 
so potent an enemy as the lord of Murray, 
who, next the queen's majesty, was of 
greatest estimation and authority of any 
man within this realm, to whom assisted at 
this present day of law, seven or eight hun- 
dred men, which force he could not resist, 
and therefore had absented himself; which 
protestation being made, those that had 
been sureties for his appearance, were out- 
lawed. The said earl Bothwell a few 
days after, passed into France, after he had 
been in Liddesdale ; where, suspecting al- 
most every man, he was not in great assu- 
rance of his life : notwithstanding, he was 
not put to the horn ; for the queen con- 
tinually bore a great favour towards him, 
and kept him to be a soldier, as appeared 
within less than half a year : for she would 
not suffer the lord Morton, nor my lord 
Erskine, my lord of Murray's great friends, 
to keep the day. There assisted my lord 
of Murray, the earls of Argyle, Glencairn, 
and Crawford, with great numbers, and 
many lords and barons, who for the most 
part convened the same afternoon to treat 
and consult for the maintaining of religion ; 
where some articles were devised and de- 
livered to the lord of Murray to be present- 
ed to the queen's majesty and privy coun- 
cil, which articles were enlarged at the ge- 
neral assembly following, as shall be de- 
clared. In the meantime, as they were in- 
formed in court of this great assembly of 
people in Edinburgh, they were afraid; for 
naturally the queen hated and suspected all 
such conventions as were not in her own 
presence, and devised by herself. The chief 
counsellors in the court were the earls of 
Lennox and Athol. The queen wrote in- 
continent for all the lords to come to Stir- 
ling, so soon as she was advertised that 
they had treated in Edinburgh of religion : 
she wrote likewise for the superintendents 
and other learned men who went thither, 
and being there, they caused to keep the 



ports or gates, and make good watch about 
the town. The special cause of this con- 
vention, was to give to the lord Darnley 
title of honour, openly and solemnly, with 
consent of the nobles before the marriage. 
The fourth day of May, the earl of Murray 
came to Stirling, where he was well receiv- 
ed by the queen's majesty, as appeared, and 
immediately, as he passed with her to my 
lord Darnley's chamber, they presented to 
him a contract, containing in effect, that 
forasmuch as, or since, the queen had con- 
tracted marriage with the lord Darnley; 
and that therefore sundry lords of the no- 
bility had underwritten, ratified and ap- 
proved the same, and obliged themselves to 
grant unto him in full parliament the crown 
matrimonial — by a new court solecism in 
policy, the crown for the second time is 
surnamed Matrimonial ; before, when the 
queen was first married, it was so called 
also — to serve and obey him and her, as 
their lawful sovereigns. The queen desired 
my lord Murray to subscribe, as many 
others had done before, which he refused to 
do ; "Because," said he, " it is required neces- 
sarily that the whole nobility be present, at 
least the principal, and such as he himself 
was posterior unto, before that so grave a 
matter should be advised and concluded." 
The queen's majesty, no ways content with 
this answer, insisted still upon him, say- 
ing, the greatest part of the nobility were 
there present and content with the matter, 
wished him to be so much a Stewart, as to 
consent to the keeping of the crown in the 
family, and the surname, according to their 
father's will and desire, as was said of him 
a little before his death ; but he still refused 
for the causes above written. 

Now, as the lords were assembled, an 
ambassador from England, named Sir 
Nicholas Throkmorton, arrived at Stir- 
ling, and in his company the laird of Leth- 
ington. The ambassador was at the castle 
gate ere ever they were aware ; and as he 
stood there in the entry, he was desired to 
pass to his lodgings. The next day he had 
audience of the queen, and was graciously 
received according to the dignity of his 
message. The whole sum of his message 
was this : to show and declare to the queen, 



326 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1565 



how highly tho queen his mistress Avas of- 
fended with this precipitated marriage, and 
wondered what had moved her to take a 
man of inferior rank and condition to her- 
self; and, therefore, dissuaded her there- 
from, and specially desiring 1 her, most ear- 
nestly, to send home her subjects, the earl 
of Lennox, and the lord Darnley : but all 
in vain, for the matter was well far pro- 
ceeded. In her heart queen Elizabeth was 
not angry at this marriage ; first, because 
if queen Mary had married a foreign prince, 
it had been an accession to her greatness, and, 
consequently, she had been more redoubted 
by the other ; next, both Henry and Mary 
were alike, and in equal degree of con- 
sanguinity unto her ; the father of Mary, 
and the mother of Henry, being children to 
her father's sister. With many fair words 
the queen let the ambassador depart, pro- 
mising to do all she could to satisfy the 
queen of England ; and, for the same pur- 
pose, she would send an ambassador to her. 

In the meantime the queen's marriage 
with the lord Darnley, was prepared, and 
propounded in council, and the chief of 
the nobility, such as the duke, the earls of 
Argyle, Murray, Glencairn, with the rest, 
granted freely to the same, providing that 
they might have the religion established in 
parliament by the queen, and the idolatrous 
mass and superstition abolished. Shortly it 
was concluded, that they should convene 
again to St Johnstone, where the queen 
promised to take a final order for religion. 
The day was appointed, to wit, the last of 
May, at Perth ; my lord of Argyle came 
too late. The queen's majesty communed 
with the lords, who were very plain with 
her, saying, " Except the mass were abo- 
lished, there should be no quietness in the 
country." The twelfth day of May, the 
lord Darnley was belted — that is, created — 
earl of Ross, with great solemnity, a belt 
or girdle being tied about his waist or 
middle; and, albeit all kind of provision 
was made to make him duke of Rothsay, 
yet at that time it came not to effect, al- 
beit the crown and robe-royal were pre- 
pared to him for the same. For the enter- 
tainment of this triumph there were many 
knights made, to the number of fourteen. 



The next day, which was the 13th of May, 
the queen called for the superintendents by 
name, John Willock, John Winram, and 
John Spotswood, whom she cherished with 
fair words, assuring them that she desired 
nothing more earnestly than the glory of 
God, and satisfying of men's consciences, 
and the good of the commonwealth ; and 
albeit she was not persuaded in any reli- 
gion but in that wherein she was brought 
up, yet she promised to them, that she 
would hear conference and disputation in 
the scriptures : and, likewise, she would be 
content to hear public preaching, but al- 
ways out of the mouth of such as pleased 
her majesty ; and above all others, she 
said she would gladly hear the superintend- 
ent of Angus, for he was a mild and sweet 
natured man, with true honesty and up- 
rightness, Sir Erskine of Dun. Soon after 
the queen passed to St Johnstone, after 
that she had directed Mr John Hay, prior 
of Monimusk, to pass to England, who sped 
at the queen of England's hand, even as 
Sir Nicholas Throkmorton did in Scot- 
land. Before the day which was appoint- 
ed for the meeting at St Johnstone, my 
lord of Murray, most careful of the main- 
tenance of religion, sent to all the princi- 
pal churches, advertising them of the mat- 
ter, and desiring them to advise, and send 
the most able men in learning and reputa- 
tion, to keep the day. But their craft and 
dissimulation appeared; for the dean of 
Restalrig, who lately arrived out of France, 
with others, such as Mr John Lesley, par- 
son of Ure, afterward bishop of Ross, 
caused the queen to understand that thing 
whereof she was easily persuaded, to wit, 
that there ought to be given to all men 
liberty of conscience, and for this purpose, 
to shun or put off the first day appointed. 
The queen wrote to the nobility, that be- 
cause she was informed that there were 
great meetings out of every shire and town 
in great number, and then the other party 
— so termed she the papists — were minded 
together to the said convention, which 
should apparently make trouble or sedition, 
rather than any other thing ; therefore, she 
thought it expedient, and willed them to 
stay the said meetings, and to defer the 



LOOK V.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



327 



same till such a day that she should ap- 
point with advice of her council. At this 
time there was a parliament proclaimed to 
be held at Edinburgh, the twentieth day of 
July. By this letter, some of the protest- 
ants, having best judgment, thought them- 
selves sufficiently warned of the inconve- 
niences and troubles to come. Now her 
council at this time, was only the earls of 
Lennox and Athol, the lord Ruthven, but 
chiefly David Rizzio, the Italian, ruled all j 
yet the earl of Ross was already in greatest 
credit and familiarity. These letters were 
sent out to the lords about the eight and 
twentieth day of May ; and within twelve 
days thereafter, she directed new missives 
to the chief of the nobility, desiring, or 
commanding them, to come to St John- 
stone the three and twentieth day of June 
following, to consult upon such things as 
concerned religion, and other things as her 
majesty shouid propose ; which day, was 
even the day before that the general assem- 
bly should have been held in Edinburgh. 
This last letter uttered the effect of the for- 
mer; so that the protestants thought them- 
selves sufficiently warned. Always [how- 
ever], as the earl of Murray was passing to 
St Johnstone, to have kept the said day, 
he chanced to fall sick of the flux in Loch- 
leven, where he remained till the queen came 
forth of St Johnstone to Edinburgh, where 
the general assembly of the whole church 
of Scotland was held, the four and twen- 
tieth day of July. The earls of Argyle and 
Glencairn assisted the church, with a great 
company of lords, barons, and others : it 
was there ordered and concluded, that cer- 
tain gentlemen, as commissioners from the 
church national, should pass to the queen's 
majesty, with certain articles, to the num- 
ber of six, desiring her most humbly to ra- 
tify and approve the same in parliament. 
And because the said articles are of great 
weight, and worthy of memory, I thought 
good to insert the same word by word : 

" Imprimis, That the papistical and blas- 
phemous mass, with all papistical idolatry, 
and papal jurisdiction, be universally sup- 
pressed and abolished throughout this 
realm, not only in the subjects, but also in 
the queen's own person, with punishment 



against all persons that should be depre- 
hended to transgress and offend in the 
same : and that the sincere word of God, 
and Christ's true religion, now at this pre- 
sent received, be published, approved, and 
ratifled, throughout the whole realm, as 
well in the queen's own person, as in the 
subjects : and that the people be to resort 
upon the Sundays, at the least, to the prayers, 
and preaching of God's word, even as they 
were before to the idolatrous mass. And 
these heads to be provided by act of parlia- 
ment, and ratified by the queen's majesty. 

" Secondly, That provision be made for 
sustentation of the ministry, as well for the 
time present, as the time to come : and that 
such persons as are presently admitted to 
the ministry, may have their livings assign- 
ed unto them, in places where they travail 
in their calling ; or at least next adjacent 
thereto. And that the benefices now va- 
cant, or have been vacant since the month 
of March, 1558, or that hereafter shall hap- 
pen to be vacant, be disposed to qualified 
and learned persons, able to preach God's 
word, and discharge the vocation concern- 
ing the ministry, by trial and admission of 
the superintendents and overseers : and that 
no benefice or living, having many churches 
annexed thereunto, be disposed altogether 
in any time to come, to any [one] man, 
but at the least the churches thereof be se- 
verally disposed, and that to several per- 
sons ; so that every man having charge, 
may serve at his own church, according to 
his vocation : and to that effect, likewise 
the glebes and the manses, be given to the 
ministers, that they may make residence at 
their churches, whereby they may dis- 
charge their consciences according to their 
vocation ; and also that the kirks may be 
repaired accordingly : and that a law be 
made and established hereupon by act of 
parliament, as said is. 

" Thirdly, That none be permitted to 
have charge of souls, colleges, or universi- 
ties, neither privately or publicly teach and 
instruct the youth, but such as shall be tried 
by the superintendents or visitors of 
churches, and found sound and able in doc- 
trine, and admitted by them to their 
charges. 



328 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



La. d. I5G5 



" Fourthly, For the sustentation of the 
poor ; that all lands founded for hospitality 
of old, be restored again to the same use ; 
and that all lands, annats, rents, or any 
other emoluments pertaining any ways 
sometimes to the friars, of whatsoever order 
they had been of; as likewise the annuities, 
altarages, obits, and the other duties per- 
taining to priests, to be applied to the sus- 
tentation of the poor, and uphold of the 
town-schools in towns, and other places 
where they be. 

" Fifthly, That such horrible crimes as 
now abound within this realm without any 
correction, to the great contempt of God 
and his word ; such as idolatry, blasphemy 
of God's name, manifest breaking of the 
Sabbath day, witchcraft, sorcery, enchant- 
ment, adultery, manifest whoredom, main- 
tenance of bordals [brothels], murder, 
slaughter, oppression, with many other de- 
testable crimes, may be severely punished ; 
and judges appointed in every province and 
diocese, for execution thereof, with power 
to do the same ; and that by act of parlia- 
ment. 

" Lastly, That some order be devised and 
established for ease of the poor labourers of 
the ground, concerning the reasonable pay- 
ment of the tithes, who are oppressed by the 
leasers of the tithes set over their heads 
without their own consent and advice." 

The persons who were appointed by the 
church to carry these articles, and present 
them to the queen's majesty, were the 
lairds of Cunninghamhead, Lundie, Spot 
and Grange of Angus, and James Barron 
for the burghs. These five passed from 
Edinburgh to St Johnstone, where they 
presented the said articles to the queen's 
majesty, desiring and requiring her high- 
ness most humbly to advise therewith, and 
to give them answer. The next day, ere 
they were aware, the queen departed to 
Dunkeld, and immediately they followed ; 
and after they had got audience, they de- 
sired the queen's majesty most humbly to 
give their despatch. She answered, that 
her council was not there present, but she 
intended to be in Edinburgh within eight 
days, and there they should receive their 
answer. At the same time, as the general 



assembly was held in Edinburgh, the bre- 
thren perceiving the papists to brag, and 
trouble like to' be, they assembled them- 
selves at St Leonard's Craig, where they 
concluded they would defend themselves; 
and for the same purpose, elected eight per- 
sons of the most able, t wo of every quarter, 
to see that the brethren should be ready 
armed. And when the five commissioners 
above named, had waited upon the court 
four or five days after her majesty's coming 
to Edinburgh, there the matter was pro- 
posed in council : and after long and ear- 
nest reasoning upon these articles, at length 
it was answered to the commissioners by 
the secretary, that the queen's majesty's 
command was, that the matter should be 
reasoned in her presence; which for the 
gravity of the same, there could nothing be 
concluded at that time, albeit the queen's 
majesty had heard more in that matter, 
than ever she did before : but within eight 
days thereafter, she understood that a great 
part of the nobility should be present in 
Edinburgh, where they should have a final 
answer. At length, the one and twentieth 
of Auyust, they received the answer in 
writing in her presence, according to the 
tenor hereof as followeth ; 

The queen's majesty's answer to the 
articles presented to her highness, by 
certain gentlemen, in the name of the 
whole assembly of the church. 
" To the first, desiring the mass to be 
suppressed and abolished, as well in the 
head, as in the members, with punishment 
against the contraveners ; as also, the reli- 
gion professed to be established by act of 
parliament, it was answered, first, for her 
majesty's part, That her highness is no way 
yet persuaded in the said religion, nor yet 
that any impiety is in the mass ; and there- 
fore belie veth, that her loving subjects will 
not press her to receive any religion against 
her conscience, which should be unto her a 
continual trouble by remorse of conscience, 
and therewith a perpetual unquietness. 
And to deal plainly with her subjects, her 
majesty neither will, nor may leave the re- 
ligion wherein she hath been nourished and 
brought up ; and believeth the same to be 
well grounded ; knowing, besides the 



Book V.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



329 



grudge of conscience that she should re- 
ceive, upon the change of her own religion, 
that she should lose the friendship of the 
king of France, the married ally of this 
realm, and of other great princes, her 
friends and confederates, who would take 
the same in evil part, and of whom she 
m?.y look for their great support in all her 
necessities; and having no assured con- 
sideration that may countervail the same, 
she will be loath to put in hazard all her 
friends at an instant, praying all her loving 
subjects, seeing they have had experience 
of her goodness, that she hath neither in 
times past, nor yet intends hereafter, to 
press the conscience of any, but that they 
may worship God in such sort, as they are 
persuaded in their conscience to be best, 
that they will also not press her conscience. 
As to the establishing of religion in the 
body of the realm, they themselves know, 
as appears by their articles, that the same 
cannot be done only by consent of her ma- 
jesty, but requires, necessarily, the consent 
of the states in parliament; and, therefore, 
so soon as the parliament holds, those things 
which the states agree upon amongst them- 
selves, her majesty shall consent unto the 
same ; and in the meantime shall make 
sure, that no man be troubled for using re- 
ligion according, to conscience ; so that no 
man shall have cause to doubt, that for re- 
ligion's sake men's lives and heritage shall 
be in any hazard, 

" To the second article it is answered, 
That her majesty thinks it no ways reason- 
able, that she should defraud herself of so 
great a part of the patrimony of the crown, 
as to put the patronage of benefices forth 
of her own hands ; for her own necessity, 
in bearing of her part and common charges, 
will require the retention thereof, and that 
in a good part, in her own hands. Never- 
theless, her majesty is well pleased, that 
consideration being had of her own neces- 
sity; and what may be sufficient for the 
reasonable sustentation of the ministers, a 
special assignation be made to them in 
places most commodious and meet ; with 
which her majesty shall not meddle, but 
suffer the same to come to them. 

" To the third article, it is answered, 



That her majesty shall do kfeerx-iri as shall 
be agreed by the states in parliament. 

" To the fourth article, Her majesty's 
liberality towards the poor shall always be 
so far extended, as can be reasonably re- 
quired at her hands. 

" To the fifth and sixth articles, Her ma- 
jesty will refer the taking order therein, 
unto the states assembled in parliament." 

As the queen's majesty came from St 
Johnstone, over Forth to the Callendar,* she 
was conveyed to the water side of Forth 
with two hundred spears : for at that time 
it was bruited, that there were some lying 
in wait at the path of Drone. In the mean- 
time the earl of Murray was in Lochleven, 
and the earl of Argyle with him. Now, 
in the Callendar, the lord Livingston had 
desired the queen's majesty to be witness to 
the christening of a child ; for his lady was 
lately delivered and brought to bed : and 
when the minister made the sermon and 
exhortation concerning baptism, the queen's 
majesty came in the end, and said to the lord 
Livingston, that she would show him that 
favour that she had not done to any other 
before ; that is, that she would give her pre- 
sence to the protestant sermon, which was 
reckoned a great matter. 

The queen being in the Callendar, was 
informed both by word and letters, by false 
brethren, that a great part of the protestants 
of Edinburgh, had lately convened upon 
St Leonard's Craigs, and there made a con- 
spiration against her ; and had chosen for 
the same purpose, certain captains to go- 
vern the rest ; and without any trial, or 
perfect notice taken in the case, she sent to 
the provost and bailies of Edinburgh, com- 
manding them to take and apprehend Alex- 
ander Guthrie, Alexander Clerk, Gilbert 
Lauder, and Andrew Slater, and put them 
in prison in the castle. This new and un- 
accustomed fashion of proceeding seemed to 
be very strange : and because the said four 
persons were not apprehended, she sent the 
next day a charge to the provost and 
bailies, and to her own great treasurer, to 
pass to the houses of the said four men, and 



* Callendar House, in the vicinity of Falkirk. 



330 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. -d. 15St 



likewise to their booths or shops, and there 
to take inventory of all their goods and 
chattels; and commanded the said treasurer 
to take the keys of the said houses and 
booths, together with the said inventory ; 
which was executed in effect, especially 
upon the said Alexander Guthrie's wife, he 
being- then common clerk, and one of the 
greatest in estimation within the town ; his 
wife and children were shut out of their 
house, and compelled to seek some other 
lodging in the town. 

By this manner of proceeding - , the hearts 
of all men of spirit and judgment were 
wonderfully abashed and wounded, seeing 
and perceiving" these things so furiously 
handled upon sinister and wrong informa- 
tion; men never called to their answer, nor 
heard, nor any trial taken therein. Imme- 
diately thereafter, as she came to Edin- 
burgh, she called to council such as pleased 
her majesty, and there complains of the 
said matter, alleging it to be a conspiracy 
and manifest treason. And another matter 
likewise was complained upon, that the earl 
of Argyle — as the queen was surely in- 
formed — was riding with a great army to 
invade the earl of Athol and his lands. 
For the first matter, it was concluded by 
the council, that diligent inquisition should 
be made in the matter, and to that purpose 
appointed the queen's advocates, Mr John 
Spence of Condie, and Mr Robert Crich- 
ton, to examine such as they would ; and 
when the said advocates had called before 
them, and examined a sufficient number, 
and their depositions [were] subscribed and 
delivered to the queen, there was nothing 
found worthy of death nor treason : at 
length the said four persons were summon- 
ed to answer at law. 

For the matter, that the queen's majesty 
should send to the earls of Argyle and 
Athol, some of her council, or familiar ser- 
vants, to take order touching it. And when 
the secretary, the justice clerk, and lord of 
St Colm, had passed to the said earl of 
Argyle, they found no such thing; but in 
Athol there was great fear come of a sud- 
den fray ; for, after many proclamations, the 
fiery-cross — which they made use of in lieu 
of beacons — was raised in Athol. 



Now, as the day of the parliament ap- 
proached, the lords pretending to consult 
before, what should be done, as well in re- 
ligion, as for the commonwealth ; the 
fifteenth day of July, there convened at 
Stirling, the duke, the earls of Argyle and 
Murray, Rothes, and other lords and barons; 
and as they were devising and consulting, 
the queen's majesty taking their meeting 
in evil part, sent her advocates, Mr John 
Spence, and Mr Crichton, to them at Stir- 
ling, requiring the cause of their meeting. 
They answered, that the special occasion of 
their meeting was for the cause of religion, 
and the assurance thereof, according as they 
had lately written to the queen's majesty in 
Seaton, from the town of Edinburgh, they 
desiring then to prorogue the day. Final- 
ly, when the said advocates could by no 
means persuade them to come to Edin- 
burgh, they returned again to Edinburgh, 
and declared to the queen's majesty accord- 
ing as they had found. In the meantime 
the parliament was prorogued at the 
queen's majesty's command, to the first of 
September, next after following ; for it was 
thought, that the best part and principal of 
the chief nobility being absent, there could 
no parliament be held : at the same time, 
the queen's majesty perceiving that the 
matter was already come to a maturity and 
ripeness, so that the minds and secrecy of 
men's hearts must needs be disclosed, she 
wrote to a great number of lords, barons, 
gentlemen, and others that were nearest in 
Fife, Angus, Lothian, Merse, Teviotdale, 
Perth, Linlithgow, Clydesdale, and others, 
to resort to her, in this form of words here- 
after following : 

THE QUEEN'S LETTER. 

" Trusty friends, we greet you well ; we 
are grieved indeed by the evil bruit spread 
amongst our lieges, as that we should have 
molested any man in the using of his reli- 
gion and conscience freely, a thing which 
never entered into our mind ; yet, since we 
perceive the too easy believing such re- 
ports hath made them careless, and so we 
think it becomes us to be careful for the 
safety and preservation of our state ; where- 
fore, we pray you most affectionately, that 
with all possible haste — after the receipt of 



Book V.J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



331 



this our letter — you, Avitli your kindred, 
friends, and whole force, well furnished 
with arms for war — be provided for fifteen 
days after your coming- — address you to 
come to us, to wait and attend upon us, 
according- to our expectation and trust in 
you, as you will thereby declare the good 
affection you bear to the maintenance of 
our authority, and will do us therein ac- 
ceptable service. 

" Subscribed with our hand at Edin- 
burgh, the seventeenth day of July, 
1565." 

There was likewise proclamation made 
in Edinburgh, that the queen minded not 
to trouble, nor alter the religion ; and also 
proclamations made in the shires above 
mentioned, for the same purpose, that all 
freeholders, and other gentlemen, should 
resort — in the aforesaid manner — to Edin- 
burgh, where the earl of Ross was made 
duke of Rothsay, with great triumph, the 
23d day of July. The same afternoon the 
queen complained grievously upon the earl 
of Murray, in open audience of all the lords 
and barons ; and the same day the banns 
of the earl of Ross, and duke of Rothsay, 
and the queen's marriage were proclaimed. 
About this time the lord Erskine was made 
earl of Mar. 

In the meantime there were divers mes- 
sages sent from the queen's majesty to the 
lord of Murray, first Mr Robert Crichton, 
to persuade him by all means possible, to 
come and resort to the queen's majesty. 
His answer was, that he would be glad to 
come to herself, according to his bounden 
duty ; yet, forasmuch as such persons as 
were most privy in her company, were his 
capital enemies, who also had conspired his 
death, he could no ways come, so long as 
they were in court. Soon after, my lord 
Erskine, and the master of Maxwell, passed 
to him to St Andrews, rather suffered and 
permitted by the queen, than sent by her 
highness ; after them the laird of Dun, who 
was sent by the means of the earl of Mar: 
but all this did not prevail with him ; and 
when all hope of his coming was past, 



* The dispensation being come from Rome 
for the marriage ; before which, according to 
the Romish law, it was unlawful to marry, be- 



a herald was sent to him, charging him to 
come to the queen's maj'esty, and answer to 
such things as should be laid to his charge, 
within eight and forty hours next after the 
charge, under pain of rebellion ; and because 
he appeared not the next day after the 
eight and forty hours, he was denounced 
rebel, and put to the horn. The same 
order they used against the earl of Argyle, 
for the queen said she would serve him and 
the rest with the same measure they had 
meted to others, meaning the said Argyle. 

In the meanwhile, as the fire was well 
kindled and inflamed, all means and ways 
were sought, to stir up enemies against the 
chief protestants that had been lately at 
Stirling ; for the earl of Athol was ready 
bent against the earl of Argyle ; the lord 
Lindsay against the earl Rothes in Fife — 
they being both protestants — for they had 
contended now a long time for the heirship 
of Fife. And that no such thing should be 
left undone, the lord Gordon, who now had 
remained near three years in prison in 
Dunbar, was, after some little travail of his 
friends, received by the queen ; and being 
thus received into favour, was restored first 
to the lordship of Gordon, and soon after to 
the earldom of Huntly, and to all his lands, 
honours, and dignities, that he might be a 
bar and a party in the north to the earl of 
Murray. 

The 18th of July, late in the evening, 
near an hour after the sun's going down, 
there was a proclamation made at the mar- 
ket-cross of Edinburgh, containing in ef- 
fect : *— 

" That forasmuch as at the will and 
pleasure of Almighty God, the queen had 
taken to her husband a right excellent and 
illustrious prince, Henry, duke of Rothsay, 
earl of Ross, lord Darnley, therefore it was 
her will, that he should be held, and obey- 
ed, and reverenced as king; commanding 
all letters and proclamations to be made in 
the names of Henry and Mary in times com- 
ing." 

The next day following, at six hours in 
the morning, they were married in the 



ing cousins-german, brother and sister's chil- 
dren, and so the degree of consanguinity for- 
bidden. 



332 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1565 



chapel royal of Holyroodhouse, by the 
dean of Restalrig; the queen being- all 
clothed in mourning 1 : but immediately, as 
the queen went to mass, the king went not 
with her, but to his pastime. During- the 
space of three or four days, there was no- 
thing- but balling, and dancing, and ban- 
quetting. 

In the meantime, the earl Rothes, the 
laird of Grange, the tutor Pitcur, with 
some gentlemen of Fife, were put to the 
horn for non-appearance ; and immediately 
the swash, tabor, and drums, were stricken 
or beaten, for men of war to serve the 
king and queen's majesty, and to take their 
pay. This sudden alteration, and hasty 
creation of kings, moved, the hearts of a 
great number. Now, among the people there 
were divers bruits ; for some alleged, that 
the cause of this alteration w r as not for re- 
ligion, but rather for hatred, envy of sud- 
den promotion of dignity, or such worldly 
causes : but they that considered the pro- 
gress of the matter, according as is hereto- 
fore declared, thought the principal cause 
to be only for religion. In this meantime, 
the lords passed to Argyle, taking ap- 
parently little care of the trouble that was 
to come : how r beit they sent into England 
M. Nicholas Elphinston for support, who 
brought some monies into this country, to 
the sum of ten thousand pounds sterling. 
There came one forth of England to the 
queen, who got presence the seventh of 
August in Holyroodhouse. He was not 
well, &c. 

About the fifteenth of August, the lords 
met at Ayr, to wit, the duke Hamilton, 
the earls Argyle, Murray, Glencairn,Ixothes, 
the lords Boyd and Ochiltree, with divers 
barons and gentlemen of Fife and Kyle, 
where they concluded to be in readiness 
with their whole forces the four and twen- 
tieth day of August. But the king and 
queen with great celerity prevented them; 
for their majesties sent through Lothian, 
Fife, Angus, Strathearn, Teviotdale, and 
Clydesdale, and other shires, making their 
proclamations in this manner : — " That for- 
asmuch as certain rebe T s, who — under co- 
lour of religion — intended nothing but the 
trouble and subversion of the common- 



I wealth, w r ere to convene with such as they 
might persuade to assist them ; therefore, 
they charged all manner of men under pain 

| of life, lands, and goods, to resort and 
meet their majesties at Linlithgow, the 
24th day of August," This proclamation 
was made in Lothian the third day of the 
said month. 

Upon Sunday, the nineteenth of August, 
the king came to the High kirk of Edin- 
burgh, where John Knox made the ser- 
mon : his text w r as taken out of the six and 
twentieth chapter of Isaiah his prophecy, 
about the thirteenth verse, w r here in the 
words of the prophet, he said, " O Lord 
our God, other lords than thou have ruled 
over us." Yv hereupon he took occasion to 
speak of the government of wicked princes, 
who for the sins of the people are sent 
as tyrants and scourges to plague them : 
and among other things he said, " That 
God sets in that room — for the offences 
and ingratitude of the people — boys and 
women." And some other w r ords which ap- 
peared bitter in the king's ears, as, " That 
God justly punished Ahab and his posterity, 
because he would not take order with that 
harlot Jezebel." And because he had tarried 
an hour and more longer than the time ap- 
pointed, the king — sitting in a throne made 
for that purpose — was so moved at this ser- 
mon, that he would not dine; and being 
troubled, w r ith great fury he passed in the af- 
ternoon to the hawking. Immediately John 
Knox was commanded to come to the coun- 
cil, where in the secretary's chamber were 
convened the earl of Athol, the lord Ruth- 
ven, the secretary, the justice- clerk, with 
the advocate. There passed along with 
the minister a great number of the most 
apparent men of the town. "When he was 
called, the secretary declared, " That the 
king's majesty was offended with some 
words spoken in the sermon, — especially 
such as are above rehearsed, — desiring him 
to abstain from preaching for fifteen or 
twenty days, and let Mr Craig supply the 
place." He answered, " That he had spo- 
ken nothing but according to his text, and 
if the church would command him either 
to speak or abstain, he would obey, so far 

, as the word of God would permit him." 



Book V.J 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



333 



Within four days after, the king and 
queen sent to the council of Edinburgh, 
commanding- them to depose Archibald 
Douglas, and to receive the laird Craigmil- 
lar for their provost, which was presently 
obeyed. 

The five and twentieth of August, the 
king and queen's majesties passed from 
Edinburgh to Linlithgow, and from thence 
to Stirling, and from Stirling to Glasgow. 
At their first arrival, their whole people 
were not come. The next day after their 
arrival to Glasgow, the lords came to Pais- 
ley, where they remained that night, being 
in company about one thousand horses. 
On the morrow they came to Hamilton, 
keeping the high passage from Paisley 
hard by Glasgow, where the king and 
queen easily might behold them. The 
night following, which Mas the penult of 
August, they remained in Hamilton with 
their company ; but for divers respects 
moving them, they thought it not expe- 
dient to tarry ; especially, because the earl 
of Argyle was not come : for his diet was 
not before the second of September follow- 
ing, to have been at Hamilton. Finally, 
they took purpose to come to Edinburgh, 
the which they did the next day. xAnd al- 
beit Alexander Erskine, captain under the 
lord his brother, caused to shoot forth of 
the castle two shot of cannon, they being- 
near the town ; and likewise that the laird 
Craigmillar, provost, did his endeavour to 
hold the lords forth of the town, in causing 
the common bells to be rung for the con- 
vening of the town to the effect aforesaid ; 
yet they entered easily at the west port or 
gate, without any molestation or impedi- 
ment, being in number, as they esteemed 
themselves, one thousand three hundred 
horses. Immediately they despatched mes- 
sengers southward and northward to assist 
them; but all in vain: and immediately 
after they were in their lodgings, they cau- 
sed to strike or beat the drum, desiring all 
such men as would receive wages for the 
defence of the glory of God, that they 
should resort the day following to the 
church, where they should receive good 
pay; but they profited little that way; 



neither could they in Edinburgh get any 
comfort or support, for none or few resort- 
ed unto them ; yet they got more rest and 
sleep when they were at Edinburgh than 
they had done in five or six nights before. 

The noblemen of this company were, the 
duke, the earls Murray, Glencairn, and 
Rothes ; the lords Boyd and Ochiltree; the 
lairds of Grange, Cunninghamhead, Bal- 
comie, and Lawers, the tutor of Pitcur, 
the lairds of Barr, Carnell, and Dreghorn, 
and the laird of Pitarrow, comptroller, went 
with them ; some said merrily, that they 
were come to keep the parliament, for the 
parliament was continued till the first day 
of September ; upon the which day, they 
wrote to the king and queen's majesties a 
letter, containing in effect, that albeit they 
were persecuted most unjustly, which they 
understood proceeded not of the king and 
queen's majesty's own nature, but only by 
evil counsel, yet notwithstanding they were 
willing and content to suffer according to 
the laws of the realm, providing that the 
true religion of God might be established, 
and the dependents thereupon be likewise 
reformed: beseeching their majesties most 
humbly to grant these things ; but other- 
wise, if their enemies would seek their 
blood, they should understand it should be 
dear bought. They had written twice, al- 
most to the same effect, to the king and 
queen's majesties, after their passing from 
Edinburgh ; for the laird of Preston pre- 
sented a letter to the king and queen's ma- 
jesties, and was therefore imprisoned, but 
soon after released ; nevertheless they got 
no answer. The same day that they de- 
parted out of Hamilton, the king and 
queen's majesties issued out of Glasgow in 
the morning betimes, and passing towards 
Hamilton, the army met their majesties 
near the bridge of Calder. As they mus- 
tered, the master of Maxwell sat down 
upon his knees, and made a long oration to 
the queen, declaring what pleasure she had 
done to them, and ever laid the whole bur- 
den upon the earl Murray. Soon after, 
they marched forward in battle array ; the 
earl of Lennox took the vanguard, the 
earl of Morton the middle battle, and the 



334 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1565 



king and queen the rear. The whole num- 
ber were about five thousand men, whereof 
the greatest part were in the vanguard. 
As the king and queen's majesties were 
within three miles of Hamilton, they were 
advertised that the lords were departed in 
the morning; but where they pretended to 
be that night it was uncertain. Neverthe- 
less, soon after their return to Glasgow, the 
king and queen were certainly advertised 
that they were passed to Edinburgh ; and 
therefore caused immediately to warn the 
whole army to pass with them to Edin- 
burgh the next day, who early in the morn- 
ing, long before the sun was risen, began 
to march : but there arose such a vehe- 
ment tempest of wind and rain from the 
west,* as the like had not been seen be- 
fore in a long time ; so that a little brook 
turned incontinent into a great river; and 
the raging storm being in their face, with 
great difficulty went they forward : and al- 
beit the most part waxed weary, yet the 
queen's courage increased manlike so much, 
that she was ever with the foremost. There 
were divers persons drowned that day in the 
water of Carron ; and among others, the 
king's master, a notable papist, who for 
the zeal he bore to the mass, carried about 
his neck a round god of bread, well closed 
in a case, which notwithstanding could not 
serve [save] him. 

Before the end of August, there came a 
post to the queen's majesty, sent by Alex- 
ander Erskine, who declared, that the lords 
were in the town of Edinburgh, where there 
were a multitude of innocent persons, and 
therefore desired to know if he should shoot. 
She commanded incontinent that he should 
return again to the said Alexander, and 
command him, in her name, that he should 
shoot so long as he had either powder or 
bullet, and not spare for any body. 

At night, the king and queen came well 
wet to the Callander, where they remained 
that night, and about eight hours at night, 
the first of September, the post came again 
to the castle, and reported the queen's com- 



mand to Alexander Erskine, who inconti- 
nently caused to shoot six or seven shot of 
cannon, whereof the marks appeared, hav- 
ing respect to no reason, but only to the 
queen's command. 

The lords perceiving that they could get 
no support in Edinburgh, nor soldiers for 
money, albeit they had travailed all that 
they could; and being advertised of the 
queen's returning with her whole company, 
they took purpose to depart: and so the 
next day betimes, long before day, they de- 
parted with their whole company, and came 
to Lanark, and from thence to Hamilton, 
where the master of Maxwell came to 
them, with his uncle the laird of Drumlan- 
rig. And after consultation, the said mas- 
ter wrote to the queen's majesty, that 
being required by the lords as he was 
passing homeward, he could not refuse to 
come to them ; and after that he had given 
them counsel to disperse their army, they 
thought it expedient to pass to Dumfries 
to repose them, Avhere they would consult 
and make their officers, and send to their 
majesties ; and thus beseeching their ma- 
jesties to take this in good part. The town 
of Edinburgh sent two of the council of 
the town to make their excuse. The next 
day the king and queen passed to Stirling, 
and sent to Edinburgh, and caused a pro- 
I clamation to be made, commanding all men 
l to return to Glasgow, where having re- 
mained three or four days, and understand- 
j ing that the lords were passed to Dumfries, 
they returned to Stirling, and from thence 
to Fife ; and in their passage, caused to 
take in castle Campbell, which was deliver- 
ed without impediment to the lord of San- 
quhar. 

Before the king and queen went out of 
Stirling, there came from Edinburgh two 
ensigns of footmen to convey them into 
Fife. In the meantime the burghs were 
taxed in great sums unaccustomed, for the 
payment of these soldiers : farther, there 
was raised divers troops of horsemen, to the 
number of five or six hundred horse. The 



* Probably this is a misprint in the original 
for east ; as it is difficult to conceive how a west 



wind could have blown in their faces when pro- 
ceeding from Glasgow to Edinburgh. — Ed. 



Book V.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



335 



soldiers had taken two poor men that had 
received the lords' wages ; which [the] two 
men being accused and convicted of, at the 
queen's command, were hanged at Edin- 
burgh, the third day after the lords' depart- 
ing. At this time, Mr James Balfour, par- 
son of Flesk, had got all the guiding in 
the court. 

The third day after the queen's coming to 
Fife, the whole barons and lairds of Fife, 
convoyed her majesty, till she came to St 
Andrews, where the said lairds and barons, 
especially the protestants, were command- 
ed to subscribe to a bond, containing in ef- 
fect, that they obliged themselves to defend 
the king and queen's persons, against Eng- 
lishmen and rebels : and in case they should 
come to Fife, they should resist them to 
their utmost power; which charge every 
man obeyed. 

The second night after the queen's com- 
ing to St Andrews, she sent a band, or 
troop of horsemen, and another of foot, to 
Lundie, and at midnight took out the laird, 
being a man of eighty years old : then they 
past to Falside, and took likewise Thomas 
Scott, and brought him to St Andrews, 
where they, with the laird of Bavard, and 
some others, were commanded to prison. 
This manner of handling and usage being 
unknown and strange, was heavily spoken 
of, and a great terror to others, who thought 
themselves warned of greater severity to 
come. In the meantime the houses of the 
earls of Murray, Rothes, and the houses of 
divers gentlemen, were given in keeping to 
such as the queen pleased, after that their 
children and servants had been cast out. 
At the same time the duke, the earls of 
Glencairn and Argyle, the lords Boyd and 
Ochiltree, with the laird of Cunningham- 
head, and the rest, were charged to come 
and present themselves in St Andrews, be- 
fore the king and queen's majesties, to an- 
swer to such things as should be laid to 
their charge, within six days, under the 
pain of rebellion : and the day being ex- 
pired, and they not appearing, were de- 
nounced rebels, and put to the horn. 

As the queen remained in St Andrews, 
the inhabitants of Dundee, being sore 
afraid, because of some evil report made of 



them to the queen, as if they had troubled 
the queen, in seeking men of war, and suf- 
fered some to be raised in their town for 
the lords — for there was nothing done in 
Dundee, but it was revealed to the queen — 
especially that the minister had received a 
letter from the lords, and delivered the same 
to the brethren, persuading them to assist 
the lords ; which being granted by the mi- 
nister, the queen remitted it [for trial]. 
After great travail and supplication made 
by some noblemen, at length the king and 
queen being in the town, they agreed for two 
thousand merks, five or six of the principal 
left out, with some others, that were put to 
their shift. After the king and queen had 
remained two nights in the town of Dun- 
dee, they came to St Andrews ; and soon 
after, they came over Forth, and so to 
Edinburgh^ During this time the master 
of Maxwell wrote to the king and queen, 
making offers for, and in the name of the 
lords. 

The next day after the king and queen's 
coming to Edinburgh, there was a procla- 
mation made at the market-cross : and be- 
cause the same is very notable, I thought 
good to insert it here word by word, albeit 
it be somewhat long : 

" Henry and Mary, by the grace cf God, 
king and queen of Scots ; to all and 
sundry, our lieges and subjects whom 
it may concern, and to whose know- 
ledge these letters shall come, greeting. 
" Forasmuch as in this uproar lately 
raised up against us, by certain rebels and 
their assistants, the authors thereof — to 
blind the eyes of the simple people — have 
given them to understand, that the quarrel 
they have in hand is only religion, think- 
ing with that cloak to cover their un- 
godly designs, and so, under that plausible 
argument, to draw after them a large train 
of ignorant persons, easy to be seduced. 
Now, for the preservation of our good sub- 
jects, whose case were to be pitied if they 
blindly should suffer themselves to be in- 
duced and trapped in so dangerous a snare, 
it hath pleased the goodness of God, by 
the utterance of their own mouths and 
writings to us, to discover the poison that 
before lay hid in their hearts, albeit to all 



336 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1565 



persons of clear judgment, the same was 
evident enough before : for what other 
thing — is this, but to dissolve the whole 
policy, and in a manner to invert the very- 
order — might move the principal raisers of 
this tumult to put themselves in arms 
against us so unnaturally, upon whom we 
had bestowed so many benefits, but that the 
great honour we did them, they being 
thereof unworthy, made them misknow 
themselves ; and their ambition could not 
be satisfied with heaping riches upon riches, 
and honour upon honour, unless they retain 
in their hands us, and our whole realm, to 
be led, used, and disposed at their pleasure. 
But this could not the multitude have per- 
ceived, if God — for disclosing their hypo- 
crisy — had not compelled them to utter 
their unreasonable desire to govern ; for 
now by letters, sent from themselves to us, 
which make plain profession, that the esta- 
blishing of religion will not content them, 
but we must be forced to govern by coun- 
cil, such as it shall please them to appoint 
us ; a thing so far beyond all measure, that 
we think the only mention of so unreason- 
able a demand is sufficient to make their 
nearest kinsfolks their most mortal enemies, 
and all men to run on them without further 
scruple, that are zealous to have their 
native country to remain still in the state 
of a kingdom : for what other thing is this, 
but to dissolve the whole policy ; and, in a 
manner, to invert the very order of nature, 
to make the prince obey, and subjects com- 
mand. The like was never demanded by [of] 
any of our most noble progenitors hereto- 
fore, yea, not of governors and regents ; but 
the prince, and such as have filled their 
place, chose their council of such as they 
thought most fit for the purpose. When 
we ourselves were of less age, and at our 
first returning into this our realm, we had 
free choice of our council at our pleasure, 
and now, when we are at our full maturity, 
shall we be brought back to the state of 
pupils, and be put under tutory ? So long 
as some of them bore the whole sway with 
us, this matter was never called in ques- 
tion ; but now, when they cannot be longer 
permitted to do and undo all at their plea- 
sure, they will put a bridle into our mouths, 



I and give us a council chosen after their 
i fantasy. This is the quarrel of religion 
! they made you believe they had in hand : 
I this is the quarrel for which they would 
have you hazard your lands, lives, and 
goods, in the company of a certain number 
of rebels against your natural prince. To 
speak in good language, they would be 
kings themselves, or at the least leaving to 
us the bare name and title, and take to 
themselves the credit and whole adminis- 
tration of the kingdom. 

We have thought good to make publi- 
cation hereof, to show, that you suffer not 
yourselves to be deceived under pretence 
of religion, to follow them, who preferring 
their particular advancement to the public 
tranquillity, and having no care of you in 
respect of themselves, w^ould — if you would 
hearken to their voice — draw you after 
them, to your utter destruction. Assuring 
you, that as you have heretofore good ex- 
perience of our clemency, and under our 
wifigs enjoyed in peace the possession of 
your goods, and lived at liberty of your 
conscience, so may you be in full assurance 
of the like hereafter, and have us always 
your good and loving princess, to so many 
as shall continue yourselves in due obedi- 
ence, and do the office of faithful and natu- 
ral subjects. 

" Given under our signet at St An- 
drews, the tenth of December, and 
of our reigns the first and tw T enty 
three years, 1565." 
Now r , the lords desired, next to the esta- 
blishing of religion, that the queen's ma- 
jesty, in all the affairs of the realm and 
commonwealth, should use the counsel and 
advice of the nobility and ancient blood of 
the same ; w hereas, in the meantime, the 
counsel of David, and Francisco, the Ita- 
lians, with Fowler, the Englishman, and 
Mr James Balfour, parson of Flisk, was pre- 
ferred above all others, save only the earl 
of Athol, who was thought to be a man of 
gross judgment, but nevertheless in all 
things given to please the queen. It w r as 
now finally come to this point, that instead 
of law, justice, and equity, only will ruled 
in all things. There was through all the 
country set out a proclamation in the king 



Book V.] OF RELIGION 

and queen's names, commanding all persons 
to come and meet them at Stirling, the 
first day of October following, with twenty 
days' provision, under pain of life, lands, 
and goods. It was uncertain whether their 
majesties intended to pass from Stirling or 
not, and I believe the principal men knew 
not well at that time ; for a report was, 
that by reason the castles of Hamilton and 
Draffen were kept fortified and victualled 
at the duke's command, that they would 
pass to siege the said houses, and give them 
some shot of a cannon ; others said, they 
w-ould pass towards my lord of Argyie, who 
had his people always armed, whereof his 
neighbours were afraid, especially the inha- 
bitants of Athol and Lennox ; but at length 
it was concluded that they should pass to 
Dumfries, as shall be declared. 

During this time there were propositions 
made continually to the king and queen, by 
the lords, desiring always their majesties 
most humbly to receive them into their 
hands. Their articles tended continually 
to these two heads, viz. to abolish the mass, 
root out idolatry, and establish the true re- 
ligion ; and that they, and the affairs of the 
realm, should be governed by the advice 
and counsel of the true nobility of the same; 
offering themselves, and their cause, to be 
tried by the laws of the country. Yet no- 
thing could be accepted nor taken in good 
part, albeit the master of Maxwell laboured 
by all means to redress the matter, who 
also entertained the lords most honourably 
in Dumfries, for he had the government of 
all that country. But he himself incurred 
the queen's wrath so, that he was summon- 
ed to present himself, and appear before the 
king and queen's majesties, after the same 
form that the rest of the lords were charged 
with ; and also commanded to give over the 
house of Lochmaben, and the castle, which 
he had in keeping for the queen. And, al- 
beit he obeyed not, yet was he not put to 
the horn, as the rest. Nevertheless, there 
was no man that doubted of his good will 
and partaking with the lords, who, in the 
meantime sent Robert Melvin to the queen 
of England, and declared their state to her 
majesty, desiring support. 

Now, the chief care and solicitude that 



IN SCOTLAND. 337 

was in the court, was, by what means they 
might come to have money ; for, notwith- 
standing this great preparation for war, and 
imminent appearance of trouble, yet were 
they destitute of the sinews of war. Al- 
beit the treasurers, and new comptroller, to 
wit, the laird of Tullibardine, had disbursed 
many thousands, yet there was no appear- 
ance of payment of soldiers, nor scarcely 
how the king and queen's houses and 
pompous trains should be upholden ; there 
were about six hundred horsemen, besides 
the guard, and three ensigns of footmen. 
The charge of the whole would amount to 
,£1000 sterling every month ; a thing sur- 
passing the usual manner of Scotland. At 
this time arrived the earl of Bothwell, who 
was welcome, and graciously received by 
the queen, and immediately placed in coun- 
cil, and made lieutenant of the west and 
middle marches. Now, as every one of the 
barons compounded to be exempted from 
this meeting ; the earl of Athol demanded 
of Edinburgh .£200 sterling, but they re- 
fused to pay it ; notwithstanding, October 
27th, there was a certain number of the 
principal and rich persons of the town 
warned by a macer to pass to the palace of 
Holyrood-house to the king and queen, 
who declared to thern by their own mouth's 
speaking, that they had use for money, and 
therefore knowing them to be honest men, 
and the inhabitants of the best city in their 
country, they must needs charge them ; 
and for security they should have other 
men bound for pledges, or any hand there- 
fore. The sum that they desired was £1000 
sterling, and no less. They being astonish- 
ed, made no answer ; but parson Flisk 
standing by, said, that seeing the king and 
queen's majesties desired them so civilly, 
in a thing most lawful in their necessity, 
they did show themselves not honest to 
keep silence and give no answer to their 
majesties, for that must needs be had 
of them which was required ; and if they 
would not, they should be constrained 
by the laws, which they would not abide ; 
for some of them had deserved hanging — 
said he — because they had lent large sums 
of money to the king and queen's enemies 
and rebels ; and, therefore, they must short- 



33S 



HISTORY Ob THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1565 



ly suffer great punishment. Soon after 
they were called in one by one, and de- 
manded how much they would lend? 
Some made this excuse, and some that, by 
reason there were that offered to lend 
money, amongst whom there was one 
offered to lend £20. To him the earl of 
Athol said, thou art worthy to be hanged 
that speakest of £20, seeing the princes 
charge thee so easily. Finally, they were 
all imprisoned, and soldiers set over them, 
having their muskets ready charged, and 
their match lighted, even in the house with 
them, where they remained all that night, 
and the next day till night ; and then being 
changed from one prison to another, there 
were six chosen out, and sent in the night 
to the castle of Edinburgh, convoyed with 
musketeers round about them, as if they 
had been murderers, or most vile persons. 
At length — the third day — by means of the 
laird of Craigmillar, provost, and some 
others, the sum was made more easy, to 
wit, 1000 merks sterling, to be paid im- 
mediately, and to have the superiority of 
Leith in pledge, to wit, upon condition of 
redemption. And besides the said sum of 
1000 merks sterling, they paid £1000 
sterling for the meeting at Dumfries. At 
the day appointed for electing the officers 
[magistrates], the queen sent in a ticket, 
such as she would have them to choose for 
provost, bailies, and council, whereof there 
was a number of papists, the rest not 
worthy. Of the number given in by the 
queen, they named such as should rule for 
that year; notwithstanding, without free 
election, the laird Craigmillar remained 
provost, who showed himself most willing 
to set forward religion, to punish vice, and 
to maintain the commonwealth. All this 
time the ministers cried out against the 
mass, and such idolatry ; for it was more 
advanced by the queen than before. 

The first day of October, met in Edin- 
burgh the superintendent of Lothian, with 
all the ministers under his charge, accord- 
ing to their ordinary custom; for every 
superintendent used to convene the whole 
ministry, and there it was complained on, 
that they could get no payment of their 
stipends, not only about the city, but 



throughout the whole realm. Therefore, 
after reasoning and consultation taken, they 
framed a supplication directed to the king 
and queen, and immediately presented the 
same to their majesties, by Mr John Spots- 
wood, superintendent of Lothian, and Mr 
David Lindsay, minister of Leith. It con- 
tained in effect, that forasmuch as it had 
pleased the king and queen's majesties — 
with advice of the privy council — to grant 
unto the ministers of the word their sti- 
pends to be taken of the thirds of the bene- 
fices, which stipends are now detained from 
the said ministers, by reason of the troubles 
and changing of the comptroller, whereby 
they are not able to live ; and, therefore, 
most humbly craveth the king and queen's 
majesties to cause them to be paid. Their 
answer was, that they would cause order 
to be taken therein to their contentment. 

Soon after the lord Gordon came to 
Edinburgh, and left the most part of his 
people at Stirling with his carriage ; the 
king and queen, for hope of his good service 
to be done, restored him to his father's 
place, to the earldom of Huntly, the lands 
and heritage thereof. October 8th, the 
king and queen marched forth of Edin- 
burgh towards Dumfries, and as they passed 
from the palace of Holyrood-house, all men 
were warned with jack and spear. The 
first night they came to Skerling, and the 
next to Crawford. The day after, the lairds 
of Drumlanrig and Lochinvar met the 
queen, albeit they had been with the lords 
familiar enough. The lords perceiving that 
all hope of reconciliation was past, they 
rode to Annan, where they remained till 
the queen came to Dumfries, and then they 
passed to Carlisle. Now, the master of 
Maxwell, who had entertained the lords 
familiarly, and subscribed with them, and 
had spoken as highly against their enemies 
as any of themselves, and had received 
large money by that means, to wit, ^1000, 
to raise a band or troop of horsemen ; and 
that the same day the king and queen came 
to Dumfries. The third day after their 
coming he came to them, conveyed by the 
earl Bothwell, with divers other noblemen. 
At length the earls of Athol and Huntly 
were sureties for him, and all things past 



Book V.} 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



339 



remitted, upon condition that he should be 
a faithful and obedient subject hereafter. 
The same day they made musters, the next 
day the army was dispersed, being about 
18,000 men; the king and queen passed to 
Lochmaben, where the master of Maxwell 
gave a banquet, and then forthwith march- 
ed to Tweeddale, so to Peebles, and then to 
Edinburgh. 

The best and chief part of the nobility of 
this realm, who also were the principal in- 
struments of the reformation of religion, 
and therefore were called the lords of the 
congregation, in manner above rehearsed, 
were banished and chased into England. 
They were courteously received and enter- 
tained by the earl of Bedford, lieutenant, 
upon the borders of England. Soon after 
the earl of Murray took post towards Lon- 
don, leaving the rest of the lords at New- 
castle. Every man supposed that the earl 
of Murray should have been graciously re- 
ceived of the queen of England, and that 
he should have got support according to 
his heart's desire ; but far beyond his ex- 
pectation, he could get no audience of the 
queen of England : but by means of the 
French ambassador, called Monsieur de 
Four, his true friend, he obtained audi- 
ence. The queen, with a fair counte- 
nance, demanded, how he, being a rebel 
to her sister of Scotland, durst take the 
boldness upon him to come within her 
realm ? These, and the like words got 
he, instead of the good and courteous en- 
tertainment expected. Finally, after pri- 
vate discourse, the ambassador being 
absent, she refused to give the lords any 
support, denying plainly that ever she had 
promised any such thing as to support 
them, saying, she never meant any such 
thing in that way ; albeit her greatest fami- 
liars knew the contrary. In the end, the 
earl of Murray said to her, " Madam, what- 
soever thing your majesty meant in your 
heart, we are thereof ignorant ; but thus 
much we know assuredly, that we had late- 
ly faithful promises of aid and support by 
your ambassador, and familiar servants, in 
your name : and further, we have your 
own handwriting confirming the said pro- 
mises." And afterward he took his leave, 
and came northward from London, towards 



Newcastle. After the earl of Murray's de- 
parture from the court, the queen sent 
them some aid, and wrote unto the queen 
of Scotland in their favour : whether she 
had promised it in private to the earl of 
Murray, or whether she had repented her 
of the harsh reception of the earl of Mur- 
ray [it is impossible to say]. 

At this time David Rizzio, Italian, began 
to be higher exalted, insomuch as there was 
no matter or thing of importance done with- 
out his advice. And during this time, the 
faithful within this realm were in great 
fear, looking for nothing but great trouble 
and persecution to be shortly. Yet suppli- 
cations and intercessions were made 
throughout all the congregations, especially 
for such as were afflicted and banished, 
that it would please God to give them pa- 
tience, comfort, and constancy ; and this 
especially was done at Edinburgh, where 
John Knox used to call them that were 
banished, the best part of the nobility, chief 
members of the congregation : whereof the 
courtiers being advertised, they took occa- 
sion to revile and bewray his sayings, alleg- 
ing, he prayed for the rebels, and desired 
the people to pray for them likewise. The 
laird of Lethington, chief secretary, in pre- 
sence of the king and queen's majesties and 
council, confessed that he heard the ser- 
mons, and said, there was nothing at that 
time spoken by the minister, whereat any 
man need to be offended : and further, de- 
clared plainly, that by the scripture it was 
lawful to pray for all men. 

In the end of November, the lords, with 
their complices, were summoned to appear 
the fourth day of February, for treason, 
and Icese majestic ; but, in the meantime, 
such of the nobility as had professed the 
evangel of Christ, and had communicated 
with the brethren at the Lord's table, were 
ever longer the more suspected by the 
queen, who began to declare herself in the 
months of November and December, to be 
maintainer of the papists : for at her plea- 
sure, the earls of Lennox, Athol, and Cas- 
siis, with divers others, without any dissi- 
mulation known, went to the mass openly 
in her chapel : yet, nevertheless, the earls 
of Huntly and Bot h well went not to mass, 
albeit they were in great favour with the 



340 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1565 



queen. As for the king-, he passed his time 
in huntiDg and hawking, and such other 
pleasures as were agreeable to his appetite, 
having in his company gentlemen willing 
to satisfy his will and affections. 

About this time, in the beginning of 

as the court remained at Edinburgh, 
the banished lords, by all means possible, 
by writings and their friends, made suit and 
means to the king and queen's majesties to 
be received into favour. At this time, the 
abbot of Kilwinning came from Newcastle 
to Edinburgh, and after he had got au- 
dience of the king and queen, with great 
difficulty he got pardon for the duke and 
his friends and servants, upon this condi- 
tion, that he should pass into France, which 
he did soon after. 

The five and twentieth of December con- 
vened in Edinburgh the commissioners of 
the churches within this realm for the ge- 
neral assembly. There assisted to them 
the earls of Morton and Mar, the lord 
Lindsay and secretary Lethington, with 
some barons and gentlemen. The principal 
things that were agreed and concluded, 
were, that forasmuch as the mass, with 
such idolatry and papistical ceremonies, 
was still maintained expressly against the 
act of parliament, and the proclamations 
made at the queen's arrival ; and that the 
queen had promised that she would hear 
conference and disputation : that the church 
therefore offered to prove by the word of 
God, that the doctrine preached within this 
realm was according to the scriptures ; and 
that the mass, with all the papistical doc- 
trine, was but the invention of men, and 
mere idolatry. Secondly, That by reason 
of the change of the comptroller, who had 
put in new collectors, forbidding them to 
deliver any thing to the ministry, by these 
means the ministry was like to decay and 
fail, contrary to the ordinance made in the 
year of God 1562, in favour and support of 
the ministry. 

During this time, as the papists flocked 
to Edinburgh for making court, some of 
them that had been friars, as black Aber- 



crombie and Roger, presented supplication 
to the queen's majesty, desiring in effect, 
that they might be permitted to preach, 
which was easily granted. The noise was 
further, that they offered disputation : for 
as the court stood, they thought they had 
a great advantage already, by reason they 
knew the king to be of their religion, as 
well as the queen, with some part of the 
nobility, who with the king after declared 
themselves openly. And especially the 
queen was governed by the earls of Lennox 
and Athol ; but in matters most weighty 
and of greatest importance, by David Riz- 
zio, the Italian before mentioned, who went 
under the name of the French secretary; 
by whose means all grave matters, of what 
weight soever, must pass ; providing always 
that his hands were anointed. In the mean- 
time, he was a manifest enemy to the evan- 
gel, and therefore a greater enemy to the 
banished lords. And at this time, the prin- 
cipal lords that waited at court were divid- 
ed in opinions ; for the earl of Morton, 
chancellor, with the earl of Mar, and secre- 
tary Lethington, were on the one part, and 
the earls of Huntly and Bothwell on the 
other part, so that a certain dryness was 
among them ; nevertheless, by means of 
the earl of Athol, they were reconciled. 
Now r , as there was preparation made by the 
papists for Christmas, the queen being then 
at mass, the king came publicly and bore 
company; and the friars preached the days 
following, always using another style than 
they had done seven years before, during 
which time they had not preached publicly; 
they were so little esteemed, that they con- 
tinued not long in preaching. 

At the same time, convened in Edin- 
burgh the general assembly of the minis- 
ters, and commissioners of the churches re- 
formed, within this realm ; there assisted 
them of the nobility, the earls of Morton 
and Mar, the lord Lindsay, and secretary 
Lethington, with others. The chief things 
that were concluded in this assembly were, 
that for the avoiding of the plagues and 
scourges of God, which appeared to come 



Book V.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



341 



upon the people for their sins and ingrati- 
tude, there should be proclaimed by the 
ministers a public fast, to be universally 
observed throughout all the reformed 
churches ; which manner of fasting- was 
soon after devised by John Knox, at the 
command of the church, and put in print, 
wherefore needs not here to be recited in 
this place. What followed upon the said 
fast shall be plainly, God willing, declared. 
The second thing that was ordained in this 
assembly, was concerning the ministers, 
who for want of payment of their stipends, 
were like to perish, or else to leave their 
ministry; wherefore it was found neces- 
sary, that supplication should be made to 
the king and queen's majesties : and for 
the same purpose, a certain number of the 
most able men were elected to go to their 
majesties aforesaid, to lament and bemoan 
their case, which persons had commission 
to propose some other things, as shall be 
declared. The names of them that passed 
from the church to the king and queen's 
majesties were, Mr John Spots wood, su- 
perintendent of Lothian ; John Winram, su- 
perintendent of Fife ; Mr John Row, mi- 
nister of Perth ; Mr David Lindsay, minister 
of Leith ; who easily obtained audience of 
the king and queen's majesties : and after 
their reverence done, Mr John Row, in 
name of the rest, opened the matter, lament- 
ing and bewailing the miserable state of the 
poor ministers, who by public command 
had been reasonably satisfied three years 
or more, by virtue of the act made with 
advice of the honourable privy council, for 
the taking up of the thirds of the benefices, 
which was especially made in their favours : 
nevertheless, the laird of Tullibardine, new 
comptroller, would answer them nothing ; 
wherefore, they besought their majesties 
ibr relief. Secondly, Seeing that in all 
supplications made to the king and queen's 
majesties by the church at all times, they 
desired most earnestly that all idolatry and 
superstition, and especially the mass, should 
be rooted out and abolished quite cut of 
this realm ; and that in the last general as- 
sembly of the church, by their commission- 
ers, they had most earnestly desired the 



same ; and that their answer was then, 
that they knew no impediment in the 
mass ; therefore, the assembly desired, that 
it might please their highnesses to hear 
disputation, to the end that such as now 
pretend to preach in the chapel royal, and 
maintain such errors, the truth being tried 
by disputation, that they might be known 
to be abusers, submitting themselves al- 
ways to the word of God written in the 
scriptures. To this it was answered by 
the queen, that she was always minded 
that the ministers should be paid their sti- 
pends ; and if there was any fault therein, 
the same came by some of their own sort 
— meaning the comptroller Pitarrow — who 
had the handling of the thirds: always 
[nevertheless] by the advice of her council, 
she should cause such order to be taken 
therein, that none should have occasion to 
complain. As to the second, she would 
not jeopard her religion upon such as were 
there present ; for she knew well enough 
that the protestants were more learned. 
The ministers and commissioners of church- 
es perceiving nothing but delay, and driv- 
ing off time in the old manner, went home 
every one to their own churches, waiting 
upon the good providence of God, continu- 
ally making supplication unto Almighty 
God, that it would please him of his mercy 
to remove the apparent plague. And in 
the meantime the queen was busied with 
banquetting about with some of the lords of 
the session of Edinburgh, and after with all 
men of law, having continually in her com- 
pany David Rizzio, who sat at the table 
near to herself, sometimes more privately 
than became a man of his condition, for his 
over-great familiarity was already suspect- 
ed ; and it was thought, that by his advice 
alone the queen's sharpness and extremity 
towards the lords was maintained. 

In the end of January, arrived an ambas- 
sador from France, named Monsieur Ram- 
bullet, having with him about forty horse 
in train, who came through England. He 
brought with him the order of the Cockle 
from the king of France, to the king, who 
received the same at the mass, in the 
chapel of the palace of Holyrood-house. 



312 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1566 



There assisted the earls of Lennox, Athol, 
and Eglinton, with divers such other pa- 
pists as would please the queen, who, three 
days after, caused the herald to convene in 
council, and reasoned what arms should be 
given to the king. Some thought he should 
have the arms of Scotland ; some others 
said, seeing it was not concluded in parlia- 
ment, that he should have the crown matri- 
monial, he could have arms, but only as 
duke of Rothsay, earl of Ross, &c. The 
queen bade give him only his due ; where- 
by it was perceived her love waxed cold to- 
wards him. Finally, his arms were left 
blank ; and the queen caused put her own 
name before her husband's in all writs ; 
and thereafter she caused to leave out his 
name wholly : and because formerly he had 
signed every thing of any moment, she 
caused to make a seal like the king's, and 
gave it to David Rizzio, who made use of 
it by the queen's command, alleging, that 
the king, being at his pastime, could not al- 
ways be present. 

About the same time the earl of Glen- 
cairn came from Berwick to his own coun- 
try. Soon after, the earl of Both well was 
married unto the earl of Huntly's sister. 
The queen desired that the marriage might 
be made in the chapel at the mass ; which 
the earl Bothwell would in no wise grant. 
Upon Sunday, the third day of March, be- 
gan the fasting at Edinburgh. The seventh 
day of March, the queen came from the 
palace of Holyrood-house to the town, in 
wondrous gorgeous apparel, albeit the num- 
ber of lords and train was not very great. 
In the meantime the king, accompanied 
with seven or eight horse, went to Leith, 
to pass his time there, for he was not like to 
get the crown matrimonial. 

In the tolbooth were devised and named 
the heads of the articles that were drawn 
against the banished lords. Upon the mor- 
row, and Saturday following, there was 
great reasoning concerning the attainder : 
some alleged that the summons was not 
well libelled or dressed; others thought 
the matter of treason was not sufficiently 
proved ; and, indeed, they were still seek- 
ing proof, for there was no other way but 
the queen would have them all attainted, 



albeit the time was very short ; the twelfth 
day of March should have been the day, 
which was the Tuesday following. Now, 
the matter was stayed by a marvellous tra- 
gedy, for by the lords — upon the Saturday 
before, which was the ninth of March, 
about supper-time — David Rizzio, the Ita- 
lian, named the French secretary, was slain 
in the gallery, below stairs — the king stay- 
ing in the room with the queen, told her, 
that the design was only to take order with 
that villain — after that he had been taken 
violently from the queen's presence, who 
requested most earnestly for the saving of 
his life ; which act was done by the earl of 
Morton, the lord Ruthven, the lord Lind- 
say, the master of Ruthven, with divers 
other gentlemen. They first purposed to 
have hanged him, and had provided cords 
for the same purpose ; but the great haste 
which they had, moved them to despatch 
him with whingers or daggers, wherewith 
they gave him three and fifty strokes. 
They sent away, and put forth all such 
persons as they suspected. The earls Both- 
well and Huntly hearing the noise and cla- 
mour, came suddenly to the close, intend- 
ing to have made work, if they had had a 
party strong enough ; but the earl Morton 
commanded them to pass to their chamber, 
or else they should do worse : at the which 
words they retired immediately, and so 
passed forth at a back window they two 
alone, and with great fear came forth of the 
town to Edmondstone, on foot, and from 
thence to Crichton. This David Rizzio 
was so foolish, that not only he had drawn 
unto him the managing of all affairs, the 
king [being] set aside, but also his equipage 
and train did surpass the king's ; and at the 
parliament that was to be, he was ordained 
to be chancellor; which made the lords 
conspire against him. They made a bond 
to stand to the religion and liberties of the 
country, and to free themselves of the sla- 
very of the villain David Rizzio. The king 
and his father subscribed to the bond, for 
they durst not trust the king's word with- 
out his signet. 

There was a French priest, called John 
Daniot, who advised David Rizzio to make 
his fortune, and begone, for the Scots 



Book V.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



343 



would not suffer him long. His answer 
was, that the Scots would brag but not 
fight. Then he advised him to beware of 
the bastard : to this he answered, that the 
bastard should never live in Scotland, in 
his time — he meant the earl Murray — but 
it happened, that one George Douglas, 
bastard son to the earl of Angus, gave him 
the first stroke. The queen, when she 
heard he was dead, left weeping, and de- 
clared she would study revenge, which she 
did. 

Immediately it was noised in the town 
of Edinburgh, that there was murder com- 
mitted within the king's palace, wherefore 
the provost caused to ring the common 
bell, or " sonner le tocsin," — as the French 
speak — and straightway passed to the pa- 
lace, having about four or five hundred 
men in warlike manner ; and as they stood 
in the outer court, the king called to the 
provost, commanding him to pass home 
with his company, saying, the queen and 
he were merry. But the provost desired 
to hear the queen speak herself ; whereun- 
to it was answered by the king, " Provost, 
know you not that I am king ? I command 
you to pass home to your houses ;" and im- 
mediately they retired. The next day — 
which was the second Sunday of our fast 
in Edinburgh — there was a proclamation 
made in the king's name, subscribed with 
his hand, that all bishops, abbots, and other 
papists should avoid and depart the town ; 
which proclamation was indeed observed, 
for they had a " flea in their hose." There 
were letters sent forth in the king's name, 
and subscribed with his hand, to the pro- 
vost and bailies of Edinburgh, the bailies of 
Leith and Canongate, commanding them to 
be ready in armour to assist the king and 
his company, and likewise other private 
writings directed to divers lords and gentle- 
men, to come with all expedition. In the 
meantime, the queen, being above measure 
enraged, offended, and troubled, as the issue 
of the matter declared, sometimes railing 
upon the king, and sometimes crying out 
at the windows, desired her servants to set 
her at liberty ; for she was highly offend- 
ed and troubled. 

This same tenth of March, the earl of 



Murray, with the rest of the lords and 
noblemen that were with him, having re- 
ceived the king's letter — for after the bond, 
above named, was subscribed, the king 
wrote unto the banished lords to return in- 
to their country, being one of the articles of 
the said bond — came at night to the abbey, 
being also convoyed by the lord Hume, and 
a great company of the borderers, to the 
number of a thousand horses. And, first, 
after he had presented himself to the king, 
the queen was informed of his sudden com- 
ing, and therefore sent unto him, command- 
ing him to come to her ; and he obeying, 
went to her, who, with a singular gravity 
received him, after that he had made his 
purgation, and declared the over-great af- 
fection which he bore continually to her 
majesty. The earls of Athol, Caithness, 
and Sutherland, departed out of the town, 
with the bishops, upon the Monday, the 
third day after the slaughter of David 
Rizzio. The earls of Lennox, Murray, 
Morton, and Rothes, lords Ruthven, Lind- 
say, Boyd, and Ochiltree, sitting in council, 
desired the queen, that forasmuch as the 
thing which was done could not be undone, 
that she w r ould — for avoiding of greater in- 
conveniences — forget the same, and take it 
as good service, seeing there were so many 
noblemen restored. The queen dissembling 
her displeasure and indignation, gave good 
words, nevertheless she desired, that all 
persons armed or otherwise — being within 
the palace at that time— should remove, 
leaving the palace void of all, saving only 
her domestic servants. The lords being 
persuaded by the uxorious king, and the 
facile earl of Murray, condescended to her 
desire, who finally, the next morning, two 
hours before day, passed to Seaton, and 
then to Dunbar, having in her company the 
simple king, who was allured by her sugar- 
ed words. From Dunbar immediately were 
sent pursuivants with letters throughout 
the country ; and especially letters to the 
noblemen and barons, commanding them to 
come to Dunbar, to assist the king and 
queen within five days. In the meantime 
the lords being informed of the sudden de- 
parture, they were astonished, and knew 
not what were best for them to do ; but be- 



344. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1566 



cause it was the self-same day — to wit, the 
twelfth day of March — that they were sum- 
moned unto ; therefore, having good oppor- 
tunity, they passed to the tolbooth, which 
was richly hung with tapestry, and adorned 
— but not for them — and set themselves, 
making protestations, the earl of Glencairn, 
and some others, being present. The earl 
of Argyle, who was written for by the king, 
came to Linlithgow ; and being informed of 
the matter, he remained there. 

After this manner above specified, to wit, 
by the death of David Rizzio, the noble- 
men were relieved of their trouble, and re- 
stored to their places and rooms ; and like- 
wise the church reformed, and all that pro- 
fessed the evangel within this realm, after 
fasting and prayer, were delivered and freed 
from the apparent dangers which were like 
to have fallen upon them ; for if the parlia- 
ment had taken effect, and proceeded, it was 
thought by all men of the best judgment, 
that the true protestant religion should 
have been wrecked, and popery erected ; 
and for the same purpose, there were cer- 
tain wooden altars made, to the number of 
twelve, found ready in the chapel of the 
palace of Holyrood-house, which should 
have been erected in St Giles' church. 

The earls Bothwell and Huntly being in- 
formed of the king and queen's sudden de- 
parture forth of Edinburgh, came to Dun- 
bar, where they were most graciously re- 
ceived by the queen's majesty ; who con- 
sulted with them and the master of Max- 
well, together with parson Owen, and par- 
son Flisk, chief counsellors, what was best 
to be done, and Iioav she should be revenged 
upon the murderers. At first they did in- 
tend to go forward, and leaving no manner 
of cruelty unpractised, putting to death all 
such as were suspected : this was the opin- 
ion of such as would obey their queen's 
rage and fury for their own advantage; but 
in the end they concluded, that she should 
come to Edinburgh, with all the force and 
power she could make, and there proceed to 
justice : and for the same purpose, she caused 
to summon, by open proclamation, all per- 
sons of defence, and all noblemen and gentle- 
men, to come to her in Dunbar incontinent. 
In the meantime, the captains laboured by 



all means to take up, and enroll men and 
women. The earls of Morton, Murray, 
Glencairn, Rothes, with the rest that were 
in Edinburgh, being informed of the queen's 
fury and anger towards the committers of 
the slaughter ; and perceiving they were 
not able to make any party, thought it best 
to give place to her fury for a time, for 
they were divided in opinions, and finally, 
departed out of Edinburgh, upon Sunday 
the seventeenth of March, every one a se- 
veral way ; for the queen's majesty was 
now bent only against the slayers of David 
Rizzio; and to the purpose she might be 
the better revenged upon them, she intend- 
ed to give pardon to all such as before had 
been attainted, for whatsoever crime. 

The eighteenth day of March, the king 
and queen came to Edinburgh, having in 
their company horse and foot, to the num- 
ber of 8000 men ; whereof there were four 
companies of footmen of war. The town 
of Edinburgh went out to meet them, for 
fear of war. And, finally, coming within 
the town, in most awful manner they 
caused to place their men of war within 
the town, and likewise certain field-pieces 
against their lodging, which was in the 
middle of the town, over against the Salt- 
trone. Now, a little before the queen's en- 
trance into the town, all that kneiv of her 
cruel pretence and hatred towards them, 
fled here and there ; and amongst others, 
Mr James M'Gill, the clerk register, the 
justice clerk, and the common clerk of the 
town : the chief secretary Lethington was 
gone before ; likewise John Knox passed 
west to Kyle : the men of war likewise 
kept the ports or gates. Within five days 
after their entry, there was a proclamation 
made at the Market-cross, for the purga- 
tion of the king from the aforesaid slaugh- 
ter; which made all understanding men 
laugh at the passages of things, since the 
king not only had given his consent, but 
also had subscribed the bond before named ; 
and the business was done in his name, and 
for his honour, if he had had wisdom to 
know it. After this proclamation, the king 
lost his credit among all men, and so his 
friends, by this his inconstancy and weak- 
ness. And, in the meantime, the men pf 



Book V.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



345 



war committed great outrages in breaking 
up doors, thrusting themselves into every 
house : and albeit the number of them 
was not great, yet the whole town was 
too little for them. Soon after, the king 
and queen passed to the castle, and caused 
to warn all such as had absented themselves, 
by open proclamation, to appear before their 
majesties, and the privy council, within six 
days, under pain of rebellion ; which prac- 
tice was devised in the earl of Huntly's 
case, before the battle of Corrichy : and be- 
cause they appeared not, they were de- 
nounced rebels, and put to the horn, and 
immediately thereafter, their estates given, 
or taken up by the treasurer. There was 
a certain number of the townsmen charged 
to enter themselves prisoners in the tol- 
booth, and with them were put in certain 
gentlemen : where, after they had remained 
eight days, they were convoyed down to 
the palace by the men of war, and then 
kept by them eight days more : and of that 
number was Thomas Scott, sheriff depute 
of St Johnstone, who was condemned to 
death, and executed cruelly, to wit, hanged 
and quartered, for keeping the queen in 
prison, as was alleged, although it was by 
the king's command : and two men like- 
wise were condemned to death, and carried 
likewise to the ladder foot ; but the earl 
Both well presented the queen's ring to the 
provost, which then was justice, for safety 
of their life. The names of those two were 
John Mowbray, merchant, and William 
Harlow, saddler. About the same time, 
notwithstanding all this hurly-burly, the 
ministers of the church, and professors of 
religion, ceased not ; as for the people, they 
convened to public prayers, and preaching 
with boldness ; yea, a great number of no- 
blemen assisted likewise. The earl Both- 
well had now, of all men, greatest access 
and familiarity with the queen, so that no- 
thing of any great importance was done 
without him ; for he showed favour to such 
as liked him ; and, amongst others, to the 
lairds of Ormiston, Haltou and Calder, who 
were so reconciled unto him, that by his fa- 
vour they were relieved of great trouble. 
The earls of Argyle and Murray, at 



the queen's command, passed to Argyle, 
where, after they had remained about a 
month, they were sent for by the queen ; 
and coming to Edinburgh, they were re- 
ceived by the queen into the castle, and 
banquetted, the earls of Huntly and Both- 
well being present. 

At this time the king grew to be con- 
demned and disesteemed, so that scarcely 
any honour was done to him, and his 
father likewise. About Easter, the king 
passed to Stirling, where he was shriven, 
after the papist manner : and in the mean- 
time, at the palace of Holyrood-house, in 
the chapel, there resorted a great number 
to the mass, albeit the queen remained still 
in the castle, with her priests of the chapel 
royal, where they used ceremonies after 
the popish maimer. 

At the same time departed this life Mr 
John Sinclair, bishop of Brechin, and dean 
of Restalrig, of whom hath been oft men- 
tion, president of the college of justice, 
called the session ; who also succeeded in 
the said office and dignity after the decease 
of his brother Mr Henry Sinclair, bishop 
of Ross, dean of Glasgow, who departed 
this life at Paris, about a year before. They 
were both learned in the laws, and given to 
maintain the popish religion, and therefore 
great enemies to the protestants. A little 
before died Mr Abraham Crichton, who 
had been president likewise. Now, in 
their room, the queen placed such as she 
pleased, and had done her service — always 
[although] very unfit. The patrimony of 
the kirk, bishoprics, abbies, and such 
other benefices, were disposed by the queen 
to courtiers, dancers, and flatterers. The 
earl Bothwell, whom the queen preferred 
above all others, after the decease of David 
Rizzio, had for his part Melrose, Hadding- 
ton, and Newbottle ; likewise the castle 
of Dunbar was given unto him, with the 
principal lands of the earldom of March, 
which were of the patrimony of the crown. 

At the same time, the superintendents, 
with the other ministers of the churches, 
perceiving the ministry like to decay for 
lack of payment of stipends to ministers, 
they gave this supplication at Edinburgh. 
2 X 



346 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1566 



THE SUPPLICATION OF THE MINISTERS TO THE 
QUEEN. 

" Unto your majesty, and your most 
honourable council, most humbly and la- 
mentably complains your highness' poor 
orators [preachers], the superintendents, 
and other ministers of the reformed church 
of God, travailing throughout all your high- 
ness' realm, in teaching and instructing 
your lieges in all quarters, in the know- 
ledge of God, and Christ Jesus his Son ; 
that where your majesty, with the advice 
of the council and nobility aforesaid, moved 
by godly zeal, concluded and determined, 
that the travailing ministry throughout this 
realm, should be maintained upon the rents 
of the benefices of this realm of Scotland ; 
and for that cause your majesty, with the 
advice of the council and nobility afore- 
said, upon the 15th day of December, 1562, 
in like manner concluded and determined, 
that if the said part of the rents of the 
whole benefices ecclesiastical within this 
realm would be sufficient to maintain the 
ministers throughout the whole realm, and 
to support your majesty in the setting for- 
ward of your common affairs, should be 
employed accordingly : failing thereof, the 
third part of the said fruits, or more, to be 
taken up yearly in time coming, until a 
general order be taken therein ; as the act 
made thereupon at more length bears : 
which being afterward considered by your 
majesty, the whole thirds of the fruits 
aforesaid, were propounded to the uses 
aforesaid, by act of council. And we, 
your majesty's poor orators, put in peace- 
able possession of the part assigned by your 
majesty to us, by the space of three years, 
or thereabouts, which we did enjoy with- 
out interruption ; notwithstanding all this, 
now of late, we your majesty's poor ora- 
tors aforesaid, are put wrongfully and un- 
justly from their aforesaid part of the above 
specified thirds, by your majesty's officers, 
and thereby brought to such extreme 
penury, and extreme distress, as we are not 
able any longer to maintain ourselves. 
And, albeit we have given in divers and 
sundry complaints to your majesty herein, 
and have received divers promises of re- 
dress, yet have we found no relief : there- 



fore, we most humbly beseech your majesty 
to consider our most grievous complaint, 
together with the right above specified, 
whereon the same is grounded. And if 
your majesty, with the advice of your coun- 
cil aforesaid, finds our right sufficient to 
continue us in possession of our part assign- 
ed to us, while, and until a general order be 
taken ; which possession was ratified by the 
yearly allowance of your majesty's ex- 
chequer's account, that your majesty would 
grant us letters upon the aforesaid act and 
ordinance passed thereupon, against all in- 
tromitters and meddlers with the aforesaid 
thirds, to answer and obey, according to the 
aforesaid act and ordinance of our posses- 
sion proceeding thereupon ; and, likewise, 
that we may have letters, if need be, to 
arrest and stay the aforesaid thirds in the 
possessors' hands, while, and until sufficient 
caution be found to us, for our part afore- 
said. And your answer most humbly we 
beseech." 

This supplication being presented by the 
superintendent of Lothian, and Mr John 
Craig, in the castle of Edinburgh, was gra- 
ciously received by the queen, who pro- 
mised that she would take sufficient order 
therein, so soon as the nobility and council 
might convene. 

The 19th of June, the queen was de- 
livered of a man-child — the prince, in the 
aforesaid castle — and immediately sent into 
France and England her posts, to advertise 
the neighbour princes, and to desire them 
to send gossips or witnesses of the prince's 
baptism. In the meantime there was joy 
and triumph made in Edinburgh, and such 
other places where it was known, after 
thanks and praises given unto God, with 
supplications for the godly education of the 
prince ; and princi pally, wishing that he 
should be baptized according to the manner 
and form observed in the reformed churches 
within this realm. 

About the same time, to wit, the 25th of 
June, the general assembly of the whole 
church convened at Edinburgh. The earls 
of Argyle and Murray assisted at the as- 
sembly : Paul Methvin, who before, as we 
heard, was excommunicated, gave in his 
supplication, and desired to be heard, as he 



Book V.J 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



347 



had done divers times ; for the said Paul 
had written oft times out of England to 
the laird of Dun, and to divers others, most 
earnestly desiring to be received again into 
the fellowship of the church. After rea- 
soning of the matter, it was finally granted, 
that he should be heard ; and so being be- 
fore the assembly, and falling upon his 
knees, burst out with tears, and said, he 
was not worthy to appear in their presence ; 
always he desired them, for the love of God, 
to receive him to the open expression of his 
repentance. Shortly after, they appointed 
certain ministers to prescribe to him the 
form of his declaration of repentance, which 
was thus in effect; first, that he should 
present himself bare-footed and bare-head- 
ed, arrayed in sackcloth, at the principal 
entry of St Gile's kirk in Edinburgh, at 
seven hours in the morning, upon the next 
Wednesday, and there to remain the space 
of an hour, the whole people beholding 
him, till the prayer was made, psalms sung, 
and text of scripture was read, and then to 
come into the place appointed, for expres- 
sion of repentance, and tarry the time of 
sermon ; and to do so likewise the next 
Friday following, and also upon the Sun- 
day; and then, in the face of the whole 
church, to declare his repentance with his 
own mouth. The same form and manner 
he should use in Jedburgh and Dundee; 
and that being done, to present himself 
again at the next general assembly follow- 
ing in winter, where he should be received 
to the communion of the church. When 
the said Paul had received the said ordi- 
nance, he took it very grievously, alleging, 
they had used over-great severity ; never- 
theless, being counselled and persuaded by 
divers notable personages, he began well in 
Edinburgh to proceed, whereby a great 
number were moved with compassion of 



* There was something very remote from the 
spirit of the gospel in the degrading penance en- 
joined to this offender. The law of Moses for- 
bade excessive punishment, lest it should make 
a man vile in the sight of his brethren. This is 
in the true spirit of the gospel. Christ meant the 
discipline of the church to reclaim and humble, 
but not to degrade any of his members. There 
was an individual in the Corinthian church 
guilty of sin of the same nature, under circum- 
stances of peculiar aggravation, whom the 



his state ; and likewise in Jedburgh : but 
he left his duty in Dundee, and passing 
again into England, the matter, not without 
offence to many, ceased.* 

The ministers complaining that they 
could not be paid their stipends, were li- 
censed by the assembly to pass to other 
churches to preach, but in nowise to leave 
the ministry. And because that the 
queen's majesty had promised often before 
to provide remedy, it was thought expe- 
dient that supplication should be yet made, 
as before, that the queen's majesty should 
cause such order to be taken, that the poor 
ministers might be paid their stipends. The 
bishop of Galloway, who was brother to the 
earl of Huntly, and now a great man in the 
court, travailed much with the queen's ma- 
jesty in that matter, and got of her a good 
answer, and fair promises. A few years be- 
fore, the said bishop of Galloway desired of 
the general assembly to be made superin- 
tendent of Galloway ; but now being pro- 
moted to great dignity, as to be of the 
number of the lords of the privy council, 
and likewise one of the session, he would 
no more be called overlooker, or overseer 
of Galloway, but bishop. Always, truth it 
is, that he laboured much for his nephew, 
the earl of Huntly, that he might be re- 
stored to his lands and honours; for the 
said earl was new chancellor, since the 
slaughter of David Rizzio, and had for his 
clawback the bishop of Ross, Mr John 
Lesley, one of the chief counsellors to the 
queen : but of all men the earl Bothwell 
was most in the queen's favour, so far, that 
all things passed by him ; yea, by his means 
the most part of all those that were parta- 
kers in the slaughter of David Rizzio got 
remission and relief. But from that day 
he was not present at any sermon, albeit 
before he professed the evangel by outward 



church were commanded to put away. On his 
repentance, they were by the same authority 
required to restore and comfort him, lest he 
should be overwhelmed with overmuch sorrow, 
which implies that they were to receive him 
with kindness, and not with rigour. The as-< 
sembly's treatment of Methvin was calculated 
to make him despised by himself, and all the 
world, and must have been a bur to his future 
usefulness, had he been restored to the ministry. 
— Ed. 



348 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1566 



speaking, yet he never joined to the con- 
gregation. But this time the earl of Cassills 
was contracted with the lord of Glammiss' 
sister, by whose persuasion he became a 
protestant, and caused, in the month of 
August, to reform his churches in Carrick, 
and promised to maintain the doctrine of 
the evangel. 

The queen, not yet satisfied with the 
death of her man David, caused in August 
to be apprehended a man called Henry, who 
sometime had been of her chapel royal, but 
afterward became an exhorter in a reform- 
ed church ; and for want of stipend, or 
other necessaries, passed in service to my 
lord Ruthven, and chanced that night to be 
present when the said David was slain ; 
and so, finally, he was condemned, and 
hanged, and quartered. 

The king being now condemned of all 
men, because the queen cared not for him, 
he went sometimes to the Lennox to his 
father, and sometimes to Stirling, whither 
the prince was earned a little before. Al- 
ways he -was destitute of such things as 
were necessary for him, having scarcely six 
horses in his train. And being thus deso- 
late, and half desperate, he sought means to 
go out of the country : and, about the same 
time, by the advice of foolish cagots, he 
wrote to the pope, to the king of Spain, and 
to the king of France, complaining of the 
state of the country, which was all out of 
order, all because that mass and popery 
were not again erected,* giving the whole 
blame thereof to the queen, as not manag- 
ing the catholic cause aright. By some 
knave, this poor prince was betrayed, and 
the queen got a copy of these letters into 
her hands, and therefore threatened him 
sore ; and there was never after that, any 
appearance of love betwixt them. 

The churches of Geneva, Berne, and 
Basil, with other reformed churches of 
Germany and France, sent to the whole 
church of Scotland, the sum of the con- 
fession of their faith, desiring to know if 
they agreed in uniformity of doctrine, al- 
leging, that the church of Scotland was dis- 



sonant in some articles from them : where- 
fore, the superintendents, with a great part 
of the other most qualified ministers, con- 
vened in September, in St Andrews; 
and reading the said letters, made answer, 
and sent word again, that they agreed in 
all points with those churches, and differed 
in nothing from them : albeit in the keep- 
ing of some festival days our church assent- 
ed not ; for only the Sabbath day was kept 
in Scotland. 

In the end of this month, the earl Both- 
well riding in pursuit of the thieves in 
Liddisdale, was ill hurt, and worse terrified, 
by a thief; for he believed surely to have 
departed forth of this life, and sent word 
thereof to the queen's majesty, who soon 
after passed forth of Jedburgh to the Her- 
mitage, to visit him, and give him comfort : 
and within a few days after, she took sick- 
ness in a most extreme manner, for she lay 
two hours long, cold dead, as it were with- 
out breath, or any sign of life : at length 
she revived, by reason they had bound 
small cords about her shackle bones [wrists], 
her knees, and great toes, and speaking 
very softly, she desired the lords to pray 
for her to God. She said the creed in 
English, and desired my lord of Murray, if 
she should chance to depart, that he would 
not be over extreme to such as were of her 
religion ; the duke and he should have been 
regents. The bruit went from Jedburgh 
in the month of October, 1566, that the 
queen was departed this life, or at least she 
could not live any time; wherefore, there 
were continually prayers publicly made at 
the church of Edinburgh, and divers other 
places for her conversion towards God, and 
amendment. Many were of opinion, that 
she would come to the preaching, and re- 
nounce popery ; but all in vain, for God 
had some other thing to do by her. The 
king being advertised, rode post from Stir- 
ling to Jedburgh, where he found the queen 
somewhat convalescent, but she would 
scarce speak to him, and hardly gave him 
presence or a good word ; wherefore, he 
returned immediately to Stirling, where the 



* This inconstant young man sometimes de- 
clared himself for the protestant — witness his 



last bond — and now for the papist. And, as he 
left God, so he was left by him. 



Hook V.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



349 



prince was, aud after to Glasgow, to Lis 
father. 

There appeared great trouble over the 
whole realm, and especially in the countries 
near the borders, if the queen had departed 
at that time. As she began to recover, the 
earl Both well was broug ht in a chariot 
from the Hermitage to Jedburgh, where he 
was cured of his wounds ; in whose pre- 
sence the queen took more pleasure than 
in all the rest of the world ; always by his 
means, most part of all that were outlawed 
for the slaughter of David Rizzio, got re- 
lief, for there was no other means, but all 
things must needs pass by him ; wherefore, 
every man sought to him, where immedi- 
ate favour was to be had, as before to 
David Rizzio. 

Soon after, the queen passing along the 
borders, she came within the bounds of 
Berwick, where she viewed the town at 
her pleasure afar off, being within half a 
mile and less. All the ordnance within 
Berwick were discharged ; the captain 
came forth, with fourscore horses, bravely 
arrayed, to do her honour, and offer her 
lawful service. Then she came to Craig- 
millar, where she remained in November, 
till she was advertised of the coming of the 
ambassadors to the baptism of the prince ; 
and for that purpose there was great prepa- 
ration made, not without the trouble of 
such as were supposed to have money in 
store, especially of Edinburgh ; for there 
was borrowed a good round sum of money 
for the same business. All her care and 
solicitude was for that triumph. At the 
same time arrived the count de Briance, 
ambassador of the king of France, who had 
a great train. Soon after, the earl of Bed- 
ford went forth of England, with a very 
gorgeous company, to the number of four- 
score horses, and passing to Stirling, he was 
humanely received of the queen's majesty, 
and every day banquetted. The excessive 
expenses, and superfluous apparel, which 
was prepared at that time, exceeded far ail 
the preparation that ever had been devised 
or set forth before that time in this coun- 



try. The 17th of December, 1566, in the 
great hall of the castle of Stirling, was the 
prince baptized by the bishop of St An- 
drews, at five o'clock at even, with great 
pomp, albeit with great pain could they 
find men to bear the torches, wherefore 
they took boys. The queen laboured much 
with the noblemen to bear the salt, grease, 
and candle, and such other things, but all 
refused ; she found at last the earls of Eg- 
lington, Athol, and the lord Seaton, who 
assisted at the baptism, and brought in the 
said trash.* The count de Briance — being 
the French ambassador — assisted likewise. 
The earl of Bedford brought for a present 
from the queen of England, a font of gold, 
valued to be worth three thousand crowns. 
Soon after the said baptism, as the earl was 
in communing with the queen, who enter- 
tained him most reverently, he began to say 
merrily to her, amongst other talking, Ma- 
dam, I rejoice very greatly at this time, 
seeing your majesty hath here to serve you 
so many noblemen, especially twelve earls, 
whereof two only assist at this baptism to 
the superstition of popery. At the which 
saying the queen kept good countenance. 
Soon after they banquetted in the said great 
hall, where they wanted no prodigality. 
During the time of the earl of Bedford's 
remaining at Stirling, the lords, for the 
most part, waited upon him, and conveyed 
him every day to the sermon, and after to 
banquetting. 

The king, who remained in Stirling all 
that time — never being present — kept his 
chamber : his father hearing how he was 
used, wrote to him to repair unto him ; 
who soon after went — without good-night 
— coward Glasgow, to his father. He was 
hardly a mile out of Stirling, when the poi- 
son — which had been given him — wrought 
so upon him, that he had very great pain 
and dolour in every part of his body. At 
length, being arrived at Glasgow, the blis- 
ters broke out, of a bluish colour ; so the 
physicians presently knew the disease to 
come by poison. He was brought so low, 
that nothing but death was expected ; yet 



* Spotswood informs us that the duchess of 
Argyle assisted at this ceremony, for which she 



afterwards did penance in the church in Stir- 
ling. — Ed. 



350 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1565 



the strength of his youth at last did sur- 
mount the poison. 

During the time of this triumph, the 
queen was most liberal in all things that 
were demanded of her : amongst other 
things, she subscribed a writing for the 
maintenance of the ministers in a reason- 
able proportion, which was to be taken up 
of the thirds of benefices : which writing 
being purchased by the bishop of Galloway, 
was presented at the general assembly of 
the church at Edinburgh, the five and 
twentieth day of December, 1566, where 
were convened the superintendents and 
other ministers in reasonable number, but 
very few commissioners. The first matter 
that was there proposed, was concerning the 
said writing lately obtained ; and the most 
part of the ministers being demanded their 
opinions in the matter, after advice, and 
passing a little aside, they answered very 
gravely, that it was their duty to preach to 
the people the word of God truly and sin- 
cerely, and to crave, of the auditors the 
things that were necessary for their susten- 
tation, as of duty the pastor might justly 
crave of their flock j and, further, it be- 
came them not to have any care. Never- 
theless, the assembly taking in considera- 
tion, that the said gifts granted by the 
queen's majesty, were not to be refused; 
they ordained, that certain faithful men of 
every shire should meet, and do their ut- 
most diligence for gathering and receiving 
the said corn and money, and likewise ap- 
pointed the superintendent of Lothian, and 
Mr John Row, to wait upon the bishop of 
Galloway, and concur and assist him for 
further expedition in the court, that the 
said gift might be despatched through the 
seals. 

In the same assembly, there was present- 
ed a remonstrance, by writ, by some gentle- 
men of Kyle, containing in effect, That in- 
asmuch as the tythes ought to be given 
only to the ministers and schools [teachers] 
of the word, and for maintenance of the 
poor, that therefore the assembly would 
statute and ordain, that all the professors of 
the evangel should keep the same in their 
own hands, to the effects aforesaid, and no 
way permit the papists to meddle there- 



with. This writing took no effect at that 
time, for there were none else but the 
gentlemen of Kyle of that opinion. It was 
statuted in the said assembly, that such 
public fornicators, and scandalous livers as 
would not confess their offences, nor come 
to declare their repentance, should be de- 
clared by the minister to be out of the 
church, and not of the body thereof, and 
their names to be declared publicly upon the 
Sunday. After this assembly, the bishop 
of Galloway — with the superintendent of 
Lothian, and Mr John Row — passing to 
Stirling, obtained their demands in an ample 
manner at the queen's majesty's hand, ac- 
cording to their desire ; and likewise, they 
obtained for every burgh, a gift or donation 
of the altarages, annuals, and obits, which 
before were given to the papists, now to be 
disposed for the maintenance of the minis- 
ters and schools within the burghs, and 
the rest to the poor, or hospital. Notwith- 
standing the domestic troubles that the 
church of God in Scotland suffered in the 
time of these hurly-burlys within the 
kingdom, yet they were not unmindful of 
the affliction of Jacob every where upon the 
face of the earth ; namely, they had before 
their eyes the state and condition of the 
church of God in England. Witness this 
letter from the general assembly to the 
rulers of the church of God in England : 
" The superintendents, with other mi- 
nisters and commissioners of the church 
of God in the kingdom of Scotland, to 
their brethren, the bishops and pastors 
of God's church in England, who pro- 
fess with us in Scotland the truth of 
Jesus Christ. 
" By word and letters it is come to our 
knowledge — reverend brethren, pastors of 
God's word in the church of England — 
that divers of our brethren — of whom some 
be of the most learned in England — are de- 
prived from all ecclesiastical function, 
namely, are forbidden to preach, and so by 
you are stopped to promote the kingdom 
of God, because they have a scruple of con- 
science to use at the command of authority 
such garments as idolaters in time of great- 
est darkness, did use in their superstitious 
and idolatrous service ; which report can- 



Book V.] 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



351 



not but be very grievous to our hearts, 
considering the sentence of the apostle, * If 
ye bite and devour one another, take heed 
ye be not consumed one of another.' We 
intend not at this present to enter into the 
question, which we hear is agitated and 
handled with greater vehemency by either 
party, than well liketh us, to wit, whether 
such apparel be accounted amongst things 
indifferent, or not ; wherefore — through 
the bowels of Jesus Christ — we crave that 
christian charity may so far prevail with 
you, who are the pastors and guides of 
Christ's flock in England, that ye do one to 
another, as ye desire others to do to you. 
You cannot be ignorant what tenderness is 
in a scrupulous conscience, and all that 
have knowledge are not alike persuaded ; 
the consciences of some of you stir not, 
w r ith the wearing of such things ; on the 
other side, many thousands — both godly and 
learned — are otherwise persuaded, whose 
consciences are continually stricken with 
these sentences, ' What hath Christ to do 
with Belial ? What fellowship is there be- 
twixt light and darkness ?' If surplice, 
corner-cap, and tippet, have been the 
badges of idolaters in the very act of their 
idolatry, what hath the preachers of chris- 
tian liberty, and the rebukers of supersti- 
tion with the dregs of that Romish beast ? 
yea, what is he that ought not to fear, 
' either to take in his hand, or on his fore- 
head, the prints and mark of that odious 
beast.' The brethren that refuse such un- 
profitable apparel, do neither condemn nor 
molest you who use such trifles. On the 
other side, if ye that use these things, will 
do the like to your brethren, we doubt not 
but therein you shall please God, and com- 
fort the hearts of many, which are wound- 
ed to see extremity used against these god- 
ly brethren. Human arguments or co- 
loured rhetoric, we use none to persuade 
you, only in charity we desire you to mind 
the sentence of Peter, ' Feed the flock of 
Christ which is committed to your charge, 
caring for it, not by constraint, but willing- 
ly ; not being as lords of God's heritages, 
but being examples to the flock.' We 
further desire you to meditate upon that 
sentence of Paul, * Give no offence, neither 



to Jews, nor Gentiles, nor to the church of 
God.' In what condition you and we both 
travail, at least are bound to travail for 
the promoting of Christ's kingdom, you are 
not ignorant; therefore, we are the more 
bold to exhort you to deal more wisely, 
than to trouble the godly for such vanities, 
for all things which seem lawful, edify not. 
If authority urge you farther than your 
consciences can bear, we pray you remem- 
ber, that the ministers of the church are 
called the ' Light of the world, and salt of 
the earth ;' all civil authority hath not al- 
ways the light of God shining before their 
eyes, in statutes and commands, for their 
affections savour too much of the earth and 
worldly wisdom : therefore, we tell you, 
that ye ought to oppose yourselves boldly, 
not only to all power that dare extol itself 
against God, but also against all such as dare 
burthen the consciences of the faithful, 
farther than God chargeth them in his 
word. But we hope you will excuse our 
freedom, in that we have entered into rea- 
soning farther than we intended in the be- 
ginning Now, again we return to our for- 
mer request, which is, that the brethren 
among you, who refuse the Romish rags, 
may find of you, who use and urge them, 
such favour as our Head and Master com- 
mandeth each one of his members to show 
to another, which we look to receive of 
your courtesy, not only because you will 
not offend God in troubling your brethren 
for such vain trifles, but also, because you 
will not refuse the earnest request of us 
your brethren, and fellow ministers, hi 
whom, although there appear no worldly 
pomp ; yet we are assured, you will esteem 
us as God's servants, travailing to set forth 
his glory against the Roman antichrist. 
The days are evil, iniquity aboundeth, and 
charity, alas ! waxeth cold, wherefore we 
ought to walk diligently, for the hour is un- 
certain when the Lord shall come, before 
whom we must all give an account of our 
administration. In conclusion, yet once 
more we desire you to be favourable one 
to another; the Lord Jesus rule your 
hearts in his fear unto the end, and give to 
you and us victory over that conjured 
J enemy of true religion — the pope — whose 



352 



HISTORY OF THE 



REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1566 



wounded head, Satan by all means strives 
to cure again ; but to destruction shall he 
go, and all his maintainers, by the power 
of our Lord Jesus, to whose mighty pro- 
tection we commit you. 

" From our general assembly, Decem- 
ber 27th, 1566." 

At the same time, the bishop of St An- 
drews, by means of the earl Bothwell, pro- 
cured a writing from the queen's majesty, 
to be obeyed within the diocese of his ju- 
risdiction, in all such causes as before in 
time of popery were used in the consistory, 
and, therefore, to discharge the new com- 
missioners ; and for the same purpose, came 
to Edinburgh in January, [1667,] having a 
company of one hundred horses, or more, 
intending to take possession, according to 
his gift lately obtained. The provost being 
advertised thereof by the earl of Murray, 
they sent to the bishop three or four of the 
council, desiring him to desist from the said 
matter, for fear of trouble and sedition that 
might rise thereupon ; whereby he was per- 
suaded to desist at that time. 

Soon after, the queen came to Edin- 
burgh, where she remained a few days. In 
the month of January, she was informed 
that the king was recovered of the poison 
given him at Stirling, and therefore she 
passed to Glasgow to visit him, and there 
tarried with him six days, using him won- 
derfully kindly, with many gracious and 
good words ; and likewise his father, the 
earl of Lennox ; insomuch that all men 
marvelled whereto it should turn, con- 
sidering the great contempt and dryness 
that had been before so long together. The 
queen, notwithstanding all the contempt 
that was given him, with a known design 
to take away his life, yet, by her sweet 
words, gains so far upon the uxorious hus- 
band, and his facile father, that he w r ent in 
company with her to Edinburgh, where she 
had caused to lodge him at the Church of 
Field, in a lodging, lately bought by Mr 
James Balfour, clerk register — truly, very 
unmeet for a king. The queen resorted 
often to visit him, and lay in the house two 
nights by him — although her lodging was 
in the palace of Holyrood-house. Every 
man marvelled at this reconciliation and 



sudden change. The ninth of February, 
the king was murdered, and the house 
where he lay burned with powder, about 
twelve o'clock at night : his body Avas cast 
forth into a yard, without the town wall, 
adjoining close by. There was a servant 
likewise murdered beside him, who had 
been also in the chamber with him. The 
people ran to behold this spectacle ; and 
wondering thereat some judged one thing, 
some another. 

Shortly thereafter, Bothwell came from 
the abbey with a company of men of war, 
and caused the body of the king to be car- 
ried to the next house; where, after a 
little, the chirurgeons being convened at 
the queen's command, to view and consider 
the manner of his death, most part gave 
out, to please the queen, that he was blown 
in the air, albeit he had no mark of fare ; 
and truly he was strangled. Soon after, 
he was carried to the abbey, and there 
buried. 

This tragical end had Henry Stewart, 
after he had been king eighteen months. 
A prince of great lineage, both by mother 
and father. He was of a comely stature, 
and none was like unto him within this 
island. He died under the age of one and 
twenty years ; prompt and ready for all 
games and sports, much given to hawking 
and hunting, and running of horses, and 
likewise to playing on the lute, and also to 
Venus' chamber. He was liberal enough : 
he could write and dictate well ; but he 
was somewhat given to wine, and much 
feeding, and likewise to inconstancy; and 
proud beyond measure, and therefore con- 
temned all others. He had learned to dis- 
semble well enough, being from his youth 
misled up in popery. Thus, within two 
years after his arriving in this realm, he was 
highly by the queen alone extolled ; and, 
finally, had this unfortunate end by her 
procurement and consent. To lay all other 
proofs aside, her marriage with Bothwell, 
who was the main executioner of the king, 
notwithstanding all the advices and coun- 
sels that the king of France, and queen of 
England, did earnestly and carefully give 
her, as other friends did likewise, witness 
anent their guilt. Those that laid hands 



Book V."| 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



353 



on the king to kill him, by Bothwell's di- 
rection, were Sir James Balfour, Gilbert Bal- 
four, David Chalmers, black John Spense, 
Francis Sebastian, John de Bourdeau, and 
Joseph, the brother of David Rizzio : these 
last four were the queen's domestics and 
strangers. The reason why the king's 
death was so hastened, was, because the 
affection or passion of the earl Both well 
could not bear so long- a delay, as the pro- 
curement of a bill of divorce required, al- 
though the Romish clergy offered their ser- 
vice willingly to the business, namely, 
bishop Hamilton, and so he came great 
again at court ; and he, for the advance- 
ment of the business, did good offices to in- 
crease the hatred betwixt the king and 
queen ; yea, some that had been the chief 
instruments of the marriage of the king- and 
queen, offered the service for the divorce, 
seeing how the queen's inclination lay : so 
unhappy are princes, that men, for their 
own ends, further them in ail their inclina- 
tions and undertakings, be they never so 
bad or destructive to themselves. 

The earl of Lennox in the meantime 
wrote to the queen, to cause to punish 
Bothwell, with his other accomplices, for 
murdering the king. The queen, not daring 
openly to reject the earl of Lennox's soli- 
citation, did appoint a day for the trial of 
Bothwell, by an assize ; the members 
whereof, were the earl of Caithness, presi- 
dent, the earl of Cassils — who, at the first 
refused, but thereafter, being threatened to 
be put in prison, and under the pain of 
treason, was present by the queen's com- 
mand — John Hamilton, commendator of 
Aberbrothick, lord Ross, lord Semple, lord 
Boyd, lord Herris, lord Oliphant ; the 
master of Forbes, the lairds of Lochinvar, 
Langton, Cambuskenueth, Barnbougel, and 
Boyne. They, to please the queen, and for 
fear, did pronounce Bothwell not guilty, 
notwithstanding the manifest evidences of 
the cruel fact committed by Bothwell, who, 
before the trial, did make himself strong by 
divers means ; namely, by the possession of 
the eastle of Edinburgh, so that the accu- 
sers durst not appear, not being strong 
enough. The earl of Mar did retire to j 
Stirling, and had committed to his charge I 



the young prince. All this was done in 
February. 

In April, Bothwell called together sundry 
of the lords, who had come to Edinburgh, 
to a meeting that was there ; and having 
gained some before, made them all, what by 
fear, what by fair promises, first of their 
private state, and then of advancing the 
papist's religion, to consent by their sub- 
scriptions to the marriage with the queen. 
Then the queen goes to Stirling, to see her 
son ; Bothwell makes a show as if he were 
going to the borders to suppress robbers, 
and so he raiseth some men of war ; which, 
when he had done, he turneth towards the 
way to Stirling, where he meets the queen, 
according to appointment betwixt them, 
and carrieth her to Dunbar, as it had been 
by force, although every one knew it was 
with the queen's liking-. The prime nobility 
convened at Stirling, and from thence sent 
to her, to know whether or not she was 
taken against her will. She answered, 
That it was true she was taken against her 
will, but since her taking, she had no occa- 
sion to complain ; yea, the courteous en- 
tertainment she had, made her forget and 
forgive all former offences. These expres- 
sions were used by way of preface to the 
pardon, which was granted immediately 
thereafter to Bothwell ; for, by letters 
patent, he was pardoned by the queen, 
for laying violently hands upon her ma- 
jesty, and for all other crimes. So by this, 
&c. the murder of the king was pardoned. 
During the queen's abode in Dunbar, there 
were letters of divorce demanded and grant- 
ed unto Bothwell from his lady — who 
afterward was married to the earl Suther- 
land — she was sister to the earl of Huntly. 
The ground of the divorce was, the parties 
being within the degrees prohibited, could 
not be lawfully joined : next, became 
Bothwell was an adulterer, the marriage 
was void. The bill of divorce was granted 
by the papistical court of the archbishop of 
St Andrews. And here mark how they 
juggle in sacred things; for when it 
pleaseth them, they untie the bond of mar- 
riage, as now, and as we have seen in the 
first book of this history. When the queen 
fell in distaste of the late king her hus- 
2 Y 



354 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[a. d. 1566 



band, it was proposed unto her to have 
divorce upon the same ground from the 
king, to which, first ear was given, but 
after second thoughts, a bill of divorce was 
too tedious — as we have now said — and 
could not be staid for, therefore the king 
must be despatched. 

The queen, when Both well had obtained 
by the archbishop a letter of divorce from 
his lawful wife, sent a letter, signed with 
her own hand, to Mr J. Craig, minister 
of Edinburgh, commanding him to publish 
the banns of matrimony betwixt her and 
Both well. Mr J. Craig, the next ser- 
mon day thereafter, declared in full con- 
gregation, that he had received such a com- 
mand, but in conscience he could not obey 
it ; the marriage was altogether unlawful ; 
and of that he would declare the reasons to 
the parties, if he had audience of them, 
otherwise he would make known his just 
reasons in the hearing of the people. Im- 
mediately thereafter, Bothwell sends for 
Mr Craig to the council, where Mr Craig 
told, first, That by an act of assembly it 
was forbidden to allow the marriage of any 
divorced for adultery : the divorce of Both- 
well from his lawful wife, was by collu- 
sion, witness the quick despatch thereof ; 
for it was sought and had within ten days, 
and his contracting with the queen instant- 
ly thereafter ; then his rape of the queen, 
and the guilt of the king's death, which was 
confirmed by this marriage : withal, he de- 
sired the lords to stop the queen from that 
infamous marriage. The Sunday after, he 
told publicly to the people, what he had 
said to the council ; and he took heaven 
and earth to witness, that he detested that 
scandalous and infamous marriage ; and 
that he discharged his conscience unto the 
lords, who seemed unto him, as so many 
slaves, what by flattery, what by silence, to 
give way to that abomination. Upon this, 
he was called to the council again, and was 
reproved, as if he had exceeded the bounds 
of his calling. Whereunto he answered, 
That the bounds of his commission were the 
word of God, right reason, and good laws, 
against which he said nothing; and by all 
these offered to prove this marriage to be 
scandalous and infamous. At this he was 



stopped by Bothwell and sent from the 
council. Notwithstanding all this done and 
said by Mr Craig, and the opposition of 
many that wished well to the queen, and 
were jealous of her honour, the marriage 
went on, and they were married the 15th oi 
May. This makes good the Latin proverb, 
mala nubunt mense Maio ;* and a bishop 
must bless the marriage : the good prelate 
was bishop of Orkney : if there be a good 
work to be done, a bishop must do it. Here 
mark the difference betwixt this worthy 
minister Mr Craig, and this base bishop. 

The earl of Athol, immediately after the 
murder of the king, had retired home, wait- 
ing for the occasion to revenge the king's 
death : but seeing this abominable marriage, 
he went to Stirling, where other honest 
lords with him had a meeting, and made a 
bond, to defend the young prince from the 
murderers of his father, as already they had 
had one plot to cut him off, which God in 
his mercy did prevent. The nobles that 
entered in this bond, were the earls of Ar- 
gyle, Athol, Morton, Mar, and Glencairn ; 
the lords Lindsay and Boyd. Argyle there- 
after, seduced by some fair words, fell off,* 
and Boyd became a great factionary for 
Bothwell in all things. The queen, soon af- 
ter the marriage, was advised to send abroad 
an ambassador to acquaint her foreign 
friends and kindred ; and this must be a 
bishop : it is pity that any good work 
should be done without a bishop : w r as not 
this a worthy employment for a pastor in 
God's church. 

Bothwell seeing the bond made at Stir- 
ling, causeth the queen to write to sundry of 
the nobility : divers repaired unto her, 
where they found a bond tendered unto 
them, by which they were to bind them- 
selves to defend the queen and Bothwell. 
Some that were corrupt, did willingly sub- 
scribe ; others for fear did the same : and 
there was not one that went to court that 
did refuse, but the earl of Murray ; who re- 
fusing absolutely to enter into a bond with 
Bothwell, said, It was not the part of a good 
subject ; yet since he had been made friends 



* It is still reckoned unlucky to marry in this 
month. — Ed. 



Book V.l 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



355 



with him some time before, he would keep 
his promise unto the queen, and to enter 
into a bond with the queen, it was needless 
and unfit, since he was to obey her in all 
lawful and just things. Upon this, he got 
leave, although with great difficulty, to go 
into France. 

The queen received Hamilton arch- 
bishop of St Andrews, into favour since 
these changes ; who was no less a faithful 
counsellor to her, than he was a good pas- 
tor of Christ's flock ; that is, he betrayed 
her and disobeyed God. With this a pro- 
clamation comes out in favour of the poor 
protestants, whereby the queen declares, 
that she will keep and confirm all that she 
had promised at her arrival into Scotland : 
this was done to stop the people's mouths ; 
but all in vain, for the people were univer- 
sally against the abomination of the court. 

Within few days, Both well and the queen 
were raising men under pretext to go to the 
borders to repress the robbers there ; but in 
effect to go to Stirling, to have the prince 
in their custody, that they might dispose of 
him according to their mind. Then a new 
proclamation came out, that the queen here- 
after would rule only by the advice of the 
nobles of the land, as her best predecessors 
had done. The lords at Stirling, hearing of 
this plot, strove to prevent it, and to this 
purpose they appointed with the lord Hume, 
to besiege the castle of Borthwick, where 
the queen and Bothwell was : but because 
the earl of Athol did not come at the hour 
appointed, they had not men enough to en- 
viron and encompass the castle ; so that 
Bothwell, having notice given him of the 
business, escaped to Dunbar, and the queen 
after him in man's clothes. The lords, fail- 
ing of their design at Borthwick castle, went 
to Edinburgh, whereof they made them- 
selves masters easily, having the affections 
of the people, notwithstanding the earl of 
Huntly and the archbishop of St Andrews' 
persuasion to the contrary. These two, 
with their associates, were constrained to 
retire to the castle, where they were re- 
ceived by Sir James Balfour, [who was] left 
there by Bothwell. 

The twelfth of June, which was the next 
day following, the lords at Edinburgh 



caused to publish a proclamation, whereby 
they declared, that the earl of Bothwell, who 
had been the principal author, deviser, and 
actor of the cruel murder of the late king, 
had since laid hand upon the queen's person, 
and had her for the present in Dunbar in his 
power; and finding her utterly destitute 
of all good counsel, had seduced her to a 
dishonest and unlawful marriage with him- 
self; yea, that now he was gathering forces, 
and stirring himself to get the young prince 
in his hands, that he might murder the child, 
as he had murdered the father. This wic- 
ked man the nobles of the land resolved to 
withstand, and deliver the queen out of his 
bondage ; wherefore they did charge all 
lieges within the kingdom that could come 
to them, to be in readiness at three hours 
warning to assist them, the nobles for the 
freeing of the queen from captivity, and 
bringing the said earl Bothwell to a legal 
trial, and condign punishment for the afore- 
said murder and other crimes. All such that 
would not side with the lords were by this 
proclamation commanded to depart from 
Edinburgh within four hours, under the 
pain of being accounted enemies, &c 

Notwithstanding this proclamation, the 
people did not join unto these lords as was 
expected, for sundry of the nobles were ad- 
versaries to the business, others stood as 
neuters ; and withal, those that were con- 
vened together were not well provided of 
arms and munition for exploits of war ; so 
that they were even thinking to dissolve 
and leave off their enterprise till another 
time, and had absolutely done so ; but God 
had ordained otherwise, as the event did 
show — if the queen and Bothwell could 
have had patience to stay at Dunbar for 
three or four days without any stir — but the 
queen and Bothwell, having gathered toge- 
ther about four or five thousand men, trust- 
ing in their force — the queen being puffed 
up by flatterers — set forth and marched to- 
wards Lcith : being come forward as far as 
Gladsmuir, she caused public proclamation 
against the aforesaid lords, calling them a 
number of conspirators, and that she now 
discerned their inward malice against her 
and her husband, the duke of Orkney — for 
so now they called Bothwell — after they 



356 



HISTORY OF TH 



E REFORMATION 



[a. i). 1566 



had endeavoured to apprehend her and her 
husband at Borthwick, and had made a 
seditious proclamation, under pretence of 
seeking the revenge of the king her late 
husband, and to free her from captivity ; 
giving out, that the duke her husband had 
a mind to invade the prince her son; all 
which was false, for the duke her husband 
had used all means to clear himself, both by 
a legal way, and by the offer of a combat to 
any that did accuse him, as they knew well 
enough : as touching her captivity, she was 
in none, but was in company with her hus- 
band, unto whom she was publicly married 
in the view of the world, and many of the 
nobles had given their consent unto this her 
marriage : as for the prince her son, it was 
but a specious pretence to the treason and 
rebellion against her their natural sovereign, 
and her posterity, which they intended to 
overthrow ; wherefore she declared herself 
necessitated to take arms, hoping that all 
her faithful subjects would adhere unto her, 
and that those who were already assembled 
with her, would with good hearts and hands 
stand to her defence ; and for the recom- 
pense of their valour they should have the 
lands and goods of these unnatural rebels. 
After this proclamation the army went on, 
and the queen that night came to Seaton, 
where she lay. 

About midnight the lords of Edinburgh 
were advertised of the queen's approach, 
presently they took arms, and at the sun 
rising they were at Musselburgh, where 
they refreshed themselves with meat and 
rest. The queen's camp was not yet stir- 
ring. About mid-day the scouts that the 
lords had sent out, brought word that the 
enemy was marching towards them ; pre- 
sently they put themselves in two battalions, 
the first was conducted by the earl Morton, 
and the lord Hume ; the second by the earls 
Athol, Glencairn, the lords Lindsay, Ruth- 
ven, Semple, and Sanquhar, with the lairds 
Drumlanrig, Tullibardine, Cesfoord, and 
Grange, with divers others, their number 
was almost as great as the queen's, their 
men better, being many of them expert 
men, that I say nothing of the cause. The 
queen had gained a hill called Cai berry, 
which the lords — by reason of the steep- 



ness of the ascent — could not well come at; 
wherefore they wheeled about to get a 
more convenient place to go to the hill, 
where the enemy was, and to have the 
sun behind them in the time of the fight. 
At the first the queen, seeing their thus 
going about, did imagine they were fleeing 
away to Dalkeith, but when she saw them 
come directly towards her, she found her- 
self deceived. 

The French ambassador, seeing them 
ready to fight, strived to take up the busi- 
ness, and having spoken with the queen, 
went to the lords, telling them, that the 
queen was disposed to peace, and to forgive 
and pardon this insurrection ; wherefore it 
was very fit to spare blood, to agree in a 
peaceable way. The earl of Morton — in 
the name of all the rest — answered, that 
they had taken up arms, not against the 
queen, but against the murderer of the 
king; whom if she would deliver to be j 
punished, or at least put from her company, 
she should find a continuation of dutiful 
obedience by them, and all other good sub- 
jects ; otherwise no peace : besides, we are 
not to ask pardon for any offence done by 
us. The ambassador, seeing their resolu- 
tion to stand to the right of their cause, 
withdrew, and went to Edinburgh. 

While the French ambassador was thus 
labouring for accommodation, Both well 
came out of the camp — which was in the 
trench that the Englishmen had left at 
their last being in these places, as we have « 
said in the former books — well mounted, 
with a defiance to any that would fight f 
with him. James Murray, brother to the 
laird of Tullibardine, before had accepted | 
of Both well's challenge, when he made the 
rodomontade at Edinburgh, immediately 
after the king's death ; but then James 
Murray did not make known his name. 
Bothwell refused to fight with James 
Murray, alleging he was not his equal. 
Upon this the elder brother, William Mur- 
ray, laird of Tullibardine, answered, that 
he would fight with him, as being his bet- j 
ter in estate, and in antiquity of house many 
degrees above him; yet Bothwell refused 
him, saying, that he was not a peer of the | 
kingdom, as he was ; then sundry lords 



Book V.] 



OF RELIGION 



IN SCOTLAND. 



357 



would have gone to fight with Both well; 
but the lord Lindsay namely, who said to 
the rest of the lords and gentlemen, that 
he would take it as a singular favour of 
them, and as a recompense of his service 
done to the state, if they would suffer him 
to fight with the braggadocio. Bothwell 
seeing that there was no more subterfuge, 
nor excuse, under-hand made the queen to 
forbid him. After this challenge and an- 
swers, Both well's accomplices and followers 
were very earnest to fight, but others that 
had come only for the queen's sake, became 
a little cold, saying, that Bothwell would 
do well to fight himself, and spare the 
blood of divers gentlemen that were there; 
some counselled to delay the battle till the 
Hamiltons came, whom they did expect. 
All this the queen heard with anger ; and 
riding up and down, burst out in tears, 
and said, they were all cowards and trai- 
tors that would not fight. Immediately 
after thus vapouring, the queen, perceiving- 
sundry to leave her, she advised Bothwell 
to look unto himself, for she said to him, 
she would render herself unto the noble- 
men. Upon this she sent for James Kir- 
kaldy of Grange, with whom she kept dis- 
course for a while, till that she was as- 
sured that Bothwell was out of danger. 
Then she went to the lords, whom she did 
entertain with many fair words, telling 
them, that it was neither fear, nor want of 
hope of victory, that made her come unto 
them, but a mere desire to spare shedding 
of innocent blood : withal she promised to 
be ruled and advised by them. With this 
she was received with all respect : but 
shortly after, declaring that she would go 
to the Hamiltons, with promise to return, 
they restrained her liberty, and brought her 
along with them to Edinburgh at night : 
she was very slow in marching, looking to 
be rescued by the Hamiltons ; but in vain : 
she lay that night in the provost his house. 
The next day, the lords sent the queen to 
the castle that is within an isle of Loch- 
leven. Sir James Balfour, seeing the queen 
committed, and Bothwell consequently de- 
feated, he capitulated with the lords for the 
delivery of the castle. Bothwell, finding 
himself thus in disorder, sent a servant to 



Sir James Balfour, to save a little silver 
cabinet, which the queen had given him. 
Sir James Balfour delivers the cabinet to 
the messenger, and under-hand giveth ad- 
vice of it to the lords. In this cabinet had 
Bothwell kept the letters of privacy he had 
from the queen : thus he kept her letters, 
to be an awe-bond upon her, in case her 
affection should change. By the taking of 
this cabinet, many particulars betwixt the 
queen and Bothwell were clearly discover- 
ed. These letters were after printed : they 
were in French ; with some sonnets of her 
own making. 

Few days after the commitment of the 
queen, the earl of Glencairn with his do- 
mestics, went to the chapel of Holyrood- 
house, where he broke down the altars and 
the images : which fact, as it did content 
the zealous protestants, so it did highly of- 
fend the popishly affected. The nobles, 
who had so proceeded against Bothwell 
and dealt so with the queen, hearing that the 
Hamiltons had a great number of men, and 
had drawn the earls of Argyle and Huntly 
to their side, sent to Hamilton, desiring 
those that were there to join with them, 
for the redress of the disorders of church 
and state : but the Hamiltons, thinking now 
they had a fair occasion fallen unto them to 
have all again in their hands, and to dis- 
pose of all according to their own mind, 
did refuse audience to the message sent by 
the lords. 

Upon this the lords moved the general 
assembly then met in Edinburgh, in the 
month of June, to write to the lords that 
either were actually declared for the Ha- 
miltons or were neuters : and so several 
letters were directed to the earls of Argyle, 
Huntly, Caithness, Rothes, Crawford, and 
Monteith; to the lords Boyd, Brummond, 
Graeme, Cathcart, Yester, Fleming, Living- 
stone, Seaton, Glammis, Ochiltree, Gray, 
Oliphant, Methvin, Innermeath, and Somer- 
ville ; as also to divers other men of note. 
Besides the letters of the assembly, com- 
missioners were sent from the assembly, to 
the lords above-named ; to wit, John Knox, 
John Douglas, John Row, and John Craio- 
who had instructions conforming to the 
tenor of the letters, to desire these lords 



358 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 



[A. d. 1566 



and others, to come to Edinburgh, and join 
with the lords there, for the settling of 
God's true worship in the church, and po- 
licy reformed according to God's word, a 
maintenance for the ministers, and support 
for the poor : but neither the commissioners 
nor the letters did prevail with these men ; 
they excused, that they could not repair to 
Edinburgh with freedom, where there were 
so many armed men, and a garrison so 
strong : but for the church affairs, they 
would not be any ways wanting to do what 
lay in them. 

The lords at Edinburgh, seeing this, 
join absolutely with the assembly — which 
had been prorogated to the 20th of July, 
upon the occasion of these letters and com- 
missioners aforesaid ; and promise to make 
good all the articles they thought fit to re- 
solve upon in the assembly : but how they 
performed their promises, God knows. Al- 
ways, the articles they agreed upon were 
these : — 

1. That the acts of parliament holden at 
Edinburgh the 24th of August, 1560, 
touching religion, and abolishing the 
pope's authority, should have the force 
of a public law ; and consequently this 
parliament defended, as a lawful parlia- 
ment, and confirmed by the first par- 
liament that should be kept next. 

2. That the thirds of the tithes, or any more 
reasonable proportion of benefices, should 
be allowed towards the maintenance of 
the ministry ; and that there should be a 
charitable course taken concerning the 
exacting of the tithes of the poor labour- 
ers. 

3. That none should be received in the 
universities, colleges, or schools for in- 
struction of the youth, but after due trial 
both of capacity and probity. 

4. That all crimes and offences against God, 
should be punished according to God's 
word; and that there should be a law 
made thereanent, at the first parliament 
to be holden. 

5. As for the horrible murder of the late 
king, husband to the queen, which was 
so heinous before God and man, all true 
professors, in whatsoever rank or condi- 
tion, did promise to strive that all per- 



sons should be brought to condign pun- 
ishment, who are found guilty of the 
same crime. 

6. They all promised to protect the young 
prince against all violence, lest he should 
be murdered as his father was ; and that 
the prince should be committed to the 
care of four wise and godly men, that by 
a good education, he might be fitted for 
that high calling he was to execute one 
day. 

7. The nobles, barons, and others, doth pro- 
mise to beat down and abolish popery, 
idolatry, and superstition, with any thing 
that may contribute unto it ; as also to 
set up and further the true worship of 
God, his government, the church, and all 
that may concern the purity of religion 
and life ; and for this to convene and 
take arms, if need require. 

8. That all princes and kings hereafter in 
this realm, before their coronation, shall 
take oath to maintain the true religion 
now professed in the church of Scotland, 
and suppress all things contrary to it, and 
that are not agreeing with it. 

To these articles subscribed the earls of 
Morton, Glencairn, and Mar, the lords Hume, 
Ruthven, Sanquhar, Lindsay, Graeme, In- 
nermeath, and Ochiltree, with many other 
barons, besides the commissioners of the 
boroughs. 

This being agreed upon, the assembly dis- 
solved. Thereafter the lords Lindsay and 
Ruthven were sent to Lochleven to the 
queen, to present unto her two writs ; the 
one contained a renunciation of the crown 
and royal dignity in favour of the prince her 
son; with a commission to invest him into 
the kingdom, according to the manner ac- 
customed: which, after some reluctancy with 
tears she subscribed, by the advice of the earl 
of Athole, who had sent to her ; and of se- 
cretary Lethington, who had sent to her 
Robert Melville for that purpose ; so there 
was a procuration given to the lords Lind- 
say and Ruthven, by the queen, to give up 
and resign the rule of the realm, in presence 
of the states. 

The second writ was, to ordain the earl 
of Murray, during the prince's minority, if 



Book V.j 



OF RELIGION IN SCOTLAND. 



359 



he would accept the charge : and in case 
he refused, the duke Chatelherault, the 
earls of Lennox, Argyle, Athole, Morton, 
Glencairn, and Mar, should govern con- 
jointly. 

These writs were published the 29th of 
July, 1567, at the market cross of Edin- 
burgh ; then at Stirling was the prince 
crowned king, where John Knox made the 
sermon ; the earl Morton and the lord 
Hume took the oath for the king, that he 
should constantly live in the profession of 
the true religion, and maintain it; and that 
he should govern the kingdom according 
to law thereof, and do justice equally to all. 



In the beginning of August the earl Mur- 
ray being sent for, cometh home ; in all 
haste he visits the queen at Lochleven, 
strives to draw the lords that had taken 
part with the Hamiltons, or were neuters, 
to join with those that had bound them- 
selves to stand for the king's authority : he 
was very earnest with divers, by reason of 
their old friendship ; but to little purpose. 
The 20th of August, he received the regen- 
cy, after mature and ripe deliberation, at 
the desire of the queen, and lords that were 
for the king, and so was publicly proclaimed 
regent, and obedience showed unto him by 
all that stood for the young king. 



t 



THE 



COPY OF A LETTER, 



DELIVERED TO THE 



LADY MARY, REGENT OF SCOTLAND, 

FROM JOHN KNOX, 

MINISTER OF GOD'S WORD, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, 1556, AND NOW AUGMENTED, AND 
EXPLAINED BY THE AUTHOR, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1558.* 



TO THE EXCELLENT LADY MARY, DOWAGER, | 
REGENT OF SCOTLAND. 

" The cause moving- me, right honourable, 
to present this my supplication unto your 
grace, enlarged and in some places ex- 
plained, — which being in the realm of Scot- 
land in the month of May, 1556, I caused 
to be presented to your grace — is the in- 
credible rage of such as bear the title of 
bishops, who against all justice and equity, 
have pronounced against me a most cruel 
sentence, condemning my body to fire, my 
soul to damnation, and all doctrine taught 
by me to be false, deceiveable, and hereti- 
cal. If this injury did tend to me alone, 
having the testimony of a good conscience, 
with silence I could pass the matter, being 
assured, that such as they curse and expel 
their synagogues for such causes, shall God 
bless, and Christ Jesus receive, in his eter- 
nal society. But considering that this 



* This letter was written at the request of earls 
Glencairn and Marishal. The former delivered 
it into the queen's own hand ; she glanced it 
with a careless air, and gave it to the archbishop 
of Glasgow, saying, " Please you, my Lord, to 
read a pasquil (see the History, p. 86. col. 1.) 
to which Knox indignantly alludes in the last 
of the following additions to it, in which he ex- 
presses his apprehension that she had never fairly 
read it. It was this that induced him, two 
years afterward, when he was on the continent, 



| their blasphemy is vomited forth against 
the eternal truth of Christ's evangel, — 
whereof it hath pleased the great mercy of 
God to make me a minister — I cannot cease 
to notify, as well to your grace, as unto 
them, that so little I am afraid of their 
tyrannical and surmised sentence, that in 
place of the picture, if God impede not my 
purpose, they shall have the body to jus- 
tify that doctrine, which they — members of 
Satan — blasphemously do condemn. Ad- 
vertising your grace in the meantime, that 
from them, their sentence, and tyranny, and 
from all that list maintain them in the 
same, I do appeal to a lawful and general 
council ; beseeching your grace to take in 
good part, that I call you for witness, that 
I have required the liberty of the tongue, 
and my cause to be heard before your grace, 
and the body of that realm, before that 
any such process was laid against me, as 



to publish it with the additions. On the letter it- 
self Dr M'Crie justly remarks, " Though Knox's 
pen was not the most smooth or delicate, and he 
often irritated by the plainness and severity of 
his language, the letter to the queen regent is 
far from being uncourtly. It seems to have 
been written with great care ; and, in point 
of language, it may be compared with any com- 
position of that period for simplicity and forci- 
ble expression."-— Ed, 
2 Z 



362 



LETTER FROM JOHN KNOX 



this my letter directed to your grace doth 
testify." 

THE BEGINNING OF THE LETTER. 

" The eternal providence of the same God 
who hath appointed his chosen children, to 
fight in this transitory and wretched life a 
battle strong 1 and difficult, hath also appoint- 
ed their final victory, by a marvellous fash- 
ion ; and the manner of their preservation, 
in their battle, more marvellous. Their 
victory standeth not in resisting-, but in 
suffering; as our sovereign Master pro- 
nounceth to his disciples, that in their 
patience should they possess their souls. 
And the same foresaw the prophet Isaiah, 
when that he painteth forth all other 
battle to be with violence, tumult, and blood 
shedding', but the victory of God's people 
to be in quietness, silence, and hope ; mean- 
ing, that all others that obtain victory, do 
enforce themselves to resist their adversa- 
ries, to shed blood, and to murder : but so 
do not the elect of God, but all things they 
sustain at the commandment of him, who 
hath appointed them to suffer, being most 
assuredly persuaded, that then only they 
triumph, when all men judge them op- 
pressed. For in the cross of Christ always 
is included a secret and hid victory, never 
well known till the sufferer appeal' alto- 
gether to be, as it were, exterminate ; for 
then only did the blood of Abel cry to 
God, when proud Cain judged all memory 
of his brother to have been extinguished : 
and so I say their victory is marvellous. 
And how that they can be preserved, and not 
brought to utter confusion, the eye of man 
perceiveth not. But he, whose power is 
infinite, by secret and hid motions, touch- 
eth the hearts of such as, to man's judg- 
ment, have power to destroy them, of 
very pity to and compassion to save his 
people; as that he did the hearts of the 
Egyptian midwives, to preserve the men 
children of the Israelites, when precept 
was given by Pharaoh for their destruc- 
tion ; the heart of Pharaoh's daughter like- 
wise to pity Moses in his young infancy, 
exposed to the danger of the waters ; the 



heart of Nebuchadnezzar to preserve the 
captives alive, and liberally to nourish the 
children that were found apt to letters; 
and finally the heart of Cyrus, to set at 
liberty the people of God, after long bon- 
dage and thraldom. And thus doth the 
invisible power and love of God, manifest 
itself towards his elect from time to time, 
for two causes especially ; first, to comfort 
his weak warriors in their manifold temp- 
tations, letting them understand that he is 
able to compel such, as sometimes w-ere 
enemies to his people, to fight in their 
cause, and to promote their deliverance; 
and secondly, to give a testimony of his 
favour to them, that by all appearance did 
live before, as St Paul speaketh, without 
God in the world, as strangers from the 
commonwealth of Israel, and without the 
league of his merciful promise and free 
grace made to his church. For who could 
have affirmed, that any of these persons 
before named, had been of that nature and 
clemency, before occasions were offered 
unto them. But the works of mercy 
showed to the afflicted, have left to us as- 
surance, that God used them as vessels of 
his honour. For pity and mercy showed 
to Christ's afflicted flock, as they never 
lacked reward temporal, so if they be con- 
tinued, and be not changed into cruelty, 
are assured signs and seals of everlasting 
mercy to be received from God, who by 
his Holy Spirit moveth their hearts, to 
show mercy to the people of God oppress- 
ed and afflicted." 

ADDITION. 

This preface I used to give your grace 
occasion more deeply to consider what hath 
been the condition of Christ's members 
from the beginning, that in so doing, ye 
might see that it is no new thing that the 
saints of God be oppressed in the world ; 
that ye, moved by earnest contemplation 
of the same, might also study rather to 
save them from murder — although by the 
wicked counsels of many ye were provok- 
ed to the contrary — than to be a slave to 
Satan, obeying his servants your clergy, 



TO MARY REGEN 



T OF SCOTLAND. 



363 



whose fury is bent against God and his 
verity. But this will after follow in our 
letter, which thus proceedeth. 

LETTER. 

" Your grace perchance doth wonder to 
what purpose these things be recited, and I 
in very deed cannot wonder enough, that 
occasion is offered to me, a worm most 
wretched, to recite the same at this pre- 
sent. For I have looked rather for the 
sentence of death, than to have written to 
your grace, in these last and most wicked 
days, in which Satan so blindeth the 
hearts of many, that innocents are damned, 
their cause never tried." 

ADDITION. 

Hereof ye cannot be ignorant For be- 
sides those whom ye hear from time to 
time most cruelly to be murdered in 
France, Italy, Spain, Flanders, and now of 
late years beside you in England ; for no 
cause, but that they profess Christ Jesus 
to be the only Saviour of the world, the 
only mediator betwixt God and man, the 
only sacrifice acceptable for the sins of all 
faithful ; and finally, the only head to his 
church. Besides these, I say, — of whom 
ye hear the bruit — ye have been witness, 
that some, within the realm of Scotland, 
for the same cause, most cruelly have been 
murdered, whose cause was never heard 
with indifference, but murderers, occupy- 
ing the seat of justice, have shed the blood 
of Christ's true witnesses ; which albeit [it] 
did then appear to be consumed away with 
fire, yet is it recent in the presence of him, 
for whose cause they did suffer, and ceas- 
eth not to call for vengeance, with the 
blood of Abel, to fall not only upon such 
as were authors of that murder, but also 
upon all those that maintain those tyrants 
in their tyranny, or that do consent to 
their beastly cruelty. Take not this as 
the affirmation of any man ; but hear and 
consider the voice of the son of God. Ful- 
fil, saith he, the measure of your fathers, 
that all the blood which hath been shed, 
since the blood of Abel the just, till the 
blood of Zechariah, &c. may come upon 



this generation. Hereby it is evident, that 
the murderers of our time, as well as in 
the time of Christ, are guilty of all [the] 
blood that hath been shed from the begin- 
ning. Fearful, I grant, is the sentence, yet 
is it most equal and just. For whosoever 
sheddeth the blood of any one of Christ 
Jesus his members, for professing of his 
truth, consenteth to all the murder which 
hath been made since the beginning of the 
world, for that cause. So that as there is 
one communion of all God's elect, of whom 
every member is participant of the whole 
justice [righteousness] of Christ; so there 
is a communion among the reprobate, by 
which every one of the serpent's seed are 
criminal and guilty of all iniquity which 
the whole body committeth : for because 
they are altogether conjured against Christ 
Jesus, and against his eternal verity, every 
one serving Satan, the prince of this world, 
in their rank, age, degree, and estate ; the 
murderers of their brethren, which this day 
live, [they] are guilty with Cain of the blood 
of Abel. The kings and princes, who by 
power oppress the people of God, and will 
not suffer that the people truly worship 
God, as he hath commanded, but will re- 
tain them in Egypt, are brethren and com- 
panions to Pharaoh. The prelates and 
priests, whose horrible iniquities and in- 
solent life, have infected all realms where 
they reign, have with their fathers, the old 
Pharisees, taken away the key of know r - 
ledge, and have shut up the kingdom of 
heaven before men, so that neither they 
themselves will enter, neither yet will they 
suffer others to enter in the same. And the 
multitude blinded, some by ignorance, 
some by fear, and by insatiable appetite, of 
their part of the spoil, — for Christ being 
crucified, the soldiers parted amongst them 
his garments — are conjured to defend those 
murderers, proud pestilent prelates, against 
Christ Jesus, and against his poor flock ; 
and therefore because of one crime they 
are all guilty, which is of treason and re- 
bellion against Christ, — of one torment 
they shall all taste, which is, of the fire 
that never shall be quenched. And herein 
ought you, madam, be circumspect and 



364 



LETTER FROM JOHN KNOX 



careful, if that ye have any hope of the life 
to come ; for if the consent which pro- 
ceedcth of ignorance and blindness, bring- 
eth destruction and death — as Christ our 
master doth witness, saying, If the blind lead 
the blind, they shall both fall in the ditch — 
what shall become of the proud and malici- 
ous contemners of God's verity offered ? But 
our doctrine, perchance, shall be denied to 
%»e the verity : whereunto I answer, that so 
was the doctrine of Noah, of Moses, of the 
prophets, of Christ Jesus, and of his apos- 
tles, and yet the original world perished by 
water ; Sodom and Gomorrah by fire de- 
scending from heaven ; Pfaaroah and his 
adherents in the Red sea ; the city of Jeru- 
salem, the whole nation of the Jews, by pun- 
ishments and plagues, notwithstanding that 
the whole multitude cried, This is new 
doctrine, this is heresy, and tendeth to se- 
dition. Our petition is, that our doctrine 
may be tried by the plain word of God, that 
liberty be granted to us to utter and de- 
clare our minds at large, in every article 
and point which now are in controversy, 
which if ye deny, giving ear to Christ's 
enemies, who contemn his doctrine for 
heresy, ye shall drink the cup of God's 
vengeance with them. But now to the 
former letter. 

LETTER. 

" I doubt not but the rumours which have 
come to your grace's ears of me have been 
such that, if all reports were true, I were 
unworthy to live in the earth ; and won- 
der it is that the voices of the multi- 
tude should not so have inflamed your 
grace's heart with just hatred of such a 
one as I am accused to be, that all access to 
pity should have been shut up. I am tra- 
duced as a heretic, accused as a false teach- 
er and seducer of the people, besides other 
opprobries, which, affirmed by men of 
worldly honour and estimation, may easily 
kindle the wrath of magistrates where in- 
nocence is not known. But blessed be 
God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who by the dew of his heavenly grace, 
hath so quenched the fire of displeasure as 
yet in your grace's heart, which of late 
days I have understood, that Satan is frus- 



trated of his enterprise and purpose. Which 
is to my heart no small comfort. Not so 
much, God is witness, for any benefit 
that I can receive in this miserable life by 
protection of any earthly creature — for the 
cup which it behoveth me to drink is ap- 
pointed by the wisdom of Him whose coun- 
sels are not changeable— as that I am for 
that benefit, which I am assured yourgracs 
shall receive, if that ye continue in like 
moderation and clemency towards others, 
that most unjustly are and shall be accused, 
as that your grace hath began towards me 
and my most desperate cause, that is, if that 
by godly wisdom ye shall study to bridle 
the fury and rage of them, who for the 
maintenance of their worldly pomp, regard 
nothing the cruel murdering of simple in- 
nocence. Then shall he who doth pro- 
nounce mercy to appertain to the merciful, 
and promiseth that a cup of cold water 
given for his name's sake shall not lack re- 
ward, first cause your happy government to 
be praised in this present age, and in pos- 
terities to come, and last recompense your 
godly pains and study with that joy and 
glory, which the eye hath not seen, nor yet 
can enter into the heart of mortal creature." 

ADDITION. 

If Christ's words were esteemed true, that 
of every idle word an account shall be given, 
and that nothing is so secretly done, which 
shall not come to knowledge and light, I 
suppose that the tongues of men should be 
better bridled, than impudently to speak 
their pleasure in matters unknown. For 
albeit that the true fear of God should not 
move them to speak truth, yet would I 
think, if any spark of humanity remained, 
that worldly shame should impede them 
to lie. When reasonings were before your 
grace what man it was that preached in 
Ayr, and divers men were in divers opin- 
ions, some affirming that it was an English- 
man, and some supposing the contrary, a 
prelate not of the least pride, said, nay, no 
Englishmen, but it is Knox that knave. It 
was my lord's pleasure so to baptize a poor 
man : the reason whereof, if it should be 
required, his rochet and mitre must stand 
for authority. What farther liberty he 



TO MARY, REGENT OF SCOTLAND. 



365 



used in defining things like uncertain to 
him, to wit, of my learning and doctrine, at. 
this present I omit ; lamenting more that 
such pestilent tongues have liberty to speak 
in the presence of princes, than that I am 
sorry for any hurt that their venom can do 
to me in body or fame. For what my life 
and conversation have been, since it hath 
pleased God to call me from the puddle of 
papistry, let my very enemies speak ; and 
what learning I have, they may prove 
when they please. The report of your 
grace's moderation, as well at that time as 
after, when suite was made for my appre- 
hension, moved me to write this my other 
letter ; in which albeit I have not played 
the orator, dilating and decking the matter 
for the pleasure of itching and delicate ears; 
yet doth my conscience bear me record, 
that with simplicity I have advertised you 
of a mortal danger; as this portion subse- 
quent shall prove. 

LETTER. 

" Superfluous and foolish it shall appear 
to many, that I, a man of base estate and 
condition, dare enterprise to admonish a 
princess so honourable, endued with wis- 
dom and graces singular. But when I con- 
sider the honour which God commandeth 
to be given to magistrates, which no doubt, 
if it be true honour, containeth in itself, 
in lawful things obedience, and in all things 
love and reverence ; when further I con- 
sider the troublesome estate of Christ's 
true religion, this day oppressed by blind- 
ness of men ; and last, the great multitude 
of flatterers, and the rare number of them 
that boldly and plainly dare speak the naked 
verity in presence of their princes, and prin- 
cipally in the cause of Christ Jesus. These 
things I say, considered, whatsoever any 
man shall judge of my enterprise, I am 
compelled to say, that, unless in your re- 
gimen, and in using of power, your grace 
be found different from the multitude of 
princes and head rulers, that this pre-emi- 
nence wherein you are placed, shall be 
your dejection to torment and pain ever- 
lasting. This proposition is sore, but alas 
it is so true, that if I should conceal and 
hide it from your grace, I committed no 



less treason against your grace, than if I 
did see you by imprudence take a cup, 
which I knew to be poisoned or envenomed, 
and yet would not admonish you to abstain 
from drinking of the same. 

" The religion, which this day men de- 
fend by fire and sword, is a cup envenomed, 
of which whosoever drinketh— except that 
by true repentance he after drinketh of 
the water of life- — drinketh therewith dam- 
nation and death. How and by whom it 
hath been envenomed, if it were no more 
tedious to your grace to read or hear, than 
it is painful to me to write or rehearse, I 
would not spare the labour; but for the 
present, I have thought it some discharge 
of one part of my duty, if I, of very love, 
admonish your grace of the danger, which 
I do, as God one day shall declare, prefer- 
ring your grace's salutation, and the salu- 
tation of the people now committed to your 
charge, to any corporal benefit that can re- 
dound to myself. 

ADDITION. 

As Satan by craft hath corrupted the most 
holy ordinances of God's precepts, (I mean 
of the first table) in the place of the spirit- 
ual honouring of God, introducing men's 
dreams, inventions, and fantasies ; so hath 
he, abusing the weakness of man, corrupted 
this precept of the second table, touching 
the honour which is due to parents, under 
whom are comprehended princes and teach- 
ers. For now the devil hath so blinded the 
senses of many, that they cannot, or at least, 
will not learn what appertaineth to God 
and what to Csesar. But because the spirit 
of God hath said, Honour the king, there- 
fore whatsoever they command, be it right 
or wrong, must be obeyed. But heavy shall 
the judgment be which shall apprehend 
such blasphemers of God's majesty, who 
dare be so bold as to affirm that God hath 
commanded any creature to be obeyed 
against himself. Against God it is, that for 
the commandment of any prince, be he ever 
so potent, men shall commit idolatry, em- 
brace a religion which God hath not ap- 
proved by his word, or confirm, by their 
silence, wicked and blasphemous laws, made 
against the honour of his majesty. Men, I 



366 



LETTER FROM JOHN KNOX 



sa) r , that so do, give no true obedience ; 
but as they are apostates from God, so are 
they traitors to their princes, whom by 
flattery they confirm in rebelling against 
God. Only they which to the death re- 
sist such wicked laws and decrees, are ac- 
ceptable to God, and faithful to their prin- 
ces ; as were the three children in the pre- 
sence of Nebuchadnezzar, and Daniel in 
the days of Darius, the Persian emperor, 
whose constant and free confession, as 
it glorified God, so did it notify as well to 
those tyrants, as to all ages following, the 
great blasphemy, which in their rage and 
fury they committed against God, from the 
which, by all appearance, neither of both 
so suddenly should have been called, if the 
three children had bowed among the rest, 
and Daniel had not declared the confession 
of his faith, which was, with windows open, 
to pray towards Jerusalem; manifestly 
thereby declaring, that he did not consent 
to the blasphemous law and decree which 
was established by the king and his coun- 
cil. Experience hath taught us what sur- 
mises and blasphemies the adversaries of 
Christ Jesus, of his eternal verity, do in- 
vent and devise against such as begin to 
detect their impiety. They are accused to 
be authors of sedition, raisers of tu- 
mults, violators of common orders, &c. I 
answer with the prophet Isaiah, that all is 
not reputed before God sedition and conju- 
ration, which the foolish multitude so es- 
teemeth ; neither yet is every tumult and 
breach of public order contrary to God's 
commandment. For Christ Jesus himself, 
coming to rive the spoil from the strong 
armed, who before did keep his house in 
quietness, is not come to send peace but a 
sword, and to make a man disassent from 
his father, &c. His prophets before him, 
and apostles after him, feared not to break 
public orders, established against God. and 
in so doing, to move, as it were the one 
half of peoples, nations, and cities against the 
other. And yet I trust that none, except 
the hired servant of Satan, will accuse 
Christ of sedition, nor his apostles of the 
troubling of commonwealths. True it is, 
that the most wholesome medicine, most 
troubleth for a time the body replenished 



with wicked and corrupted humours, but 
the cause hereof is known to be, not in the 
medicine, but in the body subject to mala- 
dy : even so the true word of God, when it 
entereth to fight where Satan hath borne 
dominion, — as he still doth in the whole 
papistry — cannot but appear to be occasion 
of great trouble. But, madam, more pro- 
fitable it is, that the pestilent humours be 
expelled with pain, than that they be nour- 
ished to the destruction of the body. The 
papistical religion is a mortal pestilence, 
which shall assuredly bring to death eter- 
nal, the bodies and souls, from the which 
it is not purged in this life ; and therefore 
take heed betimes. God calleth upon you : 
beware that ye shut not up your ears. 
Judge not the matter after the vility 
[meanness] of my body, whom God hath 
appointed ambassador and messenger unto 
you; but with reverence and fear consider 
him, whose message I bear. I come to 
you in the name of the eternal God, and of 
Christ Jesus his son, to whom the Father 
hath committed all power, whom he 
hath established sovereign judge over all 
flesh, before whose throne ye must make 
accounts, with what reverence ye hear such 
as he sendeth. It shall not excuse you to 
say or think, that ye doubt whether I be 
sent of God or no. I cry unto you that 
the religion which the princes and blinded 
papists maintain with fire and sword is not 
the religion of Christ ; that your proud 
prelates are none of Christ's bishops. I 
admonish you that Christ's flock is op- 
pressed by them ; and therefore I require, 
and that yet again, in the name of the Lord 
Jesus, that with indifference [impartiality] 
I may be heard to preach, to reason, and 
dispute in that cause, which if ye deny, ye 
declare yourself to bear no reverence to 
Christ, nor love to his true religion. 

LETTER. 

" But ye think peradventure, that the care 
of religion is not committed to magistrates, 
but to the bishops and estate ecclesiastical, 
as they term it. But deceive not yourself; 
for the negligence of bishops shall no less 
be required of the hands of magistrates, 
than shall the oppression of false judges: 



TO MARY REGENT OF SCOTLAND. 



367 



for they unjustly promote, foster, and main- 
tain the one and the other. The false and 
corrupt judge doth spoil the goods and op- 
press the bodies of the simple, but the 
proud prelates do kings maintain to mur- 
der the souls, for the which the blood of 
Christ Jesus was shed : and that they do, 
either by withholding from them the true 
word of life, or else by causing teach unto 
them a pestilent doctrine, such as now is 
taught in the papistical churches. I know 
that ye wonder, how that the religion 
which is universally received, can be so 
damnable and corrupted. But if your 
grace shall consider that ever from the be- 
ginning, the multitude hath declined from 
God — yea, even in the people to whom he 
spake by his law and prophets — if ye shall 
consider the complaint of the Holy Ghost, 
complaining that nations, people, princes, 
and kings of the earth have raged, made 
conspiracies, and holden counsels against 
the Lord, and against his anointed Christ 
Jesus: further, if ye shall consider the 
question which Jesus himself doth move in 
these words, when the Son of Man shall 
come, shall he find faith in the earth ? 
And last, if your grace shall consider the 
manifest contempt of God and of all his 
holy precepts, which this day reigns with- 
out punishment upon the face of the whole 
earth : for as Hosea complaineth, there is 
no verity, there is no mercy, there is no 
truth this day among men, but lies, per- 
jury, and oppression overflow all, and 
blood toucheth blood, that is, every ini- 
quity is joined to another . if deeply, I say, 
your grace shall contemplate the universal 
corruption that this day reigneth in all es- 
tates, then shall your grace cease to won- 
der, that many are called and few chosen; 
and ye shall begin to tremble and fear, to 
follow the multitude to perdition. The 
universal defection, whereof St Paul did 
prophesy, is easy to be espied, as well in 
religion as in manners. The corruption of 
life is evident ; and religion is not judged 
nor measured by the plain word of God, 
but by custom, consuetude, will, consent, 
and determinations of men. But shall he 
who hath pronounced all cogitations of 
man's heart to be vain at all times, accept 



the counsels and consents of men for a re- 
ligion pleasing and acceptable before him ? 
Let not your grace be deceived. God can- 
not lie, God cannot deny himself. He 
hath witnessed from the beginning, that no 
religion pleaseth him, except that which 
he by his own word hath commanded and 
established. The verity itself pronounceth 
this sentence, "in vain do they worship 
me, teaching doctrines the precepts of men." 
And also ' all plantation which my heavenly 
Father hath not planted, shall be rooted out.' 
Before the coming of his well beloved Son in 
flesh, severely he punished all such as durst 
enterprise to alter or change his ceremonies 
and statutes, as in Saul, Vasias, [perhaps 
Uzzah] Nadab Abihu, is to be read. 
And will he now, after that he hath open- 
ed his counsel to the world by his only 
Son, whom he cornmandeth to be heard, 
and after that by his Holy Spirit speaking 
in his apostles, he hath established the re- 
ligion in which he will [have] his true 
worshippers abide to the end ; will he now, 
I say, admit men's inventions in the mat- 
ter of religion which he reputed for dam- 
nable idolatry ? If men and angels would 
affirm that he will, or may do it, his own 
verity shall convict them of a lie, for this 
sentence he pronounceth : not that which 
seemeth good in thy eyes, shalt thou do to 
the Lord thy God, but that which the 
Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that 
do thou: add nothing unto it, diminish 
nothing from it. Which, sealing up his 
New Testament, he repeateth in these 
words : that which ye have, hold till 1 
come, &c. And therefore yet again, it re- 
penteth me not to say, that in this point, 
which is chief and principal, your grace 
must disassent from the multitude of ru- 
lers, or else ye can possess no portion with 
Christ Jesus in his kingdom and glory. 

ADDITION. 

Know by what craft Satan laboureth con- 
tinually to keep the world in blindness, I 
added these two former points, to wit, 
that ye should not think yourself free from 
the reformation of religion, because ye 
have bishops within your realm, neither 
yet that ye should judge that religion most 



368 



LETTER FROM JOHN KNOX 



perfect, which the multitude by wrong- 
custom hath embraced. In these two 
points doth Satan busily travail. First, 
that no civil magistrate presume to take 
cognition in the cause of religion : for that 
must be deferred to the determinations of 
the church. Secondly, that impossible it is, 
that that religion should be false, which so 
long time, so many councils, and so great a 
multitude of men, so divers nations and 
realms have allowed, authorized, and con- 
firmed. What is the duty of magistrates, 
and what power the people hath in such 
cases granted by God, my purpose is to 
write in a several letter to the nobility and 
estates of the realm ; and therefore to avoid 
tediousness and repetition of one thing, I 
now supersede. And as touching the 
second, if ye rightly consider the testi- 
monies of scriptures, which I have before 
adduced, I trust ye shall find that objec- 
tion sufficiently answered. For if the 
opinion of the multitude ought always to 
be preferred, then did God injury to the 
original world. For they were all of one 
mind, to wit, conjured against God, ex- 
cept Noah and his family. And if antiqui- 
ty of time shall be considered in such 
cases, then shall not only the idolatry of 
gentiles, but also the false religion of Ma- 
homet be preferred to the papistry. For 
both the one and the other, is more ancient 
than is the papistical religion ; yea, Ma- 
homet had established his Alcoran, before 
any pope in Rome was crowned with a 
triple crown. But as touching antiquity, 
I am content with Tertullian to say, " let 
that be the most pure and perfect religion, 
which shall be proved most ancient." For 
this is a chief point, wherein I will join 
[issue] with all the papists in the earth : 
that their religion — such as it is this day — 
is not of such antiquity, as is that, which 
we contend to be the true and only reli- 
gion acceptable before God, neither yet 
that their church is the catholic church, 
but that it is of late days in respect of 
Christ's institution, crept in and devised by 
man, and therefore am bold to affirm it 
odious and abominable. For this is our 
chief proposition, that in the religion of 
God, only ought his own word to be con- 



sidered. That no authority of man nor 
angel ought in that case to be respected. 
And as for their councils, when the matter 
shall come to trial, it shall be easily seen, 
for whom the most godly and most ancient 
councils shall most plainly speak. I will 
prove by a council that of more authority 
is the sentence of one man, founded upon 
the simple truth of God, than is the deter- 
mination of the whole council without the 
assurance of God's word. But that all their 
determinations which we impugn, are not 
only maintained without any assurance of 
scriptures, but also are established against 
the truth of the same: yea, and for the 
most part against the decrees of the former 
councils, I offer myself evidently to prove. 
But now shortly to the rest of the former 
letter. 

LETTER. * 

" An orator, and God's messenger also, 
justly might require of you now, by God's 
hand promoted to high dignity, a motherly 
pity upon your subjects : a justice inflexi- 
ble to be used against murderers and com- 
mon oppressors: a heart void of avarice 
and partiality : a mind studious and careful 
for maintenance of that realm and common- 
wealth, above which God hath placed you, 
and by it hath made you honourable, 
with the rest of virtues, which not only 
God's scriptures, but also writers illumin- 
ated only with the light of nature, require 
in godly rulers. But vain it is to crave 
reformation of manners, where religion is 
corrupted. For like as a man cannot do 
the office of a man, till first he has a being 
and life : so to work works pleasant in the 
sight of God the Father, can no man do, 
without the spirit of the Lord Jesus, which 
doth not abide in the hearts of idolators. 
And therefore the most godly princes, 
Josias, Hezekiah, and Jehoshaphat, seeking 
God's favour to rest upon them and upon 
their people, before all things began to re- 
form the religion ; for it is as the stomach 
within the body, which, if it be corrupted, 
of necessity it infecteth the whole mass : 
and therefore often I repeat that, which to 
be done is most necessary. If your grace 
pretend to reign with Christ Jesus, then it 



TO MARY REGENT OF SCOTLAND. 



behoTeth you to take care of his true reli- 
gion, which this day within your realm is 
so deformed, that no part of Christ's ordi- 
nances remain in their first strength and 
original purity ; which, I praise God, to me 
is less difficult to prove, than dangerous to 
speak. And yet neither the one nor the 
other I fear; partly because the love of 
life eternal quencheth the terror of tempo- 
ral death, and partly because I would with 
St Paul wish myself accursed from Christ, 
as touching earthly pleasure, for the sal- 
vation of my brethren, and illumination of 
your grace, which thing, work and very 
deed, and not bare word or writing, shall 
witness and declare, if I may purchase the 
liberty of tongue but forty days only. 

ADDITION. 

The wise and facund Deniocritus had some- 
times a familiar sentence ; that, ' Honest it 
was to commend such works as were wor- 
thy of praise, but to praise things that were 
wicked, could not proceed but from a de- 
ceivable mind.' And Tbemistius, a philoso- 
pher of great fame, seeing the hall of Go- 
vinian the Roman emperor replenished with 
flatterers, said, c Of their manners it may be 
espied, that more they worship the sceptre 
and the purple than God signifying that 
they little regarded whether the emperor 
was godly or ungodly, so that they might 
retain themselves in favour with him. Al- 
beit that those were heathens, and neither 
had knowledge of God, as we pretend, nei- 
ther had given so plain a confession to de- 
clare themselves enemies to all iniquity — 
as we have done by baptism, and by our 
whole profession of Christianity — yet do 
their w r ords damn no small number of us, 
and chiefly of such as be conversant wath 
princes. For who in these miserable days 
judgeth himself to have offended, albeit he 
praise, allow, and maintain whatsoever the 
princes and upper powers devise ? Yea, 
although it be to oppress and to spoil the 
poor, to pull from them their skins, and, as 
the prophet sayeth, to break their bones, 
and to cut them in pieces, as flesh for the 
cauldron or pot, yet I say that the princes 
shall not lack judges to cry, it is right, it is 
for the commonwealth, for defence of the 



369 

realm, and ease of the subjects : so that the 
estate of times is even now, such as when 
the prophet complained, saying, the princes 
ask, and the judge is ready to give, not his 
own but the life and blood of the poor. 
How soon a great man hath spoken the 
corruption of his mind, he hath his flatter- 
ers ready to applaud and confirm whatso- 
ever he speaketh ; and let the princes be of 
what religion they please, that is all one to 
the most part of men, so that with abnega- 
tion of God, of his honour, and religion, 
they may retain the friendship of the court. 
But, alas ! how miserable be princes that are 
so abused, and how contagious a pestilence 
be such flatterers to commonwealths, em- 
pires, and realms, God hath declared even 
from the beginning, to point out the mis- 
chief which from them proceedeth to such 
as give ear unto them. The ancient wri- 
ters compare them to harlots, to ravens, 
and to more ravenous beasts, and not with- 
out cause. For as harlots can never abide 
that their lovers should return to repen- 
tance and soberness of mind, so cannot flat- 
terers sustain, that such as they deceive 
shall come to right judgment. And as ra- 
vens pick out the eyes of dead carrions, and 
as ravenous beasts devour the same, so do 
flatterers, being more cruel, pick at the 
eyes of living men, and blinding the eyes of 
their understanding and judgment, do ex- 
pose them to be devoured in body and soul 
to Satan. This we have not by profane 
writers only, but the Holy Spirit taught us 
this infallible truth. That where iniquity 
reigneth in a commonwealth, and none is 
found boldy and openly to reprehend the 
same, that there shall sudden vengeance and 
destruction follow ; for thus is it written, 
and pronounced by the prophet Ezekiel, 
Shalt thou not judge the city of blood, 
which hath made idols ? whose rulers shed 
blood to the uttermost of their power ? they 
have despised my holy things, they have 
devised iniquity, and have performed the 
same. The conjuration of prophets hath 
gathered up the riches, and whatsoever is 
precious within the same. The priests vio- 
lently have torn and rent my law. The 
people of the land have wrought deceitfully. 
They have oppressed the poor, and have done 
3 A 



370 



LETTER FROM JOHN KNOX 



violence to the stranger without judgment, 
and I have sought a man of them to repair 
the hedge, and to stand in the gap before 
me, but I have found none. Therefore 
have I poured forth my wrath upon them, 
and in the fire of my hot displeasure I have 
consumed them. Advert, madam, for these 
are not the words of mortal man, but of the 
eternal God, and were not spoken against 
Jerusalem only, but against every realm 
and nation that so offendeth. The sins that 
here be named, are idolatry in all, avarice 
and cruelty in the princes and rulers, con- 
juration of the prophets to defend the 
wicked, deceit, fraud, and violence in the 
common people; and finally a universal 
silence of all men, none being found to re- 
prehend these enormities. Would to God, 
that I might with safety of conscience ex- 
cuse you, your council, and the idolaters of 
that realm, from any of these crimes afore- 
named. The idolatry which is committed 
is more evident than that it can be denied ; 
the avarice and cruelty, as well of yourself, 
as of such as be in authority, may be known 
by the facts. For fame carrieth the voices of 
the poor, oppressed by intolerable taxes, not 
only to us here, in a strange country, but I 
am assured, to the ears of the God of hosts. 
The conspiracy and conjuration of your false 
prophets is known to the world, and yet is 
none found so faithful to God, or merciful 
to your grace, that freely will and dare ad- 
monish you, to repent before that God rise 
himself in judgment. When I name repen- 
tance, 1 mean no outward show of holiness, 
which commonly is found in hypocrites, 
but I mean a true conversion to the Lord 
God from your whole heart, with a damn- 
ing all superstition and idolatry, in which 
ye have been nourished, which with your 
presence ye have decorated, and to your 
power maintained and defended. Unless, I 
say, that this poison be purged from your 
heart — be your outward life never so glit- 
tering before the world — yet in the pre- 
sence of God, it is but abominable. Yea, 
further, I say, that where this venom of the 
serpent — idolatry I mean — lurketh in the 
heart, it is impossible but that at one time 
or other, it shall produce pestilent fruits, 
albeit peradventure not openly before men, 



yet before God no less odious, than the 
facts of murderers, publicans, and harlots ; 
and therefore in my former letter I said, 
that superfluous it was to require reforma- 
tion of manners, where the religion is cor- 
rupted ; which yet again I repeat, to the 
end that your grace more deeply may 
weigh the matter. But now to the rest of 
the same my former letter. 

LETTER. 

" I am not ignorant how dangerous a thing 
it appeareth to the natural man, to innovate 
any thing in matters of religion ; and partly 
I consider, that your grace's power is not 
so free as a public reformation perchance 
would require. But if your grace shall con- 
sider the danger and damnation perpetual, 
which inevitably hangeth upon all maintain- 
ed of a false religion, then shall the great- 
er danger easily devour and swallow up the 
smaller. If your grace shall consider, that 
either you must serve God to life everlast- 
ing, or else serve the world to death and 
damnation ; then albeit that man and angel 
should dissuade you, you will chose life 
and refuse death. And if further ye shall 
consider, that the very life consisteth in the 
knowledge of the only true God, and of his 
son Christ Jesus ; and that true knowledge 
hath annexed with it God's true worship 
and honour, which requireth a testimony 
of his own will expressed by his word, that 
such honour doth please him : if these 
things aforesaid your grace do earnestly 
meditate, then albeit ye may not do sud- 
denly what you would, yet shall you not 
cease to do what you may. Your grace 
cannot hastily abolish superstition, and re- 
move from offices unprofitable pastors, of 
whom speaketh Ezekielthe prophet, which 
to a public reformation is requisite and ne- 
cessary. But if the zeal of God's glory be 
fervent in your grace's heart, you will not 
by wicked laws maintain idolatry, neither 
will you suffer the fury of bishops to mur- 
der and devour the poor members of 
Christ's body, as in times bypast they have 
been accustomed ; which thing if either by 
blind ignorance ye do, or yet for pleasure 
of others within this realm permit to be 
done, then, except you speedily repent, you 



TO MARY REGENT OF SCOTLAND. 



371 



and your posterity shall suddenly feel the 
depressing" hand of him, who hath exalted 
you. Ye shall be compelled, will ye or 
not, to know that he is eternal, against 
whom ye address the battle ; and that it is 
he, that moderateth the times and dispos- 
eth kingdoms, electing from authority 
such as be inobedient, and placing others 
according to his good pleasure ; that it is 
he that glorifieth them that do glorify him, 
and poureth forth contempt upon princes, 
that rebel against his graces offered. 

ADDITION. 

In writing of this parcel, as I remembered 
the impediments which might call ,you 
back from God and from his true obedience, 
so did I consider what occasion ye had to 
tremble and to fear before his majesty, and 
to enterprise the loss of all worldly glory, 
for the promoting of the glory of God. I 
do consider that your power is but bor- 
rowed, extraordinary, and unstable, for ye 
have it but by permission of others, and 
seldom it is that women do long reign with 
felicity and joy. For as nature hath de- 
nied to them a constant spirit of good go- 
vernment ; so hath God pronounced, that 
they are never given to reign over men, 
but in his wrath and indignation. Your 
most especial friends moreover, blinded by 
the vanity of this world ; yea, being drunk- 
en with the cup of that Roman harlot, are 
mortal enemies to Christ Jesus, and to his 
true religion. These things may easily 
abash the mind of a woman not confirmed 
by grace : but yet if ye shall a little con- 
sider with me the causes, why that ye 
ought to hazard all for the glory of God in 
this behalf, the former terrors shall sudden- 
ly vanish. I do not esteem that thing 
greatest which peradventure some others 
do, to wit, that if ye shall enterprise to in- 
novate any thing in matters of religion, 
that then ye shall lose your authority, and 
also the favour of your carnal friends : I 
look further, to wit, to the judgments of 
God, who hath begun already to declare 
himself angry with you, with your seed 
and posterity, yea, with the whole realm, 
above which it should have ruled. Impute 
not to fortune, that first your two sons 



were suddenly taken from you, within the 
space of six hours, and after your husband 
last, as it were, by violence, from life and 
honour, the memorial of his name, succes- 
sion, and royal dignity perishing with him- 
self. For albeit the usurped abuse, or 
rather tyranny of some realms, have per- 
mitted women to succeed to the honour of 
their fathers, yet must their glory be trans- 
ferred to the house of a stranger. And so 
I say, That with himself was buried his 
name,* succession, and royal dignity; and 
in this, if ye espy not the anger and hot 
displeasure of God — threatening you and 
the rest of your posterity with the same 
plague — ye are more obstinate than I 
would wish you to be. I would ye should 
ponder and consider deeply with yourself, 
that God useth not to punish realms and 
nations with such rare plagues without 
great cause ; neither useth he to restore to 
honours and glory the house which he be- 
ginneth once to deject, till repentance of 
the former crimes be found. Ye may per- 
chance doubt what crimes should have been 
in your husband, you, or the realm, for 
the which God should so grievously have 
punished you. I answer, The mainten-. 
ance and defence of most horrible idolatry, 
with the shedding of the blood of the saints 
of God, who laboured to notify and rebuke 
the same. This I say, — other iniquities 
omitted — is such a crime before the eyes 
of his Majesty, that for the same he hath 
poured forth his extreme vengeance upon 
kings, and upon their posterity, depriving 
them from honours and dignity for ever : 
as by the histories of the books of the 
kings is most evident. To Jeroboam it is 
said, " Because I have exalted thee from the 
midst of the people, and have made thee 
prince over my people Israel, I have rent 
the kingdom from the house of David for 
idolatry also, and have given it unto thee ; 
but thou hast not been as David my ser- 
vant, &c. But thou hast done wickedly 
above all that have gone before thee. For 



* This was written some years before the 
name was restored by the marriage of Henry 
Stuart, lord Darnly," with the young queen. 
-Ed. 



372 



LETTER FROM JOHN KNOX 



thou hast made to thee other gods and 
molten images to provoke me, and hast 
cast me behind thy back. Therefore shall 
I bring affliction upon the house of Jero- 
boam, and I shall destroy to Jeroboam all 
that pisseth against the wall — signifying 
thereby the male children — and shall cast 
forth the posterity of Jeroboam, as dung is 
cast forth till it be consumed." This sen- 
tence was not only executed against this 
idolater, but also against the rest of idola- 
ters in that realm, as they succeeded one 
after another: for to Baasha, whom God 
used as [his] instrument to root out the 
seed of Jeroboam, it is said, " because thou 
hast walked in the way of Jeroboam, and 
hast caused my people Israel to sin, that 
thou shouldst provoke me in their sins : 
therefore shall I cut down the posterity of 
Baasha, and the posterity of his house, and 
shall make thy house as the house of Jero- 
boam. He that shall die to Baasha in the 
city, him shall dogs eat, and he that shall 
die in the field, him shall the fowls de- 
vour." Of the same cup, and for the same 
cause, drank Elah and Ahab, yea and the 
posterity of Jehu, following the footsteps 
of their forefathers. By these examples 
you may evidently espy, that idolatry is 
the cause why God destroyeth the poster- 
ity of princes. Not only of those that first 
invent abominations, but also of such as 
follow and defend the same. Consider, 
madam, that God hath begun very sharply 
with you, taking from you, as it were to- 
gether, two children and a husband; he 
hath begun, I say, to declare himself angry, 
beware that ye provoke not the eyes of his 
Majesty. It will not be the haughty looks 
of the proud, the strength of your friends, 
nor multitude of men, that can justify your 
cause in his presence if ye presume to 
rebel against him. And against him ye 
rebel, if ye deny my most humble request, 
which I make in his name, and it is this : 
with the hazard of mine own life, I offer 
to prove that religion which now ye main- 
tain to be false, deceivable, and abomina- 
tion before God : and that I shall do by 
most evident testimonies of his blessed, 
holy, and infallible word. If this, I say, ye 
deny, — rebelling against God — the favour 



of your friends shall little avail you, when 
he shall declare himself enemy to you, and 
to your posterity ; which, assure yourself, 
he shall shortly do, if ye begin to display 
the banner of your malice against him. 
Let not the prosperity of others, be they 
princes, queens, kings, or emperors, bolden 
you to contemn God and his loving ad- 
monition. They shall drink the cup of his 
wrath, every one in their rank, as he hath 
appointed them. No realm in these quar- 
ters, except it that next lieth to you, 
hath he so manifestly stricken with his 
terrible rod, as he hath done you and your 
realm, and therefore it becometh you first 
to stop, except that ye will have the threat- 
enings, pronounced by Isaiah the prophet, 
ratified upon you ; to wit, that your sudden 
destruction be as the rotten wall, and your 
breaking as the breaking of a potsherd, 
which is broken without pity ; so that no 
portion of it can be found able either to 
carry fire or water. Whereby the prophet 
doth signify, that the proud contemners of 
God, and of his admonitions, shall so per- 
ish from all honours, that they shall have 
nothing worthy of memorial behind them 
in the earth. Yea, if they do leave any 
thing, as it shall be unprofitable, so shall it 
be in execration and hatred to the elect of 
God. And therefore thus proceedeth my 
former letter. 

LETTER. 

" How dangerous that ever it shall appear 
to the flesh, to obey God, and to make war 
against the devil, the prince of darkness, 
pride, and superstition ; yet if your grace 
look to have yourself and seed to continue 
in honour worldly and everlasting, subject 
yourself betimes under the hand of him 
that is omnipotent. Embrace his will, 
despise not his testament, refuse not his 
graces offered. When he calleth upon you, 
withdraw not your ear. Be not led away 
with the vain opinion that your church 
cannot err. Be ye most assuredly persuad- 
ed, that so far as in life ye see them degen- 
erate from Christ's true apostles, so in re- 
ligion are they further corrupted. Lay the 
book of God before your eyes, and let it be 
judge to that which I say. Which if ye 



TO MARY REGENT OF SCOTLAND. 



373 



with fear and reverence obey, as did 
Josias the admonitions of the prophetess, 
then shall he, by whom kings do reign, 
crown your battle with double benediction, 
and reward you with wisdom, riches, glory, 
honour, and long life in this your regimen 
temporal, and with life everlasting, when the 
king of all kings the Lord Jesus, whose 
members now do cry for your help, shall 
appear to judgment, accompanied with his 
angels, before whom you shall make ac- 
count of your present regimen, when the 
proud and disobedient shall cry, Mountains, 
fall upon us and hide us from the face of 
the Lord. But then it shall be too late, 
because they contemned his voice, when he 
lovingly called. 

" God, the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by the power of his Holy Spirit, 
move your heart so to consider and accept 
the things that be said, that they be not a 
testimony of your just condemnation, in 
that great day of the Lord Jesus, to whose 
omnipotent spirit I unfeignedly commit 
your grace." 

ADDITION. 

When Jeremiah the prophet, at the com- 
mandment of God, had written the sermons, 
threatenings, and plagues, which he had 
spoken against Israel and Judah, and had 
commanded them to be read by Baruch his 
scribe, because himself was excommuni- 
cated and forbidden to enter into the tem- 
ple , by the providence of God, it came 
to pass, that Michaiah the son of Gemariah, 
hearing the said sermons, passed to the 
king's house, and did communicate the mat- 
ter with the rest of the princes, who also, 
after they had read the same volume of 
Jeremiah's preachings, did not conceal the 
truth from king Jehoiakim, who then did 
reign in Jerusalem. But the proud and 
desperate prince, commanding the book to 
be read in his presence, before he heard 
three or four leaves of the same, did cut it 
and cast it into the fire, notwithstanding 
that some of the princes — I think not all — 
made request in the contrary. But the 
prophet was charged by God to write again, 
and to say to Jehoiakim the king, Thus 
saith the Lord, Thou hast burnt this book, 



saying, Why hast thou written in it accord- 
ing to this sentence, assuredly the king of 
Babylon shall come, and shall destroy this 
land, and shall make it void of men and 
beasts. Therefore thus saith the Lord of 
Jehoiakim the king, there shall not be one 
left alive to sit in the seat of David. Their 
carcases shall be cast to the heat of the day, 
and to the frost of the night — whereby the 
prophet did signify the most vile contempt, 
and the most cruel torment — and I shall 
visit the iniquity of himself, of his seed and 
servants, and I shall bring upon them, and 
upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon 
all Judah, all the calamities which I have 
spoken against them. Albeit they would 
not hear. This is not written, madam, for 
that time only, but to assure us, that the 
like punishment abideth the like contemners, 
of what estate, condition, or degree that 
ever they be. I did write unto you before, 
having testimony of a good conscience, that 
I did it in the fear of my God, and by the 
motion of his Holy Spirit — for the request 
of faithful brethren, in things lawful and 
pertaining to God's glory, I cannot but 
judge to be the voice of the Holy Ghost — 
but how you did accept the same my for- 
mer writing, I do not otherwise than by 
conjectures understand. Whether you did 
read it to the end or not, I am uncertain : 
one thing I know, that you did deliver it 
to one of your prelates, saying, My lord, 
will you read a pasquil ? As charity per- 
suadeth me to interpret things, doubtfully 
spoken, in the best sense, so my duty to 
God, who hath commanded me to flatter no 
prince in the earth, compelleth me to say, 
that if no more you esteem the admonition 
of God, nor the cardinals do the scoffing of 
pasquils, that then he shall shortly send 
you messengers, with whom you shall not 
be able on that manner to jest. If my per- 
son be considered, I grant my threatenings 
are no more to be feared, than be the mer- 
ry sports, which fearful men do father upon 
Pasquillus in Rome. But, madam, if you 
shall deeply consider, that God useth men 
— yea and most commonly those that be of 
lowest degree, and most abject before the 
world — to be his messengers and ambassa- 
dors, not only to notify his will to the 



374 



LETTER TO THE REGENT OF SCOTLAND. 



simple people, but also to rebuke the most 
proud tyrants and potent princes ; then will 
you not judge the liquor by the outward 
appearance and nature of the vessel. For 
you are not ignorant, that the most noble 
wine is inclosed within the tun made of 
frail wood, and that the precious ointment 
is often kept within the pot made of clay. 
If further you shall consider, that God will 
do nothing touching the punishment of 
realms and nations, which he will not re- 
veal to his servants the prophets, whose 
tongues he will compel to speak, some- 
times contrary to the appetites and desires 
of their own hearts : and whose words he 
will perform, be they never so unapparent 
to the judgment of men : if these you do 
deeply weigh, then will you fear the thing 
which presently is not seen. Elias was but 
a man, as St James doth witness, like to 
his brethren ; and yet at his prayer was 
Ahab the idolater, and all Israel with him, 
punished three years and six months, God 
shutting up the heavens, that neither rain 
nor dew fell upon the earth the space afore- 
written. And in the end, God so wrought 
by him, that Baal's priests M ere first con- 
founded, and after justly punished. And 
albeit that Jezebel sought his blood, and 
by oath had determined his death ; yet, as 
she was frustrated of her intent, so could 
she not keep her own bones from the dogs; 
which punishment the prophet — God so 
ruling his tongue — had before appointed 
to that wicked woman. Albeit, madam, 
that the messengers of God are not sent 
this day with visible miracles ; because they 
teach none other doctrine, than that which 



* It is much to be wished that those who as- 
cribe miraculous powers to some of our reform- 
ers would attend to this sentiment of Knox's. 
God's messengers, he says, are not now sent to 
work miracles, because they teach nothing but 
what has been confirmed by miracles already, 
referring to those recorded in Scripture. This is 
what 1 have been maintaining in all my writ- 
ings on this subject, as may be seen in some of 
my preceding notes, and more fully in those in 
the Scots Worthies, which gave no small offence 
to some admirers of Knox and others of the re- 
formers. I maintain that every Bible doctrine 
is confirmed by the miracles of Christ and his 
apustles and prophets. He therefore who comes 
with new miracles, virtually admits that he 
brings a new religion ; that he teaches doctrine 



is confirmed with miracles,* from the be- 
ginning of the world ; yet will not he, who 
hath promised to take charge over his poor 
and little flock to the end, suffer the con- 
tempt of their embassy to escape punish- 
ment and vengeance. For the truth itself 
hath said, He that heareth you, heareth 
me, and he that contemneth you, contem- 
neth me. I did not speak unto you, ma- 
dam, by my former letter, neither yet do I 
now, as Pasquillus doth to the pope, and 
his carnal cardinals, in the behalf of such 
as dare not utter their names; but I come 
in the name of Christ Jesus, affirming, that 
the religion which you maintain is dam- 
nable idolatry ; the which I offer myself to 
prove, by the most evident testimonies of 
God's scriptures. And in this quarrel I 
present myself against all the papists with- 
in the realm, desiring none other armour 
but God's holy word, and the liberty of my 
tongue. God move your heart to under- 
stand my petition, to know the truth, and 
unfeignedly to follow the same. Amen. 

Revel. John chap. xxi. I am the beginning 
and the end. I Will give to him that 
is athirst, of the well of the water of life 
freely. He that overcoraetb shall inherit 
all things, and I will be his God, and he 
shall be my son. But the fearful and 
unbelieving, and the abominable, and 
murderers, and whoremongers, and sor- 
cerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall 
have their part in the lake, which burn- 
etii with fire and brimstone, which is the 
second death. 



not contained in the Bible ; for all that it con- 
tains is already divinely attested. This senti- 
ment has the consent of Knox, as expressed in 
the text, though it may appear not perfectly 
consistent with what he says elsewhere, parti- 
cularly about Wistaart being able to foretell fu- 
ture events, which, 1 suppose, is allowed by 
all to be a miraculous gift. But it confirms 
what I ventured to explain as Knox and Yi ish- 
art's meaning, in my note, page 42 ; to wit, that 
they did not profess to deliver original predic- 
tions, but merely to apply those contained in 
Scripture to particular cases. They may have 
been mistaken even in this ; but the thing is dif 
ferent from professing to have the miraculous 
gift of prophecy. — Ed. 



THE 



APPELLATION 1 

OF 

JOHN KNOX, 



FROM 



THE CRUEL AND MOST UNJUST SENTENCE PRONOUNCED AGAINST HIM BY THE FALSE BISHOP* 
AND CLERGY OF SCOTLAND, WITH HIS SUPPLICATION AND EXHORTATION TO THE NOBILITY, 
ESTATES, AND COMMONALTY OF THE SAME REALM. 



To the nobility and estates of Scotland, ; 
John Knox wisheth grace, mercy, and j 
peace from God the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, with the spirit of 
righteous judgment.* 
It is not only the love of life temporal, right 
honourable, neither yet the fear of corporal 
death, that moveth me at this present to 
expone unto you the injuries done against 
me; and to crave of you, as of lawful 
powers by God appointed, redress of the 
same, but partly it proceedeth from that 
reverence which every man oweth to God's 
eternal truth, and partly from a love which 
I bear to your salvation, and to the salva- 
tion of my brethren, abused in that realm, 
by such as have no fear of God before their 
eyes. It hath pleased God, of his infinite 
mercy, not only so to illuminate the eyes of 
my mind, and so to touch my dull heart, 
that clearly I see, and by his grace unfeign- 
edly believe, that there is no other name 



1 Appeal. 

* This appeal is one of the most elaborate pro- 
ductions of Knox's pen. The style is better 
than that of many authors a hundred years later; 
and he argues with such force as must have been 
irresistible with persons who admitted the prin- 
ciple on which he proceeds, namely, the binding 
obligation of the judicial part of the law of 
Moses upon christian magistrates. The nobility 
and gentry had no dispute with him on this 
point, it being taken for granted by all parties. 
This being the case, one is apt to wonder that 
so powerful a remonstrance produced so little 
effect ; — that the protestant nobles did not enter 



given to men under the heaven, in which 
salvation consisteth, save the name of Jesus 
alone. Who by that sacrifice which he did 
once offer upon the cross, hath sanctified 
for ever those that shall inherit the king- 
dom promised. But also it hath pleased 
him of his superabundant grace, to make 
and appoint me, most wretched of many 
thousands, a witness, minister, and preacher 
of the same doctrine : the sum whereof I 
did not spare to communicate with my 
brethren, being with them in the realm of 
Scotland, in the year 1556, because I know 
myself to be a steward, and that account of 
the talent committed to my charge, shall be 
required by him who will admit no vain 
excuse which fearful men pretend. I did 
therefore, as God did minister, during the 
time I was conversant with them, God is 
record and witness, truly and sincerely, ac- 
cording to the gift granted unto me, divide 
the word of salvation, teaching all men to 



more zealously into Knox's plan of extirpating 
idolatry and promoting the reformation. His 
arguments must have convinced their under- 
standing that such was their duty; but the fact 
is, the doctrines which they professed to believe 
had little influence on the hearts of most of them; 
and Knox's ideas of reformation went much 
farther than they were willing to go. They 
would gladly have been quit of popery ; but at 
the same time would rather tolerate a little of It 
than submit to the rigid purity of presbyter.an 
discipline, and as Knox proposed to exercise it. 
—Ed. 



376 



THE APPELLATION 



hate sin, which before God was and is so 
odious, that none other sacrifice could satis- 
fy his justice, except the death of his only 
Son, and to magnify the great mercies of our 
heavenly Father, who did not spare the 
substance of his own glory, but did give 
him to the world to suffer the ignominious 
and cruel death of the eross, by that means 
to reconcile his chosen children to himself : 
teaching further what is the duty of such 
as do believe themselves purged by such a 
price from their former filth iness. To wit, 
that they are bound to walk in the newness 
of life, fighting against the lusts of the flesh, 
and studying at all times to glorify God by 
such good works as he hath prepared his 
children to walk in. 

In doctrine 1 did further affirm, so taught 
by my master Christ Jesus, that whosoever 
denieth him, yea, or is ashamed of him, be- 
fore this wicked generation ; him shall 
Christ Jesus deny, and of him shall he be 
ashamed, when he shall appear in his ma- 
jesty. And therefore I feared not to affirm, 
that of necessity it is, that such as hope for 
life everlasting, avoid all superstition, vain 
religion, and idolatry ; vain religion and 
idolatry I call whatsoever is done in God's 
service or honour, without the express com- 
naandment of his own word. 

This doctrine did I believe to be so con- 
formable to God's holy scriptures, that I 
thought no creature could have been so 
impudent as to have denied any point or 
article of the same. Yet nevertheless, me, 
as a heretic, and this doctrine as heretical, 
have your false bishops and ungodly clergy 
damned, pronouncing against me a sentence 
of death, in testification whereof, they have 
burned a picture.* From which false and 
cruel sentence, and from all judgment of 
that wicked generation I make it known to 
your honours, that I appeal to a lawful and 
general council, to such, I mean, as the 
most ancient laws and canons do approve 
to be holden ; by such, as whose manifest 
impiety is not to be reformed in the same, 
most humbly requiring of your honours, 



* They had hurnt him in effigy, showing 
what they would have done to himself if he had 
not made his escape. — Ed. 



that, as God hath appointed you princes 
in that people, and by reason thereof, re- 
quireth of your hands, the defence of inno- 
cence troubled in your dominion, in the 
meantime, and till the controversies, that 
this day in religion be lawfully decided, you 
receive me and such others, as most unjust- 
ly by those cruel beasts are persecuted, into 
your defence and protection. 

Your honours are not ignorant, that it is not 
I alone who doth sustain this cause against 
the pestilent generation of papists, but that 
the most part of Germany, the country of 
Helvetia, the king of Denmark, the nobili- 
ty of Palonia, together Avith many other 
cities and churches reformed, appeal from 
the tyranny of that antichrist, and most 
earnestly do call for a lawful and general 
council, wherein may all controversies in 
religion be decided by the authority of 
God's most sacred word. And unto this 
same, as said is, do I appeal yet once again, 
requiring of your honours, to hold my 
simple and plain appellation of no less value 
or effect, than if it had been made with 
greater circumstance, solemnities, and cere- 
mony, and that you receive me calling unto 
you, as to the pow r ers of God ordained, into 
your protection and defence against the rage 
of tyrants, not to maintain me in any ini- 
quity, error, or false opinion, but to let me 
have such equity, as God by his word ; an- 
cient laws, and determinations of most godly 
councils, grant to men accused or infamed. 

The word of God will that no man shall 
die, except he be found criminal and worthy 
of death for offences committed, of the 
which, he must be manifestly convicted by 
two or three witnesses. Ancient laws do 
permit just sentences to such as be accused, 
be their crimes never so horrible, and godly 
councils will that neither bishop nor person 
ecclesiastical, whatsoever, accused of any 
crime, shall sit in judgment, consultation, 
or council, where the cause of such men, 
as do accuse them is to be tried. 

These things require I of your honours 
to be granted unto me : to wit, That .the 
doctrine which our adversaries condemn for 
heresy may be tried by the simple and plain 
word of God, that just defences be admitted 
to us that sustain the battle against this 



OF JOHN KNOX, 



377 



pestilent generation of antichrist, and that 
they be removed from judgment in our 
cause, seeing- that our accusation is not in- 
tended against any one particular person, 
but against that whole kingdom, which we 
doubt not to prove to be a power usurped 
against God, against his commandment, and 
against the ordinance of Christ Jesus estab- 
lished in his church by his chief apostles : 
yea, we doubt not to prove the kingdom of 
the pope to be the kingdom and power of 
antichrist. And therefore, my lords, I can- 
not cease in the name of Christ Jesus to 
require of you, that the matter may come 
in examination; and that ye, the estates of 
the realm, by your authority, compel such 
as will be called bishops, not only to desist 
from their cruel murdering of such as 
do study to promote God's glory in detect- 
ing and disclosing the damnable impiety of 
that man of sin the Roman antichrist, but 
also that ye compel them to answer to such 
crimes as shall be laid to their charge for 
not righteously instructing the flock com- 
mitted to their cares. 

But here I know two things shall be 
doubted. The former : whether that my 
appellation is lawful and to be admitted, 
seeing that I am damned as an heretic : 
and secondly, whether your honours be 
bound to defend such as call for your sup- 
port in that case, seeing that your bishops, 
who in matters of religion, claim all au- 
thority to appertain to them, have by their 
sentence already condemned me : the one 
and the other I nothing doubt most clearly 
to prove. First, that my appellation is 
most lawful and just : and secondly, that 
your honours cannot refuse to defend me 
thus calling for your aid, but that in so 
doing, ye declare yourselves rebellious to 
God, maintainers of murderers, and shed- 
ders of innocent blood. 

How just cause I have by the civil law 
— as for their canon it is accursed of God — 
to appeal from their unjust sentence, my 
purpose is not to make long discourse. 
Only I will touch the points which all men 
confess to be just causes of appellation. 
First, lawfully could I not be summoned 
by them, being for that time absent from 
their jurisdiction, charged with the preach- 



ing of Christ's evangel, in a free city not 
subject to their tyranny. 

Secondly, To me was no intimation 
made of their summons, but so secret was 
their surmised malice, that the copy of the 
summons being required was denied. 

Thirdly, To the realm of Scotland could 
I have had no free nor sure access, being 
before exiled from the same by their 
unjust tyranny. And lastly, to me they 
neither could, nor can be competent and 
indifferent judges ; for that, before any sum- 
mons were raised against me, I had accused 
them by my letters published to the queen 
dowager, and had intended against them alt 
crimes, offering myself with hazard of life, 
to prove the same ; for the which they are 
not only unworthy of ecclesiastical autho- 
rity, but also of any sufferance within a 
commonwealth professing Christ. This 
my accusation preceding their summons, 
neither by the law of God, neither yet by 
the law of man, can they be to me competent 
judges, till place be granted unto me openly 
to prove my accusation intended against 
them, and they compelled to make answer 
as criminals. For I will plainly prove, that 
not only bishops, but also popes, have been 
removed from all authority, and pronounc- 
ing of judgment, till they have purged 
themselves of accusations laid against them. 
Yea further I will prove, that bishops and 
popes most justly have been deprived, from 
all honours and administration, for smaller 
crimes than I have to charge [against] 
the whole rabble of your bishops. 

But because this is not my chief ground, 
I will stand content for this present to 
show, that lawful it is to God's prophets, 
and to preachers of Christ Jesus, to appeal 
from the sentence and judgmeut of the 
visible church, to the knowledge of the 
temporal magistrate, who by God's law is 
bound to hear their causes, and to defend 
them from tyranny. 

The prophet Jeremiah was commanded 
by God, to stand in the court of the house 
of the Lord, and to preach this sermon in 
effect, That Jerusalem should be destroyed, 
and be exponed in opprobry to all nations 
of the earth; and that also that famous 
temple of God should be made desolate like 
3B 



37S 



THE APPELLATION 



unto Siio, because the priests, the prophets, 
and the people did not walk in the law, 
which God had proposed unto them, 
neither would they obey the voices of the 
prophets, whom God sent to call them to 
repentance. 

For this sermon was Jeremiah appre- 
hended, and a sentence of death was pro- 
nounced against him, and that by the 
priests, by the prophets, and by the people, 
which things being bruited in the ears of 
the princes of Judah, they passed up from 
the king's house to the temple of the Lord, 
and sat down in judgment, for further 
knowledge of the cause. But the priests 
and prophets continued in their cruel sen- 
tence, which before they had pronounced, 
saying, "this man is worthy of the death ; 
for he hath prophesied against this city, as 
your ears have heard." But Jeremiah so 
moved by the Holy Ghost, began his de- 
fence against that their tyrannous sentence, 
in these words. " The Lord — saith he — 
hath sent me to prophesy against this 
house, and against this city, all the words 
which you have heard. Now therefore 
make good your ways, and hear the voice 
of the Lord your God, and then shall he 
repent of the evil which he hath spoken 
against you. As for me, behold I am in 
your hands — so doth he speak to the prin- 
ces — do to me as ye think good and right- 
eous. Nevertheless know you this most 
assuredly, that if ye murder or slay me, ye 
shall make yourselves, this city, and the 
inhabitants of the same criminal, and guilty 
of innocent blood. For of a truth the Lord 
hath sent me to speak in your ears all those 
words." 

" Then the princes and the people," saith 
the text, said, " this man is not worthy of 
death, for he hath spoken to us in the 
name of the Lord our God ;" and so after 
some contention was the prophet delivered 
from that danger. This fact and history 
manifestly proveth whatsoever before I 
have affirmed, to wit, that it is lawful for 
the servants of God to call for the help of 
the civil magistrate against the sentence of 
death, if it be unjust, by whomsoever it be 
pronounced, and also the civil sword hath 
power to repress the fury of the priests, 



and to absolve whom they have condem- 
ned. For the prophet of God was damned 
by those who then only in earth were 
known to be the visible church, to wit, 
priests and prophets who then were in Je- 
rusalem, the successors of Aaron, to whom 
was given a charge to speak to the people 
in the name of God, and a precept given to 
the people to hear the law from their 
mouths, to the which, if any should be re- 
bellious or disobedient, he should die the 
death without mercj 7 . These men, I say, 
thus authorised by God, first did excom- 
municate Jeremiah, for that he did preach 
otherwise than did the common sort of 
prophets in Jerusalem, and last apprehend- 
ed him, as you have heard, pronouncing 
against him this sentence afore written, 
from the which nevertheless the prophet 
appealed, that is, sought help and defence 
against the same, and that most earnestly 
did he crave of the princes. For albeit he 
saith, " I am in your hands, do with me as 
ye think righteous," he doth not contemn 
nor neglect his life, as though he regarded 
not what should become of him, but in 
those his words most vehemently did he 
admonish the princes and rulers of the 
people, giving them to understand what 
God should require of them. As he should 
say, you princes of Judah, and rulers of the 
people, to whom appertaineth indifferently 
to judge betwixt party and party, to justify 
the just man, and to condemn the male- 
factor, you have heard a sentence of death 
pronounced against me by those, whose 
lips ought to speak no deceit, because they 
are sanctified and appointed by God him- 
self to speak his kvw and to pronounce j udg- 
ment with equity, but as they have left 
the living God, and have taught the people 
to follow vanity, so are they become mor- 
tal enemies to all God's true servants, of 
whom I am one, rebuking their iniquity, 
apostasy, and defection from God, which is 
the only cause they seek my life. But a 
thing most contrary to all equity, law r , and 
justice it is, that I, a man sent of God to 
call them, this people, and you again, to the 
true service of God, from the which you 
are all declined, shall suffer the death, be- 
cause that my enemies do so pronounce 



OF JOHN KNOX. 



379 



sentence. I stand in your presence, whom 
God hath made princes, your power is 
above their tyranny, before you do I ex- 
pound my cause, I am in your hands, and 
cannot resist to suffer what ye think just. 
But lest that my lenity and patience should 
either make you negligent in the defence 
of me in my just cause, appealing to your 
judgment, either yet encourage my ene- 
mies in seeking my blood, this one thing I 
dare not conceal, that if ye murder me, — 
which thing ye do if ye defend me not — 
ye make not only my enemies guilty of my 
blood, but also yourselves, and this whole 
city. By these words 1 say, it is evident, 
that the prophet of God being damned to 
death, by the priests and by the prophets 
of the visible church, did seek aid, support, 
and defence at the princes and temporal ma- 
gistrates, threatening his blood to be requir- 
ed of their hands, if they by their authority 
did not defend him from the fury of his 
enemies: alleging also just causes of his 
appellation, and why he ought to have been 
defended : to wit, that he was sent of God 
to rebuke their vices and defection from 
God : that he taught no doctrine which 
God before had not pronounced in his law. 
That he desired their conversion to God, 
continually calling upon them to walk in 
the ways which God had approved, and 
therefore doth he boldly crave of the prin- 
ces, as of God's lieutenants, to be defended 
from the blind rage and tyranny of the 
priests, notwithstanding that they claimed 
to themselves authority to judge in all mat- 
ters of religion. And the same did he 
what time he was cast in prison, and there- 
after was brought to the presence of king 
Zedekiah ; after I say that he had defended 
his innocence, affirming that he neither had 
offended against the king, against his ser- 
vants, nor against the people, at last he 
made intercession to the king for his life, 
saying, 

"But now my lord the king take heed, 
I beseech thee let my prayer fall into thy 
presence, command me not to be carried 
again into the house of Jonathan the scribe, 
that I die not there." 

And the text witnesseth that the king 
commanded the place of his imprisonment 



to be changed. Whereof it is evident, that 
the prophet did oftener than once seek help 
at the civil power; and that first the prin- 
ces, and thereafter the king, did acknow- 
ledge, that it appertained to their office to 
deliver him from the unjust sentence, 
which was pronounced against him. If any 
think, that Jeremiah did not appeal, because 
he only declared the wrong done unto him, 
and did but crave defence, according to his 
innocence; let the same man understand, 
that none otherwise do I appeal from that 
false and cruel sentence which your bish- 
ops have pronounced against me. Neither 
yet can there be any other just cause of 
appellation but innocency hurt, or suspect- 
ed to be hurt, whether it be by ignorance 
of a judge, or by malice and corruption of 
those, who under the title of justice, do 
exercise tyranny. If I were a thief, mur- 
derer, blasphemer, open adulterer, or any 
offender, whom God's word commandeth 
to suffer for a crime committed, my ap- 
pellation were vain, and to be rejected; but 
I being innocent, yea the doctrine which 
your bishops have condemned in me, being 
God's eternal verity, have no less liberty to 
crave your defence against that cruelty, 
than had the prophet Jeremiah to seek the 
aid of the princes and king of Judah. But 
this shall more plainly appear in the fact of 
St Paul, who, after that he was apprehend- 
ed in Jerusalem, did first claim the liberty 
of Roman citizens, for avoiding torment, 
what time that the captain would have ex- 
amined him by questions : thereafter in the 
council, where no righteous judgment was 
to be hoped for, he affirmed that he was a 
Pharisee, and that he was accused of 
[preaching] the resurrection of the dead; 
and last, in the presence of Festus, he ap- 
pealed, from all knowledge and judgment 
of the priests at Jerusalem, to the emperor : 
of which last point, because it doth chiefly 
appertain to this my cause, I will some- 
what speak. 

After that Paul had diverse times been 
accused, as in the Acts of the Apostles is 
manifest ; at the last, the chief priests and 
their faction came to Cesarea, with Festus 
the president, who presented to them Paul 
in judgment, whom they accused of hor- 



380 



THE APPELLATION 



rible crimes ; which nevertheless they could 
not prove, the apostle defending-, That they 
had not offended, neither against the law, 
neither against the temple, neither yet 
against the emperor. 

But Festus, willing- to gratify the Jews, 
said to Paul, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, 
and there be judged of these things in my 
presence ? But Paul said, I stand at the 
justice seat of the emperor, where it be- 
hoveth me to be judged. I have done no 
injury to the Jews, as thou better knowest. 
If I have done any thing unjustly, or yet 
committed crime worthy of death, I refuse 
not to die. But if there be nothing of 
these things true, whereof they accuse me, 
no man may give me to them : I appeal to 
Caesar. 

It may appear at the first sight, that Paul 
did great injury to Festus the judge, and to 
the whole order of the priesthood, who did 
hope greater equity in a cruel tyrant, than 
in all that session and learned company. 
Which thing no doubt Festus did under- 
stand, pronouncing these words, Hast thou 
appealed to Csesar ? Thou shalt go to 
Caesar. As he would say, I, as a man will- 
ing to understand the truth, before I pro- 
nounce sentence, have required of thee to I 
go to Jerusalem, where the learned of thine 
own nation may hear thy cause, and discern j 
in the same. The controversy standeth in 
matters of religion : thou art accused as 
an apostate from the law, as a violater 
of the temple, and transgressor of the tra- 
ditions of their fathers, in which matters I 
am ignorant ; and therefore desire informa- 
tion by those that be learned in the same 
religion, whereof the question is. And yet 
dost thou refuse so many godly fathers to 
hear thy cause, and dost appeal to the em- 
peror, preferring him to all our judgments, 
of no purpose belike, but to delay time. 
Thus, I say, it might have appeared that 
Paul did not only injury to the judge and 
to the priests, but also that his cause was 
greatly to be suspected ; partly for that he 
did refuse the judgment of those that had 
most knowledge, as all men supposed, of 
God's will and religion; and partly because 
he appealed to the emperor, who then was 



at Rome, far absent from Jerusalem, a man 
also ignorant of God, and enemy to all vir- 
tue. But the apostle, considering the nature 
of his enemies, and what things they had 
intended against him, even from the first 
day that he began freely to speak in the 
name of Christ, did not fear to appeal from 
them, and from the judge that would have 
gratified them. They had professed them- 
selves plain enemies to Christ Jesus, and to 
his blessed evangel, and had sought the 
death of Paul, yea, even by factions and 
treasonable conspiracy : and therefore by 
no means would he admit them either 
j judges in his cause, either auditors of the 
j same, as Festus required : but grounding 
himself upon strong reasons, to wit, that 
! he had not offended the Jews, neither yet 
the law, but that he was innocent ; and 
| therefore that no judge ought to give him 
j into the hands of his enemies : grounding, I 
say, his appellation upon these reasons, he 
neither regarded the displeasure of Festus> 
neither yet the bruit of the ignorant mul- 
titude ; but boldly did appeal, from all cog- 
nition of them, to the judgment of the em- 
peror, as said is. By these two examples, 
I doubt not but your honours do under- 
stand, that lawful it is to the servants of 
God, oppressed by tyranny, to seek remedy 
against the same, be it by appellation from 
their sentence, or by imploring the help of 
civil magistrates. For what God hath ap- 
proved in Jeremiah and Paul, he can condemn 
in none that likewise be entreated. I might 
allege some histories of the primitive church, 
serving to the same purpose : as of Ambrose 
and Athanasius, of whom the one would 
not be judged at Milan, where that his doc- 
trine was heard of all his church, and re- 
ceived and approved by many: and the 
other would in no wise give place to those 
councils, where he knew that men con- 
spired against the truth of God, should sit 
in j udgment and consultation. But because 
the Scriptures of God are my only founda- 
tion and assurance, in all matters of weight 
and importance, I have thought the two 
former testimonies sufficient, as well to 
prove my appellation reasonable and just, 
as to declare to your honours, that with 



OF JOHN KNOX. 



381 



safe conscience you cannot refuse to admit 
the same * If any think it arrogance, or 
foolishness in me, to compare myself to 
Jeremiah and Paul, let the same man under- 
stand, that as God is immutable, so is the 
glory of his holy evangel of equal dignity, 
whensoever it is impugned, be the members 
suffering never so weak. What I think 
touching mine own person, God shall reveal 
when the secrets of all hearts shall be dis- 
closed ; and such as with whom I have been 
conversant, can partly witness, what arro- 
gance or pride they espy in me. But 
touching the doctrine and cause, which 
that adulterous and pestilent generation of 
antichrist's servants, who will be called 
bishops amongst you, have condemned in 
me, I neither fear nor shame to confess and 
avow, before man and angel, to be the eter- 
nal truth of the eternal God. And in that 
case, I doubt not to compare myself with 
any member, in whom the truth hath been 
impugned since the beginning. For as it 
was the truth, which Jeremiah did preach 
in these words : 

" The priests have not known me, saith 
the Lord, but the pastors have traitorously 
declined and fallen back from me. The 
prophets have prophesied in Baal, and have 
gone after those things which cannot help. 
My people have left the fountain of living 
waters, and have digged to themselves pits 
which can contain no water." 

As it was a truth that the pastors and 
watchmen, in the days of Isaiah, were be- 
come dumb dogs, blind, ignorant, proud, 
and avaricious. And, finally, as it was a 
truth, that the princes and priests were 
murderers of Christ Jesus, and cruel per- 
secutors of his apostles : so likewise it is a 
truth, and that most infallible, that those 
that have condemned me, the whole rabble 
of the papistical clergy, have declined from 
the true faith, have given ear to deceivable 
spirits, and to doctrine of devils, are the 

* It seems strange to us, that Knox thought 
so much arguing necessary to prove what no one 
now denies, namely, his right to appeal to the 
civil power against an unjust sentence of the 
church which affected his liberty and even his 
life, with which the church had nothing to do, 
these being matters of civil right, with which 
the civil power only could lawfully intermeddle. 



stars fallen from heaven to the earth, are 
fountains without water ; and finally are ene- 
mies to Christ Jesus, deniers of his verity, 
and horrible blasphemers of his death and 
passion. And further, as that visible church 
had no crime, whereof justly they could ac- 
cuse either the prophets, either the apostles, 
except their doctrine only: so have not 
such as seek my blood, other crime to lay 
to my charge, except that I affirm, as al- 
ways I offer to prove, that the religion, 
which now is maintained by fire and sword, 
is no less contrary to the true religion 
taught and established by the apostles, 
than is darkness to light, or the Devil to 
God : and also that such as now do claim 
the title and name of the church are no 
more the elect spouse of Christ Jesus, 
than was the synagogue of the Jews the 
true church of God, what time it crucified 
Christ Jesus, damned his doctrine, and per- 
secuted his apostles. And therefore seeing 
that my battle is against the proud and 
cruel hypocrites of this age, as that battle 
of those most excellent instruments was 
against the false prophets, and malignant 
church of their ages. Neither ought any 
man think it strange, that I compare my- 
self with them, with whom I sustain a com- 
mon cause ; neither ought you, my lords, 
judge yourselves less indebted and bound to 
me, calling for your support, than did the 
princes of Judah think themselves bound 
to Jeremiah, whom for that time they de- 
livered, notwithstanding the sentence of 
death pronounced against him by the visible 
church. And thus much for the right of 
my appellation, which in the bowels of 
Christ Jesus, I require your honours not to 
esteem, as a thing superfluous and vain ; 
but that you admit it, and also accept me, 
in your protection and defence, that by you 
assured I may have access to my native 
country, which I never offended ; to the 
end, that freely and openly in the presence 

Had the question been about some article of 
christian doctrine, his appeal from the church to 
the civil power would have been unwarrantable; 
but in matters of civil right, such as affect per- 
son or property, christians as well as others, are 
entitled to claim the protection of the law of the 
land.— Ed. 



382 THE APPE 

of the whole realm, I may give ray confes- 
sion of all such points, as this clay be in 
controversy ; and also that you, by your 
authority which ye have of God, compel 
such, as of long time have blinded and de- 
ceived both yourselves and the people, to 
answer to such thing's as shall be laid to 
their charge. But lest that some doubt re- 
main, that I require more of you, than you 
of conscience are bound to grant, in few 
words, I hope to prove my petition to be 
such, as without God's heavy displeasure 
you cannot deny. My petition is, that you, 
whom God hath appointed heads in your 
commonwealth, with single eye do study to 
promote the glory of God, to provide that 
your subjects be rightly instructed in the 
true religion ; that they be defended from 
all oppression and tyranny ; that true teach- 
ers may be maintained, and such as blind 
and deceive the people, together also with 
all idle bellies, which do rob and oppress 
the flock, may be removed and punished as 
God's law prescribeth. And to the perfor- 
mance of every one of these, do your offices 
and names, the honours and benefits which 
you receive, the law of God universally 
given to all men, and the examples of most 
godly princes bind and oblige you. 

My purpose is not greatly to labour to 
prove, that your whole study ought to be to 
promote the glory of God ; neither yet will 
I study to allege all reasons, that justly 
may be brought to prove, that you are not 
exalted to reign above your brethren, as 
men without care and solicitude. For these 
be principles so grafted in nature, that very 
ethnics [heathens] have confessed the same. 
For seeing that God only hath placed you 
in his chair, hath appointed you to be his 
lieutenants, and by his own seal hath 
marked you to be magistrates, and to rule 
above your brethren, to whom nature never- 
theless hath made you like in all points — 
for in conception, birth, life, and death you 
differ nothing from the common sort of 
men, but God only, as said is, hath pro- 
moted you, and of his especial favour hath 
given unto you this prerogative to be called 
gods, — how horrible ingratitude were it 
then, that you should be found unfaithful 
to him that thus hath honoured you 5 And 



LLATION 

further, what a monster were it, that you 
should be proved unmerciful to them, above 
whom you are appointed to reign, as fathers 
above their children ? Because, I say, that 
very ethnics have granted, that the chief 
and first care of princes, and of such as be 
appointed to rule above others, ought to be 
to promote the glory and honour of their 
gods, and to maintain that religion which 
they supposed to have been true. And 
that their second care was to maintain and 
defend the subjects committed to their 
charge in all equity and justice. I will not 
labour to show unto you, what ought to be 
your study in maintaining God's true hon- 
our ; lest that in so doing I should seem to 
make you less careful over God's true re- 
ligion, then were the ethnics over their 
idolatry. But because other petitions may 
appear more hard and difficult to be granted, 
I purpose briefly, but yet freely, to speak 
what God by his word doth assure me to 
be true. To wit, first, That in conscience 
you are bound to punish malefactors, and 
to defend innocents, imploring your help. 
Secondly, That God requireth of you to 
provide, that your subjects be rightly in- 
structed in his true religion ; and that the 
same by you be reformed, whensoever 
abuses do creep in, by malice of Satan, and 
negligence of men. And lastly, That you 
are bound to remove from honour, and to 
punish with death, if the crime so require, 
such as deceive the people, or defraud them 
of that food of their souls, I mean God's 
living word. 

The first and second are most plain by the 
words of St Paul, thus speaking of lawful 
powers. Let every soul, saith he, submit 
himself unto the higher powers : for there is 
no power but of God. The powers that be, 
are ordained of God. Whosoever, there- 
fore, resisteth power, resisteth the ordi- 
nance of God ,• and they that resist shall 
receive to themselves damnation. For 
rulers are not to be feared of those that do 
well, but of those that do evil. Wilt thou 
then be without fear of the power? do that 
which is good, and so shalt thou be praised 
of the same. For he is the minister of 
God for thy wealth. But if thou do that 
which is evi^ fear. For he beareth not 



OF JOHN 

the sword for nought : for he is the minis- 
ter of God to take vengeance on them that 
do evil. 

As the apostle in these words most 
straitly commandeth obedience to he given 
to lawful powers, pronouncing God's wrath 
and vengeance against such, as shall re- 
sist the ordinance of God; so doth he 
assign to the powers their offices, which be 
to take vengeance upon evil doers, to main- 
tain the well doers, and so to minister and 
rule in their office, that the subjects by them 
may have a benefit, and be praised in well 
doing. Now, if you be powers ordained by 
God, and that I hope all men will grant, 
then 9 by the plain words of the apostle, is 
the sword given unto you by God, for the 
maintenance of innocence, and for the pun- 
ishment of malefactors. But I and my 
brethren with me accused, do offer not only 
to prove ourselves innocent in all things laid 
to our charge, but also we offer most evi- 
dently to prove your bishops to be the very 
pestilence who have infected all Christian- 
ity. And therefore, by the plain doctrine 
of the apostle, you are bound to maintain 
us, and to punish the other, being evidently 
convicted aud proved criminal. Moreover, 
the former words of the apostle do teach, 
how far high powers be bound to their sub- 
jects : to wit, that because they are God's 
ministers by hiai ordained for the profit 
and utility of others, most diligently ought 
they to intend upon the same. For that 
cause assigneth the Holy Ghost command- 
ing subjects to obey, and to pay tribute : 
saying, For this do you pay tribute and toll. 

That is, because they are God's ministers, 
bearing the sword for your utility. Where- 
of it is plain, that there is no honour with- 
out a charge annexed. And this one point 
I wish your wisdoms deeply to consider, 
that God hath not placed you above your 
brethren to reign as tyrants without respect 
of their profit and commodity. You hear 
the Holy Ghost witness the contrary, af- 
firming, that all lawful powers be God's 
ministers ordained for the wealth, profit, 
and salvation of the subjects, and not for 
their destruction. Could it be said, I be- 
seech you, that magistrates, inclosing their 
subjects in a city without all victuals, or 



KNOX. 383 

giving unto them no other victuals, but 
such as were poisoned, did rule for the pro- 
fit of their subjects ? I trust that none 
would be so foolish as to affirm [this] ; but 
that rather every discreet person would 
boldly affirm, that such as so did, were ty- 
rants unworthy of all regimen. If we will 
not deny that which Christ Jesus affirmeth 
to be a truth infallible ; to wit, that the 
soul is greater and more precious than is 
the body : then shall we easily espy, how 
unworthy of authority be those, that this 
day debar their subjects from the hearing 
of God's word, and by fire and sword com- 
pel them to feed upon the very poison of 
their souls, the damnable doctrine of anti- 
christ. And therefore in this point, I say, 
I cannot cease to admonish your honours, 
diligently to take heed over your charge, 
which is greater than the most part of men 
suppose. It is not enough that you abstain 
from violent wrong and oppression, which 
ungodly men exercise against their subject?; 
but you are farther bound, to wit, that you 
rule above them for their wealth ; which 
you cannot do, if that you either by negli- 
gence, not providing true pastors, or yet by 
your maintenance of such as be ravening 
wolves, suffer their souls to starve and 
perish, for lack of the true food, which is 
Christ's evangel sincerely preached. It will 
not excuse you in his presence, who will 
require account of every talent committed 
to your charge, to say, that you supposed 
that the charge of the souls had been com- 
mitted to your bishops. No, no, my lords, 
so you cannot escape God's judgment. For 
if your bishops be proved to be no bishops, 
but deceivable thieves and ravening- wolves 
— which I offer myself to prove by God's 
word, by law and councils, yea by the judg- 
ment of all the godly learned from the 
primitive church to this day — then shall 
your permission and defence of them, be 
reputed before God, a participation with 
their theft and murder. For thus accused 
the prophet Isaiah the princes of Jerusalem. 
Thy princes, saith he, are apostates ; that is 
obstinate refusers of God, and they are com- 
panions of thieves. 

The grievous accusation was laid against 
them, albeit that they ruled in that city 



384 



THE APPELLATION 



which sometime was called holy, where 
then were the temple, rites, and ordi- 
nances of God : because that not only they 
were wicked themselves, but chiefly be- 
cause they maintained wicked men their 
priests and false prophets in honours and 
authority. If they did not escape this ac- 
cusation of the Holy Ghost in that age, 
look ye neither to escape the accusation 
nor the judgment which is pronounced 
against the maintainers of wicked men : to 
wit, that the one and the other shall drink 
the cup of God's wrath and vengeance to- 
gether. And lest ye should deceive your- 
selves, esteeming your bishops to be vir- 
tuous and godly, this do I affirm, and offer 
myself to prove the same, that more wick- 
ed men, than be the whole rabble of your 
clergy, were never from the beginning uni- 
versally known in any age, yea Sodom and 
Gomorrah may be justified in their respect. 
For they permitted just Lot to dwell 
amongst them without any violence done 
to his body, which that pestilent genera- 
tion of your shaven sort doth not, but most 
cruelly persecute by fire and sword the 
true members of Christ's body for no other 
cause, but for the true service and honour- 
ing of God. And therefore I fear not to 
affirm that, which God shall one day justi- 
fy, that by your offices ye be bound, not 
only to repress their tyranny, but also to 
punish them, as thieves and murderers, as 
idolaters and blasphemers of God, and in 
their rooms ye are bound to place true 
preachers of Christ's evangel, for the in- 
struction, comfort, and salvation of your 
subjects, above whom else shall never the 
Holy Ghost acknowledge, that you rule in 
justice for their profit. If ye pretend to 
possess the kingdom with Christ Jesus, ye 
may not take example neither by the 
ignorant multitude of princes, neither by 
the ungodly and cruel rulers of the earth, 
of whom some pass their time in sloth, in- 
solence, and riot, without respect had to 
God's honour, or to the salvation of their 
brethren : and other most cruelly oppress 
with proud Nimrod, such as be subject to 
them. But your pattern and example must 
be the practice of those, whom God hath 



approved by the testimony of his word, as 
after shall be declared. 

Of the premises it is evident, that to 
lawful powers is given the sword for pun- 
ishment of malefactors, for maintenance of 
innocents, and for the profit and utility of 
their subjects. Now let us consider, 
whether the reformation of religion, fallen 
in decay, and punishment of false teachers, 
do appertain to the civil magistrate and no- 
bility of any realm. I am not ignorant that 
Satan of old time for maintenance of his 
darkness, hath obtained of the blind 
world two chief points. Former, he hath 
persuaded princes, rulers, and magistrates, 
that the feeding of Christ's flock appertain- 
eth nothing to their charge, but that it is 
rejected [devolved] upon the bishops, and 
estate ecclesiastical: and secondly, that the 
reformation of religion, be it never so cor- 
rupt, and the punishment of such as be 
sworn soldiers in their kingdom, are ex- 
empted from all civil power, and are re- 
served to themselves and to their own 
cognition. But that no offender can justly 
be exempted from punishment, and that the 
ordering and reformation of religion, with 
the instruction of subjects, doth especially 
appertain to the civil magistrate, shall 
God's perfect ordinance, his plain word, 
and the facts and examples of those that of 
God are high praised, most evidently de- 
clare. 

When God did establish his law, statutes, 
and ceremonies in the midst of Israel, he 
did not exempt the matters of religion 
from the power of Moses, but as he gave 
him charge over the civil polity, so he put 
in his mouth and in his hand : that is, he 
first revealed to him, and thereafter com- 
manded to put in practice, whatsoever was 
to be taught or done in matters of religion. 
Nothing did God reveal particularly to 
Aaron, but altogether was he commanded 
to depend from the mouth of Moses : yea, 
nothing was he permitted to do to himself 
or to his children either, in his or their 
inauguration and sanctification to the priest- 
hood, but all was committed to the care of 
Moses, and therefore were these words so 
frequently repeated to Moses, 



OF JOHN KNOX, 



385 



" Tliou shalt separate Aaron and his sons 
from the midst of the people of Israel, that 
they may execute the office of the priest- 
hood, thou shalt make unto them garments, 
thou shalt anoint them, thou shalt wash 
them, thou shalt fill their hands with the 
sacrifice." 

And so forth, of every rite and ceremony, 
that was to be done unto them, especial 
commandment was given unto Moses, that 
he should do it. Now if Aaron and his 
sons were so subject to Moses, that they did 
nothing but at his commandment, who dare 
be so bold as to affirm, that the civil magis- 
trate hath nothing to do in matters of reli- 
gion. For seeing that then God did so 
straightly require, that even those, who did 
bear the figure of Christ, should receive 
from the civil power as it were their sanc- 
tification and entrance to their office, and 
seeing also that Moses was so far preferred 
to Aaron, that the one commanded and the 
other did obey, who dare esteem that the 
civil power is now become so profane in 
God's eyes, that it is sequestrated from all 
intermission with the matters of religion. 
The Holy Ghost in divers places declareth 
the contrary. For one of the chief pre- 
cepts commanded to the king, when that he 
should be placed in his throne, was to write 
the example of the book of the Lord's law 
that it should be with him, that he might 
read in it all the days of his life, that he 
might learn to fear the Lord his God, and 
to keep all the words of his law, and his 
statutes to do them. This precept requir- 
eth not only, that the king should himself 
fear God, keep his law and statutes, but 
that also he, as the chief ruler, should pro- 
vide that God's true religion should be kept 
inviolated of the people and flock, which by 
God was committed to his charge. And 
this did not only David and Solomon per- 
fectly understand, but also some godly kings 
in Judah, after the apostasy and idolatry 
that infected Israel by the means of Jero- 
boam, did practise their understanding, and 
execute their power in some notable refor- 
mations. For Asah and Jehoshaphat, kings 
of Judah, finding the religion altogether 
corrupt, did apply their hearts, saith the 
Holy Ghost to serve the Lord, and to walk 



in his ways ; and thereafter doth witness, 
that Asah removed from honours his mother, 
some say grandmother, because she had 
committed and laboured to maintain hor- 
rible idolatry. And Jehoshaphat did not 
only refuse strange gods himself, but also 
destroying the chief monuments of idolatry, 
did send forth the Levites to instruct the 
people, whereof it is plain that the one and 
the other did understand such reformations 
to appertain to their duties. But the facts 
of Hezekiah, and of Josiah, do more clearly 
prove the power and duty of the civil ma- 
gistrate in the reformation of religion. Be- 
fore the reign of Hezekiah, so corrupt was 
the religion that the doors of the house of 
the Lord were shut up, the lamps were ex- 
tinguished, no sacrifice was orderly made, 
but in the first year of his reign, the first 
month of the same did the king open the 
doors of the temple, bring in the priests and 
Levites, and assembling them together, did 
speak unto them as followeth. Hear me, 
O ye Levites, and be sanctified now, and 
sanctify also the house of the Lord God of 
your fathers, and carry forth from the sanc- 
tuary all filthiness — he meaneth all monu- 
ments and vessels of idolatry — for our fa- 
thers have transgressed and have committed 
wickedness in the eyes of the eternal our 
God, they have left him and have turned 
their faces from the tabernacle of the Lord, 
and therefore is the wrath of the Lord come 
upon Judah and Jerusalem. Behold, our 
fathers have fallen by the sword, our sons, 
daughters, and wives are led in captivity, but 
now have I purposed in my heart to make a 
covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that 
he may turn the wrath of his fury from us. 
And therefore my sons— he sweetly exhort- 
eth — be not faint, for the Lord hath chosen 
you to stand in his presence, and to serve 
him. Such as be not more than blind 
clearly may perceive that the king doth 
acknowledge, that it appertained to his 
charge to reform the religion, to appoint 
the Levites to their charges, and to ad- 
monish them of their duty and office, which 
thing he more evidently declareth, writing 
his letters to all Israel, to Ephraim and 
Manasseh, and sent the same by the hands 
of messengers having this tenor. 

3 C 



386 



THE APPELLATION 



" You «ons of Israel, return to the Lord 
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he 
shall return to the residue that resteth from 
the hands of Ashur. Be not as your fathers 
and as your brethren were, who have trans- 
gressed against the Lord God of their fa- 
thers, who hath made them desolate as you 
see. Hold not your heart, therefore, but 
give your hand unto the Lord, return into 
his sanctuary, serve him, and he shall show 
mercy unto you, to your sons, and daughters 
that be in bondage, for he is pitiful and easy 
to be entreated." 

Thus far did Hezekiah by letters and 
messengers provoke the people [who had] 
declined from God, to repentance not only 
in Judah, where he reigned lawful king", 
but also in Israel, subject then to another 
king. And albeit that by some wicked men 
his messengers were mocked, yet as they 
lacked not their just punishment, for within 
six years after Samaria was destroyed and 
Israel led captive by Salmanazar, so did not 
the zealous king Hezekiah desist to prose- 
cute his duty in restoring the religion to 
God's perfect ordinance removing all abo- 
minations. 

The same is to be read of Josiah, who did 
not only restore the religion, but did further 
destroy all monuments of idolatry, which 
of long time remained. For it is written 
of him, that after that the book of the law 
was found, and that he had asked counsel 
at the prophetess Huldah, he sent and ga- 
thered all the elders of Judah and Jerusa- 
lem, and standing in the temple of the 
Lord, he made a covenant, that all the 
people from the great to the small should 
walk after the Lord, should observe his law, 
statutes, and testimonies with all their heart, 
and all their soul, and that they should ra- 
tify and confirm whatsoever was written 
in the book of God. He further command- 
ed Helkias the high priest, and the priests 
of the inferior order, that they should carry 
forth of the temple of the Lord all the ves- 
sels that were made to Baal, which he burnt, 
and did carry their powder to Bethel. He 
did further destroy all monuments of idola- 
try, yea, even those that had remained from 
the days of Solomon. He did burn them, 
stamp them to powder, whereof one part 



he scattered in the brook Kedron, and the 
other upon the sepulchres and graves of the 
idolaters, whose bones he did burn upon 
the altars, where before they made sacrifice 
not only in Judah, but also in Bethel, where 
Jeroboam had erected his idolatry; yea he 
further proceeded, and did kill the priests 
of the high places, who were idolaters, and 
had deceived the people : he did kill them, 
I say, and did burn their bones upon their 
own altars, and so returned to Jerusalem. 
This reformation made Josiah, and for the 
same obtained this testimony of the Holy 
Ghost, that neither before him, neither after 
him was there any such king, who returned 
to God with his whole soul, and with all 
his strength, according to all the law of 
Moses. 

Of which histories it is evident that the 
reformation of religion in all points, toge- 
ther with the punishment of false teachers, 
doth appertain to the power of the civil 
magistrate. For what God required of 
them, his justice must require of others 
having the like charge and authority : what 
he did approve in them, he cannot but ap- 
prove in all others, who with like zeal and 
sincerity, do enterprise to purge the Lord's 
temple and sanctuary. What God required 
of them, it is before declared, to wit, that 
most diligently they should observe his 
law, statutes, and ceremonies. And how 
acceptable were their facts to God, doth he 
himself witness. For to some he gave most 
notable victories without the hand of man, 
and in their most desperate dangers did de- 
clare his especial favours towards them by 
signs supernatural : to others he so estab- 
lished the kingdom, that their enemies were 
compelled to stoop under their feet. And 
the names of all he hath registered not only 
in the book of life, but also in the blessed 
remembrance of all posterities since their 
days, which also shall continue till the com- 
ing of the Lord Jesus, who shall reward 
with the crown of immortality, not only 
them, but also such as unfeignedly study to 
do the will, and to promote the glory of his 
heavenly Father, in the midst of this cor- 
rupted generation. In consideration where- 
of ought you, my lords, all delay set apart, 
to provide for the reformation of religion 



OF JOHN KNOX. 



387 



in your dominions and bounds, which now 
is so corrupt, that no part of Christ's insti- 
tution reraaineth in the original purity, and 
therefore of necessity it is, that speedily you 
provide for reformation, or else you declare 
yourselves, not only void of love towards 
your subjects, but also to live without care 
of your own salvation, yea, without all fear 
and true reverence of God. Two things per- 
chance may move you to esteem these his- 
tories before briefly touched to appertain no- 
thing to you. First, because ye are no Jews 
but gentiles : and secondly, because you are 
no kings, but nobles in your realm. But 
be not deceived, for neither of both can ex- 
cuse you in God's presence from doing your 
duty, for it is a thing more than certain, 
that whatsoever God required of the civil 
magistrate in Israel and Judah concerning 
the observation of true religion during the 
time of the law, the same doth he require 
of lawful magistrates, professing Christ 
Jesus in the time of the gospel, as the Holy 
Ghost hath taught us by the mouth of Da- 
vid, saying, 

Psal. ii. " Be learned you that judge the 
earth, kiss the Son, lest that the Lord wax 
angry, and that you perish from the way." 

This admonition did not extend to the 
judges under the law only, but doth also 
include all such as be promoted to honours 
in the time of the Gospel, when Christ 
Jesus doth reign and fight in his spiritual 
kingdom, Avhose enemies in that psalm be 
first most sharply taxed, their fury express- 
ed, and vanity mocked : and then are kings 
and judges, who think themselves free from 
all law and obedience, commanded to repent 
their former blind rage, and judges are 
charged to be learned ; and last are all com- 
manded to serve the eternal in fear, to re- 
joice before him in trembling, to kiss the 
Son, that is, to give unto him most humble 
obedience, whereof it is evident that the 
rulers, magistrates, and judges, now in 
Christ's kingdom, are no less bound to obed- 
ience unto God, than were those under the 
law. And how is it possible that any shall 
be obedient, who despise his religion, in 
which standeth the chief glory, that man 
can give to God, and is a service, which 
God especially requireth of kings and rul- 



[ ers ? Which thing St Augustine plainly 
did note, writing to one Bonifacius a man 
of war, according to the same argument and 
purpose, which 1 labour to persuade your 
honours. For after that he hath in that his 
epistle declared the difference betwixt the 
heresy of the Donatists and Arians, and 
hath somewhat spoken of their cruelty, he 
showeth the way how their fury should and 
ought to be repressed, and that it is lawful 
for the unjustly afflicted to [seek] support 
and defence at godly magistrates. For thus 
he writeth, Either must the verity be kept 
close, or else must their cruelty be sus- 
tained. 

But if the verity should be concealed, not 
only should none be saved nor delivered by 
such silence, but also should many be lost 
through their deceit. But if by preaching 
of the verity their fury should be provoked 
more to rage, and by that means yet some 
were delivered, and made strong, yet should 
fear hinder many weaklings to follow the 
verity, if their rage be not staid. In these 
first words Augustine showeth three rea- 
sons, why the afflicted church in those days 
called for the help of the emperor and of 
the godly magistrates, against the fury of 
the persecutors. The first, the verity must 
be spoken or else mankind shall perish in 
error. The second, the verity being plainly 
spoken, provoketh the adversaries to rage. 
And because that some did allege that ra- 
ther we ought to suffer all injury, than to 
seek support by man, he addeth the third 
reason, to wit, that many weak ones be not 
able to suffer persecution and death for the 
truth's sake, to whom not the less respect 
ought to be had, that they may be won from 
error, and so be brought to greater strength. 

O that the rulers of this age should pon- 
der and weigh the reasons of this godly 
writer, and provide the remedy, which he 
requireth in these words following. Now 
when the church was thus afflicted, if any 
think, that rather they should have sus- 
tained all calamity, than that the help of 
God should have been asked by Christian 
emperors, he doth not well advert, that of 
such negligence no good accounts or rea- 
son could be given. For where such, as 
would that no just laws should be made 



388 



THE APPELLATION 



against their impiety, allege that the 
apostles sought no such things of the kings 
cf the earth, they do not consider that then 
the time was other than it is now, and that 
all things are done in their own time. 
What emperor then believed in Christ, 
that should serve him in making laws for 
godiiness against impiety ? while yet that 
saying of the prophet was complete, why 
hath nations raged, and people have imagin- 
ed vanity? the kings of the earth have 
stood up, and princes have convened to- 
gether against the Lord, and against his 
anointed, that which is after said in the 
same psalm, was not yet come to pass. And 
now understand, O you kings, he learned 
you that judge the earth, serve the Lord in 
fear, and rejoice to him with trembling. 
How do kings serve the Lord in fear ? but 
in punishing, and by a godly severity, for- 
bidding those things which are done against 
the commandment of the Lord. For other- 
wise doth he serve in so far as he is man, 
otherwise in so far as lie is king. In so far 
as he is noae, he serveth him by living 
faithfully, but because he is also king, he 
serveth [by] establishing laws, that command 
the things that be just, and that with a 
convenient rigour forbid things contrary. 
As Hezekiah served, destroying the groves, 
the temples of idols, and the places which 
were built against God's commandment. 
So served also Josiah doing the same : so 
served the king of [the] Ninevites, compelling 
the holy city to mitigate the Lord : so serv- 
ed Darius giving in the power of Daniel 
the idol to be broken, and his enemies to be 
cast to the lions : so served Nebuchadnez- 
zar, by a terrible law, forbidding all that 
were in his realm to blaspheme God. 
Herein therefore do kings serve the Lord, 
in so far as they are kings, when they do 
those things to serve him, which none ex- 
cept kings be able to do. He further pro- 
ceedeth and concludeth,thatas, when wick- 
ed kings do reign, impiety cannot be bridled 
by laws, but rather is tyranny exercised 
under the title of the same, so is it a thing 
without all reason, that kings professing 
the knowledge and honour of God, should 
not regard nor care, who did defend, nor 



who did oppugn the church of God in their 
dominions. 

By these words of this ancient and godly 
writer, your honours may perceive, what I 
require of you, to wit, to repress the ty- 
ranny of your bishops, and to defend the 
innocents professing the truth. He did 
require of the emperor and kings of his 
days professing Christ, and manifestly con- 
cludeth, that they cannot serve Christ, ex- 
cept that so they do. Let not your bish- 
ops think that Augustine speaketh for 
them, because he nameth the church. Let 
them read and understand, that Augustine, 
writeth for that church, which possesseth 
the truth, and doth not suffer persecution 
for the defence of the same, which youi 
bishops do not, but rather with the Dona- 
tists and Arrians, do cruelly persecute all 
such, as boldly speak Christ's eternal veri- 
ty to manifest their impiety and abomina- 
tion. But thus much we have of Augus- 
tine, that it appertaineth to the obedience 
and service, which kings owe to God, as 
well now in the time of the gospel, as be- 
fore under the law, to defend the afflicted 
for matters of religion, and to repress the 
fury of the persecutors, by the rigour and 
severity of godly laws. For which cause, 
no doubt, doth Isaiah the prophet say, 
" that kings should be nourishers to the 
church of God, that they should abase their 
heads, and lovingly embrace the children of 
God." And thus I say your honours may 
evidently see, that the same obedience doth 
God require of rulers and princes in the 
time of the gospel, that he required in the 
time of the law. 

If you do think, that the reformation of 
religion, and defence of the afflicted, doth 
not appertain to you, because you are no 
kings, but nobles and estates of a realm ; 
in two things you are deceived. Former 
in that you do not advert, that David re- 
quireth as well, that the princes and judges 
of the earth be learned, and that they serve 
and fear God, as that he requireth, that the 
kings repent. If you therefore be judges 
and princes, as no man can deny you to be, 
then by the plain words of David, you 
are charged to be learned, to serve and 



OF JOHN 

fear God, which ye cannot do, if you 
despise the reformation of his religion. 
And this is your first error. The second 
is, that ye neither know your duty, which 
ye owe to God, neither yet your authority, 
which of him ye have received ; if ye for 
pleasure or fear of any earthly man, despise 
God's true religion, and contemn your 
brethren, that in his name call for your 
support. Your duty is to hear the voice of 
the eternal your God, and unfeignedly to 
study to follow his precepts; who, as is 
before said, of especial mercy hath promot- 
ed you to honours and dignity. His chief 
and principal precept is, that with reve- 
rence ye receive and embrace his only be- 
loved son Jesus ; that ye promote, to the 
uttermost of your powers, his true religion ; 
and that ye defend your brethren and sub- 
jects, whom he hath put under your charge 
and care. Now if your king be a man ig- 
norant of God, enemy to his true religion, 
blinded by superstition, and a persecutor of 
Christ's members ; shall ye be excused, if 
with silence ye pass over his iniquity ? Be 
not deceived, my lords, ye are placed in 
authority for another purpose, than to flat- 
ter your king in his folly and blind rage ; 
to wit, that as with your bodies, strength, 
riches, and wisdom, ye are bound to assist 
and defend him in all things, which by your 
advice he shall take in hand, for God's glory, 
and for the preservation of his commonwealth 
and subjects ; so by your gravities, counsel, 
and admonition, ye are bound to correct and 
repress whatsoever ye know him to attempt, 
exprassly repugning to God's word, honour, 
and glory, or what ye shall espy him to 
do, be it by ignorance, or be it by malice, 
against his subjects great or small. Of 
which last part of your obedience, if ye de- 
fraud your king, ye commit against him no 
less treason, than if ye did extract from him 
your due and promised support, what time 
by his enemies unjustly he was pursued. 
But this part of their duty, I fear, do a 
small number of the nobility of this age 
rightly consider; neither jet will they un- 
derstand, that for that purpose hath God 
promoted them. For now the common 
song of all men is, we must obey our kings, 
be they good, or be they bad ; for God hath 



KNOX. 389 

so commanded. But horrible shall the 
vengeance be, that shall, be poured forth 
upon such blasphemers of God his holy 
name and ordinance. For it is no less 
blasphemy to say, that God hath command- 
ed kings to be obeyed, when they command 
impiety, than to say, that God by his pre- 
cept is author and maintainer of all iniquity. 
True it is, God hath commanded kings to 
be obeyed, but like true it is, that in things, 
which they commit against his glory, or 
when cruelly without cause they rage 
against their brethren, the members of 
Christ's body, he hath commanded no obe- 
dience, but rather he hath approved, yea 
and greatly rewarded such, as have opponed 
themselves to their ungodly commandments 
and blind rage, as in the examples of the 
three children, of Daniel and Ebedme- 
lech, it is evident. The three children 
would neither bow nor stoop before the 
golden image at the commandment of the 
great king Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel did 
openly pray, his windows being open, 
against the established law of Darius and of 
his council : and Ebedrnelech feared not to 
enter in before the presence of Zedekiah, 
and boldly to defend the cause and inno- 
cency of Jeremiah the prophet, whom the 
king and his council had condemned to 
death. Every one of these facts should 
this day be judged foolish by such, as will 
not understand what confession God doth 
require of his children, when his verity is 
oppugned, or his glory called in doubt. 
Such men, I say, as prefer man to God, and 
things present to the heavenly inheritance, 
should have judged every one of these facts, 
stubborn inobedience, foolish presumption, 
and singularity, or else bold controllings 
of the king and his wise council. But how 
acceptable in God's presence was this re- 
sistance to the ungodly commandments and 
determinations of their king, the end did 
witness. For the three children were de- 
livered from the furnace of fire, and Daniel 
from the dew of lions, to the confusion of 
their enemies, to the better instruction of 
the ignorant kings, and to the perpetual 
comfort of God's afflicted children. And 
Ebedrnelech, in the day of the Lord's visi- 
tation, when the king and his council did 



390 



THE APPELLATION 



drink the bitter cup of God's vengeance, 
did find his life for a prey, and did not fall 
in the edge of the sword, when many- 
thousands did perish. And this was sig- 
nified unto him by the prophet himself, at 
the commandment of God, before that 
Jerusalem was destroyed. The promise 
and cause were recited unto him in these 
words, " I will bring my words upon this 
city unto evil, and not unto good : but 
most assuredly I shall deliver thee, because 
thou hast trusted in me, saith the Lord." 
The trust and hope, which Ebedmelech had 
in God, made him bold to oppone himself, 
being but one, to the king and his whole 
council, who had condemned to death the 
prophet, whom his conscience did acknow- 
ledge to be innocent. For this did he 
speak in the presence of the king, sitting 
in the port of Benjamin. My lord, the 
king, saith Ebedmelech, these men do wick- 
edly in all things, that they have done to 
Jeremiah the prophet. Advert and take 
heed, my lords, that the men, who had con- 
demned the prophet, were the king, his 
princes, and council, and yet did one man 
accuse them all of iniquity, and did boldly 
speak in the defence of him, of whose inno- 
cence he was persuaded. And the same, I 
say, is the duty of every man in his voca- 
tion, but chiefly of the nobility, which is 
joined with their kings, to bridle and re- 
press their folly and blind rage. Which 
thing if the nobility do not, neither yet la- 
bour to do, as they are traitors to their 
kings; so do they provoke the wrath of 
God against themselves and against the 
realm, in which they abuse the authority, 
which they have received of God, to main- 
tain virtue and to repress vice. For here- 
of I would your honours were most cer- 
tainly persuaded, that God will neither ex- 
cuse nobility nor people, but the nobility 
least of all, that obey and follow their kings 
in manifest iniquity ; but with the same 
vengeance will God punish the prince, 
people, and nobility, conspiring together 
against him and his holy ordinances ; as in 
the punishment taken upon Pharaoh, Is- 
rael, Judah, and Babylon is evidently to be 
seen. For Pharaoh was not drowned alone, 
but his captains, chariots, and great army, 



drank the same cup with him. The kings 
of Israel and Judah were not punished 
without company ; but with them w^ere 
murdered the councillors, their princes im- 
prisoned, and their people led captive. And 
why? because none was found so faithful 
to God, that he durst enterprise to resist 
nor gainstand the manifest impiety of 
their princes. And therefore was God's 
wrath poured forth upon the one and the 
other. But the more ample discourse of 
this argument, I defer to better opportu- 
nity : only at this time, I thought expedient 
to admonish you, that before God it shall 
not excuse you to allege, we are no kings, 
and therefore neither can we reform reli- 
gion, nor yet defend such as be persecuted. 
Consider, my lords, that ye are powers or- 
dained by God, as before is declared, and 
therefore doth the reformation of religion, 
and the defence of such, as unjustly are 
oppressed, appertain to your charge and 
care, which thing shall the law of God, 
universally given to be kept of all men, 
most evidently declare ; which is my last 
and most assured reason, why, I say, ye 
ought to remove from honours, and to pun- 
ish with death such as God hath condemn- 
ed by his own mouth. After that Moses 
had declared what was true religion, to 
wit, to honour God as he commanded, ad- 
ding nothing to his word, neither yet di- 
minishing any thing from it ; and after also 
that vehemently he had exhorted the same 
law to be observed, he denounceth the 
punishment against the transgressors, in 
these words, " if thy brother, son, daughter, 
wife, or neighbour, whom thou lovest as 
thine own life, solicitate thee secretly, say- 
ing, let us go serve other gods, whom 
neither thou, nor thy fathers have known, 
consent not to him, hear him not, let not 
thine eye spare him, show him no indul- 
gence or favour, hide him not, but utterly 
kill him, let thy hand be first upon him, 
that he may be slain, and after the hand of 
thy whole people." Of these words of Mo- 
ses are two things, appertaining to our pur- 
pose, to be noted. Former, that such, as 
solicitate only to idolatry, ought to be pun- 
ished to death, without favour or respect of 
persons. For he that will not suffer man 



OF JOHN KNOX. 



391 



to spare his son, his daughter, nor his wife, 
but straitly commandeth punishment to be 
taken upon the idolaters, have they never 
so nigh conj unction with us, will not wink 
at the idolatry of others, of what estate or 
condition soever they be. 

It is not unknown, that the prophets had 
revelations of God, which were not com- 
mon to the people ; as Samuel had the 
revelation, that Eli and his posterity should 
be destroyed ; that Saul should first be king, 
and thereafter that he should be rejected, 
that David should reign for him. Michaiah 
understood by vision, that Ahab should be 
killed in battle against the Syrians. Elijah 
saw that dogs should eat Jezebel in the 
fortress of Jezreel. Elisha did see hunger 
come upon Israel by the space of seven* 
years. Jeremiah did foresee the destruction 
of Jerusalem, and the time of their captivi- 
ty ; and so divers other prophets had divers 
revelations of God, which the people did 
not otherwise understand, but by their af- 
firmation ; and therefore in those days the 
prophets named seers, because that God did 
open unto them that, which was hid from 
the multitude. Now if any man might 
have claimed any privilege from the rigour 
of the law, or might have justified his fact, 
it should have been the prophet. For he 
might have alleged for himself his singular 
prerogative, that he had above other men, 
to have God's will revealed unto him by 
vision or by dream, or that God had de- 
clared particularly unto him, that his plea- 
sure was to be honoured in that manner, in 
such a place, and by such means. But all 
such excuses doth God remove, command- 
ing that the prophet that shall solicit the 
people to serve strange gods, shall die the 
death, notwithstanding that he allege for 
himself dream, vision, or revelation. Yea, 
although he promise miracles, and also that 
such things as he promiseth come to pass ; 
yet I say, commandeth God, that no credit 
be given to him, but that he die the death ; 
because he teacheth apostasy, and defection 
from God. Hereof your honours may easi- 
ly espy, that none provoking the people to 
idolatry ought to be exempted from the 



* Should be three years and a half.— Ed. 



punishment of death. For if neither that 
inseparable conjunction, w.hich God himself 
hath sanctified betwixt man and wife, nei- 
ther that unspeakable love grafted in nature, 
which is betwixt the father and the son, 
neither yet that reverence, which God's 
people ought to bear to the prophets, can 
excuse any man to spare the offender, or to 
conceal his offence ; what excuse can man 
pretend, which God will accept ? Evident 
it is, that no estate, condition, nor honour 
can exempt the idolater from the hands of 
God, when he shall call him to account, or 
shall inflict punishment upon him for his 
offence : how shall it then excuse the 
people, that they according to God's com- 
mandment punish not to death such as shall 
solicitate, or violently draw the people to 
idolatry ? And this is the first, which I 
would your honours should note, of the 
former words ; to wit, that no person is 
exempted from punishment, if he can be 
manifestly convicted to have provoked, or 
led the people to idolatry. And this is 
most evidently declared in that solemn oath 
and covenant, which Asa made with the 
people to serve God, and to maintain his 
religion, adding this penalty to the trans- 
gressors of it, to wit, that whosoever should 
not seek the Lord God of Israel, should be 
killed ; were he great, or were he small, 
were it man, or were it woman. And of 
this oath was the Lord compleased, he was 
found of them, and gave them rest on every 
part, because they sought him with their 
whole heart, and did swear to punish the 
offenders according to the precept of his 
law, without respect of persons. And this 
is it, which, I say, I would your honours 
should note for the first, that no idolater 
Gan be exempted from punishment by God's 
law. The second is, that the punishment 
of such crimes, as are idolatry, blasphemy, 
and others, that touch the majesty of God, 
doth not appertain to kings and chief rulers 
only, but also to the whole body of that 
people, and to every member of the same, 
according to the vocation of every man, 
and according to that possibility and occa- 
sion which God doth minister to revenge 
the injury done against his glory, what 
time that impiety is manifestly known. 



392 



THE APPELLATION 



And that cloth Moses more plainly speak in 
these words, If in any of thy cities, saith 
he, which the Lord thy God giveth unto 
thee to dwell in them, thou shalt hear this 
bruit, there are some men the sons of 
Belial passed forth from thee, and have so- 
licited the citizens of their cities by these 
words, Let us go and serve strange gods, 
which ye have not known ; search and in- 
quire diligently, and if it be true, that such 
abomination is done in the midst of thee, 
thou shalt utterly strike the inhabitants of 
that city with the sword, thou shalt destroy 
it and whatsoever is within it, thou shalt 
gather the spoil of it in the midst of the 
market place, thou shalt burn that city with 
fire, and the spoil of it to the Lord thy God, 
that it may be a heap of stones for ever, 
neither shall it be any more builded. Let 
nothing of that execration cleave to thy 
hand, that the Lord may turn from the 
fury of his wrath, and be moved towards 
thee with inward affection. 

Plain it is that Moses speaketh, nor giv- 
eth not charge to kings, rulers, and judges 
only, but he commandeth the whole body 
of the people, yea, and every member of 
the same, according to their possibility : 
and who dare be so impudent, as to deny 
this to be most reasonable and just ? For 
seeing that God had delivered the whole 
body from bondage, and to the whole 
multitude had given his law, and to the 
twelve tribes had he also distributed the 
inheritance of the land of Canaan, that no 
family could complain that it was neglected. 
Was not the whole and every member in- 
debted to confess and acknowledge the bene- 
fits of God ? Yea, had it not been the part 
of everymantohave studied to keep the pos- 
session, which he had received? which thing 
God did plainly pronounce they should not 
do, except that in their hearts they did sanc- 
tify the Lord God, that they embraced, 
and inviolably kept his religion established. 
And finally, except that they did cut out 
iniquity from amongst them, declaring them- 
selves earnest enemies of those abominations 
which God declared himself so vehemently 
to hate, that first he commanded the whole 
inhabitants of that country to be destroyed, 
and all monuments of their idolatry to be 



broken down ; and thereafter he also strait- 
ly commandeth, that a city declining to 
idolatry should fall in the edge of the sword, 
and that the whole spoil of the same should 
be burned, no portion of it reserved. To 
the carnal man this may appear a rigorous 
and severe judgment, yea, it may rather 
seern to be pronounced in a rage than in 
wisdom. For what city w r as ever yet, in 
which, to man's judgment, w r ere not to be 
found many innocent persons, as infants, 
children, and some simple and ignorant 
souls, w ho neither did nor could consent to 
such impiety ? And yet w r e find no ex- 
ception, but all are appointed to the cruel 
death. And as concerning the city, and the 
spoil of the same, man's reason cannot 
think, but that it might have been better 
bestowed, than to be consumed with fire, 
and so profit no man. But in such cases, 
will God that all creatures stoop, cover 
their faces, and desist from reasoning, w hen 
commandment is given to execute his judg- 
ment. Albeit 1 could adduce divers causes 
of such severity, yet will I search none 
other than the Holy Ghost hath assigned. 
First, that all Israel hearing the judgment, 
should fear to commit the like abomination. 
And secondly, that the Lord might turn 
from the fury of I is anger, might be moved 
towards the people with inward affection, 
be merciful unto them, and multiply them, 
according to his oath made unto their fa- 
thers. Which reasons, as they are sufficient 
in God's children, to correct the murmur- 
ing of the grudging flesh ; so ought they to 
provoke every man, as before I have said, 
to declare himself enemy to that, which so 
highly provoketh the wrath of God against 
the whole people. For where Moses saith, 
Let the city be burned, and let no part of 
the spoil cleave to thy hand, that the Lord 
may return from the fury of his wrath, &c. 
He plainly doth signify, that by the de- 
fection and idolatry of a few, God's wrath is 
kindled against the whole, which is never 
quenched till such punishment be taken 
upon the offenders ; that whosoever served 
them in their idolatry, be brought to de- 
struction ; because that it is execrable and 
accursed before God : and therefore he will 
not, that it be reserved for any use of his 



OF JOHN KNOX. 



393 



people. I am not ignorant, that this law 
was not put in execution, as God command- 
ed. But what did thereof ensue and follow, 
histories declare ; to wit, plague after plague, 
till Israel and Judah were led into captivity, 
as the books of Kings do witness. The 
consideration whereof maketh me more 
bold to affirm, that it is the duty of every 
man, that list to escape the plague and pun- 
ishment of God, to declare himself enemy 
to idolatry, not only in heart, hating- the 
same, but also in external gesture, declar- 
ing that he lamenteth, if he can do no more, 
for such abominations. Which thing was 
showed to the prophet Ezekiel, what time 
he gave him to understand, why he would 
destroy Judah with Israel ; and that he 
would remove his glory from the temple 
and place that he had chosen, and so pour 
forth his wrath and indignation upon the 
city, that was full of blood and apostasy, 
which became so impudent, that it durst be 
bold to say, The Lord hath left the earth 
and seeth not. At this time, I say, the 
Lord revealed in vision to his prophet, who 
they were, that should find favour in that 
miserable destruction ; to wit, those that 
did mourn and lament for all the abomina- 
tions done in the city, in whose foreheads 
God did command to print and seal Tau,* to 
the end that the destroyer, who was com- 
manded to strike the rest without mercy, 
should not hurt them, in whom the sign 
was found. Of these premises, I suppose 
it be evident, that the punishment of idol- 
atry doth not appertain to kings only, but 
also to the whole people, yea, to every 
member of the same, according to his pos- 
sibility. For that is a thing most assured, 
that no man can mourn, lament, and bewail 
for those things, which he will not remove 
to the uttermost of his power. If this be 
required of the whole people, and of every 
man in his vocation, what shall be required 
of you, my lords, whom God hath raised up 
to be princes and rulers above your bre- 
thren, whose hands he hath armed with 
the sword of his justice ? yea, whom he 



hath appointed to be as bridles, to repress 
the rage and insolence of. your kings, when- 
soever they pretend manifestly to transgress 
God's blessed ordinance *? If any think 
that this my affirmation, touching the pun- 
ishment of idolaters, be contrary to the 
practice of the apostles, who finding the 
Gentiles in idolatry, did call them to repen- 
tance, requiring no such punishment; let 
the same man understand, that the Gentiles, 
before the preaching of Christ, lived, as the 
apostle speaketh, without God in the world, 
drowned in idolatry, according to the blind- 
ness and ignorance in which then they 
w r ere holden, as a profane nation whom 
God had never openly avowed to be his 
people, had never received in his household, 
neither given unto them laws to be kept in 
religion nor polity : and therefore did not 
his Holy Ghost, calling them to repentance, 
require of them any corporal punishment, 
according to the rigour of the law, unto the 
which they were never subjects, as they 
that were strangers from the commonwealth 
of Israel. But if any think, that after that 
the Gentiles were called from their vain 
conversation, and by embracing Christ Jesus 
were received in the number of Abraham's 
children, and so made one people with the 
Jews believing : if any think, I say, that 

i then they were not bound to the same 
obedience, which God required of his people 
Israel, what time he confirmed his league 

| and covenant with them ; the same man 
appeareth to make Christ inferior to Moses, 
and contrarious to the law of his heavenly 
Father. For if the contempt or transgres- 

I sion of Moses' law was worthy of death, 
what should we judge the contempt of 
Christ's ordinance to be? — I mean after 
they be once received. — And if Christ be 

! not come to dissolve, but to fulfil the law 
of his heavenly Father ; shall the liberty of 

, his gospel be an occasion that the especial 
glory of his father be trodden under foot, 
and regarded of no man ? God forbid. The 
especial glory of God is, that such as pro- 
fess them to be his people, should Uearken 



* So it is in my copy. Tau is the Hebrew the common version 
letter which corresponds with our T ; but I mark " literally 
canDot see that it has any meaning here. In ' 



Ezek. ix. 4, it 
mark a mark. — Ed. 
3 D 



394 



THE APPELLATION 



to his voice ; and amongst all the voices of 
God revealed to the world, touching pun- 
ishment of vices, is none more evident, 
neither more severe, than is that which is 
pronounced against idolatry, the teachers 
and maintain ers of the same. And there- 
fore I fear not to affirm, that the gentiles, 
I mean every city, realm, province, or 
nation, amongst the gentiles, embracing 
Christ Jesus and his true religion, be bound 
to the same league and covenant, that God 
made with his people Israel, what time he 
promised to root out the nations before 
them, in these words, " Beware that thou 
make any covenant with the inhabitants of 
the land to the which thou comest, lest 
perchance that this come in ruin, that is, 
be destruction to thee : but thou shalt de- 
stroy their altars, break their idols, and cut 
down their groves. Fear no strange gods, 
worship them not, neither yet make you 
sacrifices to them. But the Lord, who in 
his great power and outstretched arm hath 
brought you out of the land of Egypt, shall 
you fear, him shall you honour, him shall 
you worship, to him shall you make sacri- 
fice, his statutes, judgments, laws, and com- 
mandments you shall keep and observe. 
This is the covenant which I have made 
with you, saith the Eternal; forget it not, 
neither yet fear ye other gods : but fear 
you the Lord your God, and he shall de- 
liver you from the hands of all your enemies. 

To this same law, I say, and covenant 
are the gentiles no less bound, than some- 
time were the Jews, whensoever God doth 
illuminate the eyes of any multitude, pro- 
vince, people, or city, and putteth the 
sword in their own hand to remove such 
enormities from amongst them, as before 
God they know to be abominable. Then, 
I say, are they no less bound to purge their 
dominions, cities, and countries from ido- 
latry, than were the Israelites, what time 
they received the possession of the land of 
Canaan. And moreover I say, if any go 
about to erect and set up idolatry, or to 
teach defection from God, after that the 
verity hath been received and approved, 
that then not only the magistrates, to whom 
the sword is committed, but also the people 
are bound by that oath, which they have 



i made to God, to revenge to the uttermost 
of their power the injury done against his 
Majesty. In universal defections, and in a 
general revolt, such as was in Israel 
; after Jeroboam, there is a diverse consid- 
eration. For then because the whole 
people were together conspired against 
God, there could none be found, that would 
execute the punishment, which God had 
commanded, till God raised up Jehu, whom 
he had appointed for that purpose. And 
the same is to be considered in all other 
general defections, such as this day are in 
the papistry, where all are blinded, and all 
\ are declined from God, and that of long 
continuance, so that no ordinary justice can 
j be executed, but the punishment must be 
reserved to God and unto such means, as 
he shall appoint. But I do speak of such 
a number, as after they have received God's 
perfect religion, do boldly profess the same, 
notwithstanding that some or the most part 
fall back — as of late days was in England : 
— unto such a number, I say, it is lawful to 
punish the idolaters with death, if by any 
means God give them the power. For so 
did Joshua and Israel determine to have 
done against the children of Reuben, Gad, 
| and Manasseh for their suspected apostasy 
and defection from God. And the whole 
tribes did in every deed execute that sharp 
; judgment against the tribe of Benjamin, for 
j a less offence than for idolatry. And the 
j same ought to be done wheresoever Christ 
I Jesus and his evangel is so received in any 
[ realm, province, or city, that the magistrates 
and people have solemnly avowed and pro- 
mised to defend the same, as under king 
Edward of late days was done in England. 
In such places, I say, it is not only lawful 
to punish to the death such as labour to 
subvert the true religion, but the magis- 
trates and people are bound so to do, 
unless they will provoke the wrath of God 
against themselves. And therefore I fear 
not to affirm, that it had been the duty of 
the nobility, judges, rulers, and people of 
England not only to have resisted and 
againstanded [withstood] Mary, that Jeze- 
beL whom they call their queen, but also to 
have punished her to the death with all the 
sort of her idolatrous priests, together with 



OF JOHN KNOX. 



395 



all such, as should have assisted her, what 
time that she and they openly began to 
suppress Christ's evangel, to shed the blood 
of the saints of God, and to erect that most 
devilish idolatry, the papistical abomina- 
tions, and his usurped tyranny, which once 
most justly by common oath was banished 
from that realm. But because I cannot at 
this present discuss this argument, as it ap- 
pertained, I am compelled to omit it to 
better opportunity, and so returning- to your 
honours, I say, that if ye confess yourselves 
baptized in the Lord Jesus, of necessity ye 
must confess, that the care of his religion 
doth appertain to your charge. And if ye 
know that in your hands God hath put the 
sword for the causes above expressed, then 
can ye not deny, but that the punishment 
of obstinate and malapert idolaters, such 
as all your bishops are, doth appertain to 
your office, if after admonition they con- 
tinue obstinate. I am not ignorant, what 
are the vain defences of your proud prelates. 
They claim first a prerogative and privi- 
lege, that they are exempted, and that by 
consent of councils and emperors from 
all jurisdiction of the temporality. And 
secondly, when they are convicted of mani- 
fest impieties, abuses, and enormities, as well 
in their manners as in religion, neither fear 
nor shame they to affirm, that things so 
long established cannot suddenly be re- 
formed, although they are corrupted, but 
with process of time they promise to take 
order. But in few words I answer, that no 
privilege granted against the ordinance and 
statutes of God is to be observed, although 
all councils and men in the earth have ap- 
pointed the same. But against God's or- 
dinance it is, that idolaters, murderers, false 
teachers, and blasphemers shall be exempt- 
ed from punishment, as before is declared, 
and therefore in vain it is, that they claim 
for privilege, when that God sayeth, The 
murderer shalt thou rive from my altar, 
that he may die the death. And as to the 
order and reformation, which they pro- 
mise, that is to be looked or hoped for, 
when Satan, whose children and slaves 
they are, can change his nature. This an- 
swer I doubt not shall suffice the sober and 
godly reader, but yet to the end, that they 



may further see their own confusion, and 
that your honours may better understand, 
what ye ought to do in so manifest a cor- 
ruption and defection from God, I ask of 
themselves, what assurance they have for 
this their immunity, exemption, or privi- 
lege ? who is the author of it ? and what 
fruit it hath produced ? and first, I say that 
of God they have no assurance, neither yet 
can he be proved to be author of any 
such privilege. But the contra^/- is easy 
to be seen. For God in establishing his 
orders in Israel, did so subject Aaron — in 
his priesthood being the figure of Christ — 
to Moses, that he feared not to call him in 
judgment, and to constrain him to give ac- 
counts of his wicked deed in consenting to 
idolatry, as the history doth plainly witness. 
For thus it is written, " Then Moses took 
the calf which they had made, and burned 
it with fire, and did grind it to powder, and 
scattering it in the water, gave it to drink 
to the children of Israel," declaring hereby 
the vanity of their idol, and the abomina- 
tion of the same : and thereafter Moses said 
to Aaron, " What hath this people done to 
thee, that thou shouldest bring upon it so 
great a sin *?" 

Thus, I say, doth Moses call and accuse 
Aaron of the destruction of the whole 
people, and yet he perfectly understood, 
that God had appointed him to be the high 
priest, that he should bear upon his shoul- 
ders and upon his breast the names of the 
twelve tribes of Israel, for whom he was 
appointed to make sacrifice, prayers, and 
supplications. He knew his dignity was 
so great, that only he might enter within 
the most holy place : but neither could his 
office nor dignity exempt him from judg- 
ment, when he had offended. If any ob- 
ject, Aaron at that time was not anointed, 
and therefore was he subject to Moses; I 
have answered, that Moses being taught by 
the mouth of God, did perfectly under- 
stand to what dignity Aaron was appoint- 
ed, and yet he feared not to call him in 
judgment, and to compel him to make an- 
swer for his wicked fact. But if this an- 
swer doth not suffice, yet shall the Holy 
Ghost witness further in the matter. So- 
lomon removed from honour Abiathar 



396 



THE APPELLATION 



being the high priest, and commanded him to 
cease from all function, and to live as a pri- 
vate man. Now if the unction did exempt 
the priest from jurisdiction of the civil ma- 
gistrate, Solomon did offend and injure 
Abiathar ; for he was anointed, and had 
carried the ark before David ; but God doth 
not reprove the fact of Solomon, neither 
yet doth Abiathar claim any prerogative by 
the reason of his office, but rather doth the 
Holy Ghost approve the fact of Solomon, 
saying, " Solomon ejected forth Abiathar, 
that he should not be the priest of the Lord, 
that the word of the Lord might be per- 
formed, which he spake upon the house of 
Eli. 

And Abiathar did think that be obtained 
great favour, in that he did escape the pre- 
sent death, which by his conspiracy he had 
deserved. If any yet reason, that Abiathar 
was no otherwise subject to the judgment 
of the king, but as he was appointed to be 
the executer of that sentence, which God 
before had pronounced ; as I will not great- 
ly deny that reason, so require I, that every 
man consider, that the same God, who pro- 
nounced sentence against Eli and his 
house, hath pronounced also, that idolaters, 
whoremongers, murderers, and blasphe- 
mers, shall neither have portion in the king- 
dom of God, neither ought to be permitted 
to bear any rule in his church and con- 
gregation. Now if the unction and office 
saved not Abiathar, because that God's sen- 
tence must needs be performed, can any 
privilege granted by a man be a buckler to 
malefactors, that they shall not be subject 
to the punishments pronounced by God? 
I think no man will be so foolish as so to 
affirm ; for a thing more than evident it is, 
that the whole priesthood in the time of 
the law was bound to give obedience to the 
civil powers ; and if any member of the 
same was found criminal, the same was 
subject to the punishment of the sword, 
which God had put in the hand of the 
magistrate. And this ordinance of his 
Father did not Christ disannul, but rather 
did confirm the same, commanding tribute 
to be payed for himself and for Peter ; who 
perfectly knowing the mind of his Master, 
thus writeth in his epistle, " submit your- 



1 selves to all manner of ordinance of man," 
— he excepteth such as are expressly re- 
pugning to God's commandment — " for the 
Lord's sake, whether it be to king, as to 
the chief head, or unto rulers, as unto 
them that are sent by him for punishment 
of evil-doers, and for the praise of them 
that do well." 

The same doth the apostle St Paul most 
plainly command in these words, " Let 
every soul be subject to the superior 
powers." 

Which places make evident, that neither 
Christ, neither his apostles, hath given any 
assurance of this immunity and privilege 
which men of church, as they will be 
termed, do this day claim. Yea, it was a 
thing unknown to the primitive church 
many years after the days of the apostles : 
for Chrysostome, who served in the church 
at Constantinople, four hundred years after 
Christ's ascension, and after that corrup- 
tion was greatly increased, doth yet thus 
write upon the foresaid words of the 
apostle. This precept, saith he, doth not ap- 
pertain to such as are called seculars only, 
but even to those that are priests and reli- 
gious men: and after he addeth, "Whether 
thou be apostle, evangelist, prophet, or 
whosoever thou be, thou canst not be ex- 
empted from this subjection." 

Hereof it is plain that Chrysostome did 
not understand that God had exempted any 
person from obedience and subjection of 
the civil power, neither yet that he was 
author of such exemption and privilege, as 
papists do this day claim. And the same 
was the judgment and uniform doctrine of 
the primitive church many years after 
Christ. Your honours do wonder, I doubt 
not, from what fountain then did this their 
immunity, as they term it, and singular 
privilege, spring. 1 shall shortly touch that, 
which is evident in their own law and his- 
tories. When the bishops of Rome, the 
very antichrists, had partly by fraud and 
partly by violence usurped the superiority 
of some places in Italy, and most unjustly 
had spoiled the emperors of their rents and 
possessions, and had also murdered some of 
their officers, as histories do witness, then 
began pope after pope to practise and de- 



OF JOHN KNOX. 



397 



vise, how they should be exempted from 
judgment of princes, and from the equity of 
laws, and in this point they were most 
vigilant, till at length iniquity did so pre- 
vail in their hands, according as Daniel had 
before prophesied of them, that this sen- 
tence was pronounced, neither by the em- 
peror, neither by the clergy, neither yet by 
the people shall the judge be judged. " God 
will," saith Symmachus, "that the causes of 
others be determined by men; but without 
all question he hath reserved the bishop of 
this seat," understanding Rome, " to his 
own judgment." 

And hereof divers popes and expositors 
of their laws would seem to give reasons. 
For, saith Agatho, all the precepts of the 
apostolic seat are assured, as by the voice 
of God himself. 

The author of the gloss upon their canon 
affirmeth, that if all the world should pro- 
nounce sentence against the pope, yet should 
his sentence prevail. For, saith he, the 
pope hath a heavenly will, and therefore he 
may change the nature of things, he may 
apply the substance of one thing to another, 
and of nothing he may make somewhat ; 
and that sentence, which was nothing, that 
is, by his mind false and unjust, he may 
make somewhat that is true and just. For, 
saith he, in all things that please him his 
will is for reason ; neither is there any man 
that may ask of him, Why dost thou so ? 
For he may dispense above the law, and of 
injustice he may make justice; for he hath 
the fulness of all power. 

And many other most blasphemous sen- 
tences did they pronounce every one after 
other, which for shortness' sake I omit, till 
at the end they obtained this most horrible 
decree ; that, albeit in life and conversation 
they were so wicked and detestable, that 
not only they condemned themselves, but 
that also they drew to hell and perdition 
many thousands with them, yet that none 
should presume to reprehend or rebuke 
them. This being established for the head 
— albeit not without some contradiction, for 
some emperors did require due obedience of 
them, as God's word commanded, and an- 
cient bishops had given before to emperors, 
and to their laws, but Satan so prevailed in 



his suit before the blind world, that the 
former sentences were confirmed, which 
power being granted to the head— then be- 
gan provision to be made for the rest of 
the members in all realms and countries, 
where they made residence. The fruit 
whereof we see to be this, that none of 
that pestilent generation — I mean the ver- 
min of the papistical order — will be sub- 
ject to any civil magistrate, how enor- 
mous that ever his crime be, but will be 
reserved to their own ordinary, as they term 
it. And what fruits have hereof ensued, 
be the world never so blind, it cannot but 
witness. For how their head, that Roman 
antichrist, hath been occupied ever since the 
granting of such privileges, histories do 
witness, and of late the most part of Europe 
subject to the plague of God, to fire and 
sword, by his procurement hath felt, and 
this day doth feel : the pride, ambition, en- 
vy, excess, fraud, spoil, oppression, murder, 
filthy life, and incest, that is used and main- 
tained amongst that rabble of priests, friars, 
monks, canons, bishops, and cardinals, can- 
not be expressed. I fear not to affirm, 
neither doubt I to prove, that the papisti- 
cal church is further degenerate from the 
purity of Christ's doctrine, from the foot- 
steps of the apostles, and from the manners 
of the primitive church, than was the church 
of the Jews from God's holy statutes, what 
time it did crucify Christ Jesus the only 
Messiah, and most cruelly persecute his 
apostles : and yet will our papists claim 
their privileges and ancient liberties, which 
if you grant unto them, my lords, ye shall 
assuredly drink the cup of God's vengeance 
with them, and shall be reputed before his 
presence, companions of thieves and main- 
tamers of murderers, as is before declared ; 
for their immunity and privilege, whereof 
so greatly they boast, is nothing else, but 
as if thieves, murderers, or brigands should 
conspire amongst themselves, that they 
would never answer in judgment before 
any lawful magistrate, to the end that their 
theft and murder should not be punished ; 
even such, I say, is their wicked privilege, 
which neither they have of God the Father, 
neither of Christ Jesus, who hath revealed 
his Father's will to the world, neither yet 



398 



THE APPELLATION 



of the apostles nor primitive church, as be- 
fore is declared : but it is a thing conspired 
amongst themselves, to the end that their 
iniquity, detestable life, and tyranny shall 
neither be repressed nor reformed. And 
if they object, that godly emperors did grant 
and confirm the same, I answer, that the 
godliness of no man is or can be of suffi- 
cient authority to justify a foolish and un- 
godly fact, such I mean, as God hath not 
allowed by his word; for Abraham was a 
godly man, but the denial of his wife was 
such a fact as no godly man ought to imi- 
tate : the same might I show of David, 
Hezekiah, and Josiah, unto whom I think 
no man of judgment will prefer any emperor 
since Christ, in holiness and wisdom; and yet 
are not all their facts, no even such as they 
appeared to have done for good causes, to 
be approved nor followed. And therefore, 
I say, as error and ignorance remain always 
with the most perfect man in this life, so 
must their works be examined by another 
rule than by their own holiness, if they 
shall be approved. But if this answer doth 
not suffice, then will I answer more shortly, 
that no godly emperor since Christ's ascen- 
sion hath granted any such privilege to any 
such church or person, as they, the whole 
generation of papists, be at this day. I am 
not ignorant, that some emperors of a cer- 
tain zeal, and for gome considerations, grant- 
ed liberties to the true church, afflicted for 
their maintenance against tyrants ; but what 
serveth this for the defence of their tyran- 
ny ? If the law must be understood ac- 
cording to the mind of the lawgiver, then 
must they first prove themselves Christ's 
true and afflicted church, before they can 
claim any privilege to appertain to them, 
for only to that church were the privileges 
granted ; it will not be their glorious titles, 
neither yet the long possession of the name, 
that can prevail in this so weighty a cause ; 
for all those had the church of Jerusalem, 
which did crucify Christ, and did condemn 
his doctrine. We offer to prove by their 
fruits and tyranny, by the prophets, and 
plain scriptures of God, what trees and 
generation they are, to wit, unfruitful and 
rotten, apt for nothing, but to be cut and 
cast in hell fire ; yea, that they are the very 



kingdom of antichrist, of whom we are com- 
manded to beware. And therefore, my 
lords, to return to you, seeing that God 
hath armed your hands with the sword of 
justice, seeing that his law most straitly 
commandeth idolaters and false prophets to 
be punished with death ; and that you be 
placed above your subjects to reign as fa- 
thers over their children ; and further, see- 
ing that not only 1, but with me many 
thousand famous, godly, and learned per- 
sons, accuse your bishops and the whole 
rabble of the papistical clergy, of idolatry, 
of murder, and of blasphemy against God 
committed : it appertaineth to your honours 
to be vigilant and careful in so weighty a 
matter ? The question is not of earthly 
substance, but of the glory of God, and of 
the salvation of yourselves, and of your 
brethren subject to your charge, in which 
if you, after this plain admonition, be negli- 
gent, there resteth no excuse by reason of 
ignorance ; for in the name of God I require 
of you, that the cause of religion may be 
tried in your presence by the plain and 
simple word of God ; that your bishops be 
compelled to desist from their tyranny, that 
they be compelled to make answer for the 
neglecting of their office, for the substance 
of the poor, which unjustly they usurp, and 
prodigally they do spend; but principally 
for the false and deceivable doctrine which 
is taught and defended by their false pro- 
phets, flattering friars, and other such 
venomous locusts : which thing if with 
single eyes ye do, preferring God's glory 
and the salvation of your brethren to all 
worldly commodity, then shall the same 
God, who solemnly doth pronounce to 
honour those that do honour him, pour his 
benedictions plentifully upon you, he shall 
be your buckler, protection, and captain, 
and shall repress by his strength and wis- 
dom, whatsoever Satan by his supposts 
shall imagine against you. I am not igno- 
rant that great troubles shall ensue your 
enterprise ; for Satan will not be expelled 
from the possession of his usurped kingdom 
without resistance : but if you, as is said, 
preferring God's glory to your own lives, 
unfeignedly seek and study to obey his 
blessed will, then shall your deliverance be 



OF JOHN KNOX. 



399 



such, as evidently it shall be known, that 
the angels of the Eternal do watch, make 
war, and fight for those that unfeignedly fear 
the Lord. But if you refuse this my most 
reasonable and just petition, what defence 
that ever you appear to have before men, then 
shall God, whom in me ye contemn, refuse 
you ; he shall pour forth contempt upon you, 
and upon your posterity after you ; the 
spirit of boldness and wisdom shall he taken 
from you, your enemies shall reign, and you < 
shall die in bondage ; yea, God shall cut 
down the unfruitful trees, when they do ap- j 
pear most beautifully to flourish, and shall 
so burn the root, that after of you shall 
neither twig nor branch again spring to 
glory. Hereof I need not to adduce unto 
you examples from the former ages, and 
ancient histories : for your brethren the 
nobility of England are a mirror and glass, 
in the which you may behold God's j list pun- 
ishment ; for as they have refused him and 
his evangel, which once in mouth they did 
profess, so hath he refused them, and hath 
taken from them the spirit of wisdom, bold- 
ness, and of counsel ; they see and feel their 
own misery, and yet they have no grace to j 
avoid it. They hate the bondage of stran- 
gers, the pride of priests, and the monstri- 1 
ferous empire of a wicked woman, and yet } 
are they compelled to bow their necks to 
the yoke of the devil, to obey whatsoever j 
the proud Spaniards and wicked Jezebel 
list to command, and finally, to stand like 
slaves, with cap in hand, till the servants of 
Satan, the shaven sort, call them to council. 
This fruit do they reap and gather of their 
former rebellion and unfaithfulness towards 
God; they are left confused in their own 
councils ; he, whom in his members for the 
pleasure of a wicked woman they have 
exiled, persecuted, and blasphemed, doth 
now laugh them to scorn, suffer eth them to 
be pined in bondage of most wicked men, 
and finally, shall adjudge them to the fire 
everlasting, except that speedily and openly 
they repent their horrible treason, which 
against God, against his Son Christ Jesus, 
and against the liberty of their own native 
realm they have committed. The same 
plagues shall fall upon you, be you assured, 
if ye refuse the defence of his servants that 



call for your support. My words are sharp, 
but consider, my lords, that they are not 
mine, but that they are the threatenings of 
the Omnipotent, who assuredly will perform 
the voice of his prophets, how that ever 
carnal men despise his admonitions. The 
sword of God's wrath is already drawn, 
which of necessity must needs strike, when 
grace offered is obstinately refused. You 
have been long in bondage of the devil, 
blindness, error, and idolatry, prevailing 
against the simple truth of God in that your 
realm, in which God hath made you princes 
and rulers : but now doth God of his great 
mercy call you to repentance, before he 
pour forth the uttermost of his vengeance : 
he crieth to your ears, that your religion is 
nothing but idolatry ,• he accuseth you of 
the blood of his saints which hath been shed 
by your permission, assistance, and powers : 
for the tyranny of those raging beasts should 
have no force, if by your strength they were 
not maintained. Of those horrible crimes 
doth God now accuse you, not of purpose to 
condemn you, but mercifully to absolve and 
pardon you, as sometime he did those, whom 
Peter accused to have killed the Son of 
God ; so that ye be not of mind, nor pur- 
pose to justify your former iniquity. 

Iniquity I call net only the crimes and 
offences, which have been and yet remain 
in your manners and lives, but that also 
which appeareth before men most holy, 
with hazard of my life I offer to prove 
abomination before God • that is, your whole 
religion to be so corrupt and vain, that no 
true servant of God can communicate with 
it, because that in so doing he should mani- 
festly deny Christ Jesus and his eternal 
verity. I know that your bishops, accom- 
panied with the swarm of the papistical 
vermin, shall cry, " A damned heretic 
ought not to be heard." But remember, 
my lords, what in the beginning I have pro- 
tested, upon which ground I continually 
stand, to wit, that I am no heretic nor de- 
ceivable teacher, but the servant of Christ 
Jesus, a preacher of his infallible verity, in- 
nocent in all that they can lay to my charge 
concerning my doctrine, and that therefore 
by them, being enemies to Christ, I am un- 
justly damned : from which cruel sentence 



400 



APPELLATION 



OF JOHN KNOX. 



I have appealed, and do appeal, as before 
mention is made ; in the meantime most 
humbly requiring your honours to take me 
in your protection, to be auditors of my 
just defences, granting unto me the same 
liberty which Ahab, a wicked king, and 
Israel, at that time a blinded people, granted 
to Elijah in the like case; that is, that your 
bishops, and the whole rabble of your clergy 
may be called before you, and before that 
people whom they have deceived, that I 
be not condemned by multitude, by custom, 
by authority or law devised by man, but that 
God himself may be judge, betwixt me and 
my adversaries. Let God, I say, speak by 
his law, by his prophets, by Christ Jesus, 
or by his apostles, and so let him pronounce 
what religion he appro veth ; and then be my 
enemies never so many, and appear they 
never so strong and so learned, no more do 
I fear victory, than did Elijah, being but 
one man against the multitude of Baal's 
priests. And if they think to have advan- 
tage by their councils and doctors, this I 
further offer, to admit the one and the other, 
as witnesses in all matters debateable ; three 
things, which justly cannot be denied, being 
granted unto me : first, that the most 
ancient councils nighest to the primitive 
church, in which the learned and godly 
fathers did examine all matters by God's 
word, may be holden of most authority. 
Secondly, that no determination of coun- 
cils nor man, be admitted against the plain 
verity of God's word, nor against the de- 
termination of those four chief councils, 
whose authority hath been and is holden by 
them equal with the authority of the four 
evangelists. And last, that to no doctor be 
given greater authority, than Augustine re- 
quireth to be given to his writings : to wit, 
if he plainly prove not his affirmation by 
God's infallible word, that then his sentence 
be rejected and imputed to the error of a 
man. These things granted and admitted, 
I shall no more refuse the testimonies of 
councils and doctors than shall my adver- 
saries. But and if they will justify those 



councils which maintain their pride and 
usurped authority, and will reject those 
which plainly have condemned all such 
tyranny, negligence, and wicked life, as 
bishops now do use : and if, further, they 
will snatch a doubtful sentence of a doctor, 
and refuse his mind, when he speaketh 
plainly, then will I say, that all [every] man 
is a liar, that credit ought not to be given 
to an unconstant witness, and that no coun- 
cils ought to prevail, or be admitted agaiust 
the sentence, which God hath pronounced. 
And thus, my lords, in few words to con- 
clude, I have offered unto you a trial of 
mine innocency : I have declared unto you 
what God requireth of you, being placed 
above his people, as rulers and princes : I 
have offered unto you, and to the inhabi- 
tants of the realm, the verity of Christ 
Jesus, and with the hazard of my life, I 
present^ offer to prove the religion, which 
amongst you is maintained by fire and 
sw r ord, to be false, damnable, and diabolical. 
Which things if ye refuse, defending tyrants 
in their tyranny, then dare not I flatter; but 
as it was commanded to Ezekiel boldly to 
proclaim, so must I cry to you, that you 
shall perish in your iniquity, that the Lord 
Jesus shall refuse so many of you, as mali- 
ciously withstand his eternal verity, and in 
the day of his apparition, w~hen all flesh 
shall appear before him, that he shall repel 
you from his company, and shall command 
you to the fire which never shall be 
quenched ; and then neither shall the mul- 
titude be able to resist, neither yet the 
councils of man be able to prevail, against 
that sentence which he shall pronounce. 

God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
by the power of his Holy Spirit, so rule and 
dispose your hearts, that with simplicity ye 
may consider the things that are offered, and 
that ye may take such order in the same, 
as God in you may be glorified, and Christ's 
flock by you may be edified and comforted, 
to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, whose omnipotent spirit rule your 
hearts in his true fear to the end. Amen. 



TO HIS 

BELOVED BRETHREN, 
THE COMMONALTY OF SCOTLAND, 



JOHN KNOX W1SHETH GRACE, MERCY, AND PEACE, WITH THE SPIRIT OF RIGHTEOUS 

JUDGMENT. 



What I have required of the queen regent, 
estates, and nobility, as of the chief heads, 
for this present, of the realm, I cannot cease 
to require of you, dearly beloved brethren, 
which be the commonalty and body of the 
same ; to wit, that it — notwithstanding- that 
false and cruel sentence, which your dis- 
guised bishops have pronounced against me 
— would please you to be so favourable 
unto me, as to be indifferent auditors of my 
just purgation. Which to do, if God ear- 
nestly move your hearts, as I nothing doubt, 
but that your enterprise shall redound to 
the praise of his holy name, so am I as- 
sured, that ye and your posterity shall by 
that means receive most singular comfort, 
edification, and profit. For when ye shall 
hear the matter debated, ye shall easily per- 
ceive and understand, upon what ground 
and foundation is builded that religion, 
which amongst you is this day defended by 
fire and sword. As for my own conscience, 
I am most assuredly persuaded, that whatso- 
ever is used in the papistical church is alto- 
gether repugning to Christ's blessed ordi- 
nance, and is nothing but mortal venom, of 
which whosoever drinketh, I am assuredly 
persuaded, that therewith he drinketh death 
and damnation, except by true conversion 
unto God, he be purged from the same. 
But because that long silence of God's word 
hath begotten ignorance almost in all sorts 
of men, and ignorance, joined with long cus- 
tom, hath confirmed superstition in the 
hearts of many ; I therefore, in the name of 
the Lord Jesus, desire audience, as well of 
you the commonalty, my brethren, as of 



! the estates and nobility of the realm, that in 
public preaching I may have place amongst 

: you at large to utter my mind in all matters 

| of controversy this day in religion. And, 
further, I desire that ye, concurring with 

i your nobility would compel your bishops 
and clergy to cease their tyranny, and also 
that, for the better assurance and instruc- 

I tion of your conscience, ye would compel 

I your said bishops and false teachers to an- 
swer by the Scriptures of God to such ob- 
jections and crimes as shall be laid against 

| their vain religion, false doctrine, wicked 
life, and slanderous conversation. Here I 

: know, that it shall be objected, that I re- 
quire of you a thing most unreasonable; to 

I wit, that ye should call your religion in 

: doubt, which hath been approved and es- 
tablished by so long continuance, and by 
the consent of so many men before you. 
But I shortly answer, that neither is the 
long process of time, neither yet the multi- 
tude of men, a sufficient approbation which 
God will allow for our religion. For as 
some of the most ancient writers do witness, 
neither can long process of time justify an 
error, neither can the multitude of such as 
follow it change the nature of the same. 
But if it was an error in the beginning, so 
is it in the end, and the longer that it is 
followed, and the more that do receive it, 
it is the more pestilent, and more to be 
avoided. For if antiquity or multitude of 
men could justify any religion, then was 
the idolatry of the gentiles, and now is the 
abomination of the Turks, good religion. 
For antiquity approved the one, and a mul- 
3E 



402 



KNOX'S LETTER TO THE- 



titude hath received and doth defend the 
other. But otherwise to answer, godly men 
may wonder from what fountain such a 
sentence doth flow, that no man ought to 
try his faith and religion by God's word, 
but that he safely may believe and follow 
every thing which antiquity and a multi- 
tude have approved. The Spirit of God 
doth otherwise teach us. For the wisdom 
of God, Christ Jesus himself, remitted his 
adversaries to Moses and the scriptures, to 
try by them whether his doctrine was of 
God or not. The apostles Paul and Peter 
commanded men to try the religion which 
they profess, by God's plain scriptures, and 
do praise men for so doing. St John straitly 
commandeth, that we believe not every 
spirit, but willeth us to try the spirits, 
whether they be of God or not. Now see- 
ing that these evident testimonies of the 
Holy Ghost will [require] us to try our 
faith and religion by the plain word of God, 
wonder it is, that the papists will not be 
content, that their religion and doctrine 
come under the trial of the same. If this 
sentence of Christ be true— as it is most 
true, seeing it springeth from the verity it- 
self — whoso evil doth, hateth the light, 
neither will he come to the light, lest that 
his evil works be manifested and rebuked ; 
then do our papists by their own sentence 
condemn themselves and their religion. For 
in so far as they refuse examination and 
trial, they declare, that they know some 
fault, which the light will utter : which is 
a cause of their fear, and why they [lay] 
claim to that privilege, that no man dispute 
of their religion. The verity and truth, 
being of the nature of fine purified gold, 
doth not fear the trial of the furnace, but the 
stubble and chaff of man's inventions — such 
as their religion — may not abide the flame 
of the fire. True it is, that Mahomet pro- 
nounced this sentence, that no man should 
in pain of death dispute or reason on the 
ground of his religion. Which law, to this 
day, by the art of Satan, is yet observed 
amongst the Turks, to their mortal blind- 
ness and horrible blaspheming of Christ 
Jesus and of his true religion. And from 
Mahomet — or rather from Satan, father of 
all lies — hath the pope and his rabble learned 



this former lesson, to wit, that their reli- 
gion should not be disputed upon, but what 
the fathers have believed, that ought and 
must the children approve. And in so de- 
vising, Satan lacked not his foresight. For 
no one thing hath more established the 
kingdom of that Roman antichrist, than this 
most wicked decree, to wit, that no man 
was permitted to reason of his power, or to 
call his laws in doubt. This thing is most 
assured, that whensoever the papistical re- 
ligion shall come to examination, it shall be 
found to have no other ground, than bath 
the religion of Mahomet, to wit, man's in- 
vention, device, and dream, overshadowed 
with some colour of God's word. And 
therefore, brethren, seeing that the religion 
is as the stomach to the body, which, if it 
be corrupted, doth infect the whole mem- 
bers, it is necessary that the same be ex- 
amined ; and if it be found replenished with 
pestilent humours — I mean with the fan- 
tasies of men — then of necessity it is, that 
those be purged, else shall your bodies and 
souls perish for ever. For of this I would 
ye were most certainly persuaded, that a 
corrupt religion defileth the whole life of 
man, appear it never so holy. Neither 
would I that ye should esteem the refor- 
mation and care of religion less to apper- 
tain to you, because ye are no kings, rulers, 
judges, nobles, nor in authority. Beloved 
brethren, ye are God's creatures, created 
and formed to his own image and similitude, 
for whose redemption was shed the most 
precious blood of the only beloved son of 
God, to whom he hath commanded his gos- 
pel and glad tidings to be preached, and for 
whom he hath prepared the heavenly in- 
heritance, so that ye will not obstinately 
refuse and disdainfully contemn the means, 
which he hath appointed to obtain the same; 
to wit, his blessed evangel, which now he 
offereth unto you, to the end that ye may 
be saved. For the gospel and glad tid- 
ings of the kingdom truly preached, is 
the power of God to the salvation of 
every believer, which to credit and re 
ceive, you the commonalty are no less ad- 
debted, than are your rulers and princes. 
For albeit God hath put and ordained dis- 
tinction and difference betwixt the king and 



COMMONALTY 

tLe subjects, betwixt the rulers and the 
common people in the regimen and ad- 
ministration of civil policies, yet in the 
hope of the life to come he hath made all 
equal. For as in Christ Jesus the Jew- 
hath no greater prerogative than hath the 
Gentile, the man than hath the woman, 
the learned than the unlearned, the lord 
than the servant, but all are one in him, 
so is there but one way and means to at- 
tain to the participation of his benefits and 
spiritual graces, which is a lively faith 
working by charity. And therefore I say, 
that it doth no less appertain to you, be- 
loved brethren, to be assured that your 
faith and religion be grounded and estab- 
lished upon the true and undoubted word 
of God, than to your princes or rulers. 
For as your bodies cannot escape corporal 
death, if with your princes ye eat or drink 
deadly poison, although it be by ignorance 
or negligence, so shall ye not escape the 
death everlasting, if with them ye profess 
a corrupt religion. Yea, except in heart 
ye believe, and with mouth ye confess, the 
Lord Jesus to be the only Saviour of the 
world, which ye cannot do, except ye em- 
brace his evangel offered, ye cannot es- 
cape death and damnation. For as the 
just liveth by his own faith, so doth the 
unfaithful perish by his infidelity. And 
as true faith is engendered, nourished, and 
maintained in the hearts of God's elect by 
Christ's evangel truly preached, so is infi- 
delity and unbelief fostered by concealing 
and repressing the same. And thus if ye 
look for the life everlasting, ye must try if 
ye stand in faith, and if ye would be as- 
sured of a true and lively faith, ye must 
needs have Christ Jesus truly preached 
unto you. And this is the cause, dear 
brethren, that so oft I repeat, and so con- 
stantly I affirm, that to you it doth no less 
appertain, than to your king or princes, to 
provide that Christ Jesus be truly preached 
amongst you, seeing that without his true 
knowledge can neither of you both attain 
to salvation. And this is the point where- 
in I say all men are equal : — 

" That as all be descended from Adam, by 
whose sin and inobedience did death enter 
into the w orld, so it behoved all that shall 



OF SCOTLAND. 403 

obtain life, to be ingrafted in one, that is, 
in the Lord Jesus, who, being the just ser- 
vant, doth by his knowledge justify many ; 
to wit, all that unfeignedly believe in him." 

Of this equality, and that God requireth 
no less of the subject, be he never so poor, 
than of the prince and rich men, in matters 
of religion, he hath given an evident decla- 
ration in the law of Moses. For when the 
tabernacle was builded, erected, and set in 
order, God did provide how it and the 
things appertaining to the same, should be 
sustained, so that they should not fall in 
decay. And this provision — albeit heaven 
and earth obey his empire — would he not 
take from the secret and hid treasures, 
which lie dispersed in the veins of the 
earth, neither yet would he take it from 
the rich and potent of his people ; but he 
did command, that every man of the sons 
of Israel, were he rich or were he poor, 
that came in count from twenty years and 
upwards, should yearly pay half a shekel 
for an oblation to the Lord in the remem- 
brance of their redemption, and for an ex- 
piation or cleansing of their souls, — which 
money God commanded should be bestowed 
upon the ornaments and necessaries of the 
tabernacle of testimony. He furthermore 
added a precept, that the rich should give 
no more for that use, and in that behalf, 
than should the poor, neither yet that the 
poor should give any less than should the 
rich in that consideration. This law, to 
man's reason and judgment, may appear 
very unreasonable. For some rich man 
might have given a thousand shekels with 
less hurt of his substance, than some poor 
man might have paid the half shekel. And 
yet God maketh all equal, and will that the 
one shall pay no more than the other, 
neither yet the poor any less than the rich. 
This law, I say, may appear very unequal. 
But if the cause which God addeth be ob- 
served, we shall find in the same the great 
mercy and inestimable wisdom of God to 
appear, which cause is expressed in these 
words : 

" This money received from the children 
of Israel, thou shalt give in the service of 
the tabernacle, that it may be to the chil- 
dren of Israel for a remembrance before 



404 



KNOX'S LETTER TO THE 



the Lord, that he may he merciful to your 
souls." 

This cause, I say, doth evidently declare, 
that as the whole multitude was delivered 
from the bondage of Egypt hy the mighty 
power of God alone, so was every member 
of the same, without respect of persons, 
sanctified hy his grace, the rich in that be- 
half nothing- preferred to the poorest. For 
by no merit nor worthiness of man w^as he 
moved to choose and to establish his habi- 
tation and dwelling- amongst them. But 
their felicity, prerogative, and honour, 
which they had above all other nations, 
proceeded only from the fountain of his 
eternal goodness, who loved them freely, 
as that he freely had chosen them to be 
his priestly kingdom and holy people from 
all nations of the earth. Thus to honour 
them, that he would dwell in the midst of 
them, he neither was moved, I say, by the 
wisdom of the wise, by the riches of the 
potent, neither yet by the virtue and holi- 
ness of any estate amongst them ; but of 
mere goodness did he love them, and with 
his presence did he honour that whole 
people ; and therefore to point out the same, 
his common love to the whole multitude, 
and to cut off occasions of contention 
and doubts of conscience, he would receive 
no more from the rich than from the poor, 
for the maintenance of that his tabernacle, 
by the which was represented his presence 
and habitation amongst them. If the rich 
had been preferred to the poor, then as the 
one should have been puffed up with pride, 
as that he had been more acceptable to 
God, by reason of his greater gift, so should 
the conscience of the other have been 
troubled and wounded, thinking that his 
poverty was an impediment, that he could 
not stand in so perfect favour with God as 
did the other, because he was not able to 
give so much as did the rich, to the main- 
tenance of his tabernacle. But he who of 
mercy, as said is, did choose his habitation 
amongst them, and also that best knoweth 
what lieth within man, did provide the 
remedy for the one and for the other, 
making them equal in that behalf, who in 
other things were most unequal. If the 
poor should have found himself grieved 



by reason of that tax, and that as much 
was imposed upon him as upon the rich, 
yet had he no small cause of joy that God 
himself would please to compare him, and 
to make him equal in the maintenance of 
his tabernacle, to the most rich and potent 
in Israel. If this equality was commanded 
by God for maintenance of that transitory 
tabernacle, which was but a shadow of a 
better to come, is not the same required of 
us who now have the verity, which is 
Christ Jesus ? who being clad with our na- 
ture is made Immanuel, that is, God with 
us. " Whose natural body, albeit it be re- 
ceived in the heavens, where he must abide 
till all be complete, that is forespoken by 
the prophets ; yet hath he promised to be 
present with us to the end of the world." 

And for that purpose, and for the more 
assurance of his promise, he hath erected 
amongst us here in earth the signs of his 
own presence with us, his spiritual taber- 
nacle, the true preaching of his word, and 
right administration of his sacraments. To 
the maintenance whereof is no less bound 
the subject than the prince, the poor than 
the rich. For as the price which was 
given for man's redemption is one ; so re- 
quireth God, of all that shall be partakers 
of the benefits of the same, a like duty, 
which is a plain confession that by Christ 
Jesus alone we have received whatsoever 
was lost in Adam. Of the prince doth 
God require, that he refuse [deny] himself, 
and that he follow Christ Jesus,- of the 
subject he requireth the same. Of the 
kings and judges it is required, that they 
kiss the son, that is, give honour, subjec- 
tion, and obedience to him. And from 
such reverence doth not God exempt the 
subject that shall be saved. And this is 
that equality which is betwixt the kings 
and the subjects, the most rich or noble, 
and betwixt the poorest and men of lowest 
estate ; to wit, that as the one is obliged to 
believe in heart, and with mouth to confess, 
the Lord Jesus to be the only Saviour of 
the world, so also is the other. Neither is 
there any of God's children, who hath at- 
tained to the years of discretion, so poor, 
but that he hath thus much to bestow upon 
the ornaments and maintenance of their 



COMMONALTY OF SCOTLAND. 



405 



spiritual tabernacle, when necessity re- 
quireth, neither yet is there any so rich, of 
whose hand God requireth any more * 
For albeit that David gathered great 
substance for the building of the 
temple; that Solomon with earnest dili- 
gence and incredible expenses erected 
and finished the same ; that Hezekiah and 
Josiah purged the religion which before 
was corrupted ; yet to them was God 
no further debtor in that respect, than he 
was to the most simple of the faithful pos- 
terity of faithful Abraham. For their dili- 
gence, zeal, and works, gave rather testi- 
mony and confession before men, what 
honour they did bear to God, what love to 
his word and reverence to his religion, 
than that any work proceeding from them 
did either establish or yet increase God's 
favour towards them, who freely did love 
them, in Christ his Son, before the founda- 
tion of the world was laid. So that these 
forenamed by their notable works gave 
testimony of their unfeigned faith, and the 
same doth the poorest, that unfeignedly 
and openly professeth Christ Jesus, that 
doth embrace his glad tidings offered, that 
doth abhor superstition and fly from idola- 
try. The poorest, I say, and most simple, 
that this day in earth in the days of this 
cruel persecution, firmly belie veth in Christ, 
and boldly doth confess him before this 
wicked generation, is no less acceptable 
before God, neither is judged in his pre- 
sence to have done any less in promoting 
Christ his cause, than is the king, that by 
the sword and power which he hath re- 
ceived of God, rooteth out idolatry, and so 
advanceth Christ's glory. But to return 
to our former purpose, it is no less requir- 
ed, I say, of the subject to believe in Christ, 



* Here is an explicit admission of the prin- 
ciple, that christian institutions ought to be sup- 
ported by the voluntary contributions of the 
christian people, the poor as well as the rich ; 
but Knox was mistaken if he meant that both 
should contribute to the same intrinsic amount. 
The law of the half shekel, from every man 
alike, was a peculiarity of the Mosaic dispensa- 
tion. The rule in the New Testament church 
is, that every man give according as God hath 
prospered him. In this address to the people of 
Scotland, which he sent from Geneva along 
with his appeal to the nobility, Knox, 1 think, 



and to profess his true religion, than of the 
prince and king. And therefore I affirm, 
that in God's presence it shall not excuse 
you to allege, that ye were no chief ru- 
lers, and therefore that the care and refor- 
mation of religion did not appertain unto 
you. 

Ye, dear brethren — as before is said— are 
the creatures of God, created to his own 
image and similitude, to whom it is com- 
manded to hear the voice of your heavenly 
father, to embrace his Son Christ Jesus, to 
fly from all doctrine and religion which he 
hath not approved by his own will re- 
vealed to us in his most blessed word. To 
which precepts and charges, if ye be found 
inobedient, ye shall perish in your iniqui- 
ty, as rebels and stubborn servants, that 
have no pleasure to obey the good will of 
their sovereign lord, who most lovingly 
doth call for your obedience. And there- 
fore, brethren, in this behalf it is your part 
to be careful and diligent. For the ques- 
tion is not of things temporal, which al- 
though they be endangered, yet by dili- 
gence and process of time may after be re- 
dressed, but it is of the damnation of your 
bodies and souls, and of the loss of the 
life everlasting, which once lost can never 
be recovered. And therefore, I say, that 
it behoveth you to be careful and diligent 
in this so weighty a matter, lest that ye, 
contemning this occasion, which God now 
offereth, find not the like, although that 
after with groaning and sobs, ye languish 
for the same. And that ye be not igno- 
rant of what occasion I mean, in few words 
I shall express it. 

Not only I, but with me also divers other 
godly and learned men do offer unto you 
our labours, faithfully to instruct you in 



appears to still more advantage than he does in 
the appeal. Along with an affectionate ear- 
nestness, which shows the heart-felt interest he 
took in the spiritual welfare of the people, he 
inculcates sentiments of civil liberty and chris- 
tian privilege, that had rarely, if at all, been pub- 
lished in the kingdom before. There is reason 
to think that his address to the people had more 
effect upon them, than the appellation had 
upon the nobles. It prepared the way for his 
powerful preaching that soon followed, and 
which effected the reformation. — Ed. 



406 



KNOX'S LETTER TO THE 



the ways of the Eternal our God, and in the 
sincerity of Christ's evangel, which this 
day by the pestilent generation of anti- 
christ — I mean, by the pope, and by his 
most ungodly clergy — are almost hid from 
the eyes of men. We offer to jeopard our 
lives for the salvation of your souls, and by 
manifest scriptures to prove that religion, 
which amongst you is maintained by fire 
and sword, to be vain, false, and diabolical. 
We require nothing of you, but that pa- 
tiently ye will hear our doctrine, which is 
not ours, but is the doctrine of salvation 
revealed to the world by the only Son of 
God ; and that ye will examine our rea- 
sons, by the which we offer to prove the 
papistical religion to be abominable before 
God. And last we require, that by your 
power the tyranny of these cruel beasts, 
I mean, of priests and friars, may be bridled, 
till we have uttered our minds in all mat- 
ters this day debateable in religion. If 
these things, in the fear of God, ye grant 
to me and unto others that unfeignedly 
for your salvation and for God's glory re- 
quire the same, I am assured, that of God 
ye shall be blessed, whatsoever Satan shall 
devise against you. But and if ye con- 
temn or refuse God, who thus lovingly 
offereth unto you salvation and life, ye 
shall neither escape plagues temporal, 
which shortly shall apprehend you, neither 
yet the torment prepared for the devil, and 
for his angels, except by speedy repentance 
ye return to the Lord, whom now ye refuse, 
if that ye refuse the messengers of his word. 

But yet I think ye doubt, what ye ought 
and may do in this so weighty a matter. 
In few words I will declare my conscience 
in the one and in the other- Ye ought to 
prefer the glory of God, the promoting of 
Christ his evangel, and the salvation of 
your souls, to all things that be in earth : 
and ye, although ye be but subjects, may 
lawfully require of your superiors, be it of 
your king, be it of your lords, rulers, and 
powers, that they provide for you true 
preachers, and that they expel such as, un- 
der the names of pastors, devour and de- 
stroy the flock, not feeding the same as 
Christ Jesus hath commanded. And if in 
this point your superior be negligent, or 



yet pretend to maintain tyrants in their 
tyranny, most justly ye may provide true 
teachers for yourselves, be it in your cities, 
towns, or villages : them ye may maintain 
and defend against all that shall persecute 
them, and by that means shall labour to de- 
fraud you of that most comfortable food of 
your souls, Christ's evangel truly preached. 
Ye may, moreover, withhold the fruits and 
profits which your false bishops and clergy 
most unjustly receive of you, until such 
time as they be compelled faithfully to do 
their charge and duties, which is to preach 
unto you Christ Jesus truly, rightly to 
minister his sacraments according to his 
own institution, and so to watch for the 
salvation of your souls, as is commanded 
by Christ Jesus himself, and by his apostles 
Paul and Peter. If God shall move your 
hearts in his true fear to begin to practise 
these things, and to demand and crave the 
same of your superiors, which most law- 
fully ye may do, then I doubt not but, of 
his great mercy and free grace, he shall 
illuminate the eyes of your minds, that his 
undoubted verity shall be a lantern to your 
feet, to guide and lead you in all the ways 
which his godly wisdom doth approve. He 
shall make your enemies tremble before 
your faces, he shall establish his blessed 
evangel amongst you to the salvation and 
perpetual comfort of yourselves, and of 
your posterity after you. But and if — as 
God forbid — the love of friends, the fear of 
your princes, and the wisdom of the world, 
draw you back from God and his Son 
Christ Jesus, be ye certainly persuaded, 
that ye shall drink the cup of his ven- 
geance, so many, I mean, as shall contemn 
and despise this loving calling of your 
heavenly father. It will not excuse you, 
dear brethren, in the presence of God, 
neither yet will it avail you in the day of 
his visitation, to say, we were but simple 
subjects, we could not redress the faults and 
crimes of our rulers, bishops, and clergy : 
we called for reformation, and wished for 
the same, but lords' [brothers of lords] 
brethren were bishops, their sons were ab- 
bots, and the friends of great men had the 
possession of the church, and so were we 
compelled to give obedience to all that 



COMMONALTY 

they demanded. These vain excuses, I 
say, will nothing- avail you in the presence 
of God, who requireth no less of the sub- 
jects than of the rulers, that they decline 
from evil, and that they do good, that they 
abstain from idolatry, superstition, blas- 
phemy, murder, and other such horrible 
crimes which his law forbiddeth, and yet 
not the less are openly committed and ma- 
liciously defended in that miserable realm. 
And if ye think that ye are innocent, be- 
cause ye are not the chief authors of such 
iniquity, ye are utterly deceived. For God 
doth not only punish the chief offenders, 
but with them doth he damn the consenters 
to iniquity: and all are judged to consent, 
that, knowing impiety committed, give no 
testimony that the same displeaseth them. 
To speak this matter more plain, as your 
princes and rulers are criminal with your 
bishops of all idolatry committed, and of all 
the innocent blood that is shed for the 
testimony of Christ's truth, and that be- 
cause they maintain them in their tyranny, 
so are you — I mean, so many of you as 
give no plain confession to the contrary — 
criminal and guilty, with your princes and 
rulers, of the same crimes, because ye assist 
and maintain your princes in their blind 
rage, and give no declaration that their 
tyranny displeaseth you. This doctrine, I 
know, is strange to the blind world, but the 
verity of it hath been declared in all no- 
table punishments from the beginning. 
When the original world perished by 
water, when Sodom and Gomorrah were 
consumed by fire, and, finally, when Jerusa- 
lem was horribly destroyed, doth any man 
think, that all were alike wicked before the 
world ? evident it is that they were not, 
if they shall be judged according to their 
external facts. For some were young, and 
could not be oppressors, neither yet could 
defile themselves with unnatural and beast- 
ly lusts; some were pitiful and gentle of 
nature, and did not thirst for the blood of 
Christ nor of his apostles. But did any 
escape the plagues and vengeance which 
did apprehend the multitude. Let the 
scriptures witness, and the histories be con- 
sidered, which plainly do testify, that by 
the waters all flesh in earth at that 



OF SCOTLAND. 407 

time did perish, Noah and his family re- 
served, that none escaped in Sodom and in 
the other cities adjacent, except Lot and 
his two daughters. And evident it is, 
that in that famous city Jerusalem, in that 
last and horrible destruction of the same, 
none escaped God's vengeance, except so 
many as before were dispersed. And what 
is the cause of this severity, seeing that all 
were not alike offenders ? let flesh cease to 
dispute with God, and let all men, by these 
examples, learn betimes to fly and avoid 
the society and company of the proud con- 
temners of God, if that they list not to be 
partakers of their plagues. The cause is evi- 
dent : if we can be subject, without grudg- 
ing, to God's judgments, which in them- 
selves are most holy and just. For in the 
original world none was found that either 
did resist tyranny and oppression, that uni- 
versally was used, either yet that earnestly 
reprehended the same. In Sodom was none 
found that did gainstand that furious and 
beastly multitude, that did compass about 
and besiege the house of Lot. None would 
believe Lot, that the city should be des- 
troyed. And, finally, in Jerusalem was 
none found that studied to repress the 
tyranny of the priests, who were conjured 
against Christ and his evangel, but all 
fainted — I except ever such as gave witness 
with their blood or their flying, that such 
impiety displeased them — all kept silence ; 
by the which all approved iniquity, and 
joined hands with the tyrants, and so were 
all arrayed and set, as it had been, in one 
battle, against the Omnipotent, and against 
his Son Christ Jesus. For whosoever 
gathereth not with Christ in the day of his 
harvest, is judged to scatter. And there- 
fore of one vengeance temporal were they 
all partakers. Which thing, as before I 
have touched, ought to move you to the 
deep consideration of your duties in these 
last and most perilous times. The iniquity 
of your bishops is more than manifest ; 
their filthy lives infect the air ; the innocent 
blood which they shed crieth vengeance 
in the ears of our God ; the idolatry and 
abomination which openly they commit, 
and without punishment maintain, doth 
corrupt and defile the whole laud; and 



408 



KNOX'S LETTER TO THE, &c. 



none amongst you doth unfeignedly study | 
for any redress of such enormities. Will ! 
God, in this behalf, hold you as innocents ? 
Be not deceived, dear brethren. God hath 
punished not only the proud tyrants, filthy 
persons, and cruel murderers, but also such 
as with them did draw the yoke of iniquity, 
was it by flattering their offences, obeying 
their unjust commandments, or in winking 
at their manifest iniquity. All such, I say, 
hath God once punished with the chief of- 
fenders. Be ye assured, brethren, that as 
he is immutable of nature, so will he not 
pardon in you, that which so severely he 
hath punished in others ; and now the less, 
because he hath plainly admonished you of 
the dangers to come, and hath offered you 
his mercy, before he pour forth his wrath 
and displeasure upon the inobedient. God, 
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
is Father of glory, and God of all consola- 
tion, give you the spirit of wisdom, and 
open unto you the knowledge of himself by 
the means of his dear son, by the which ye 
may attain to the esperance and hope, that 



Note. — This is followed in my copy by ten folio 
pages, intitled, " An Admonition to England 
and Scotland, to call them to repentance, writ 
ten by Antoni Gilby." The editor — Craw- 
ford — seems to have taken this for a writing by 
Knox under an assumed name, which, Dr 
M'Crie says, is a mistake. Gilby was, at the 
same time with Knox, a member of the Eng~ 
lish church in Geneva, and was the author of 
several publications. See Life of Knox, 1st ed. 
p. 253. J see no reason for inserting this, more 
than the writing of any other man, among 



after the troubles of this transitorious life, 
ye may be partakers of the riches of that 
glorious inheritance, which is prepared for 
such as refuse themselves, and fight under 
the banner of Christ Jesus in the day of this 
his battle ; that in deep consideration of the 
same, ye may learn to prefer the invisible 
and eternal joys to the vain pleasures that 
are present. God farther grant you his 
Holy Spirit, righteously to consider what I, 
in his name, have required of your nobility, 
and of you the subjects ; and move you all 
together so to answer, that my petition be 
not a testimony of your just condemnation, 
when the Lord Jesus shall appear to re- 
venge the blood of his saints, and the con- 
tempt of his most holy word. Amen. 

Sleep not in sin, for vengeance is pre- 
pared against all inobedient. Flee from 
Babylon, if ye will not be partakers of her 
plagues. 

Be witness to my appellation. Grace be 
with you. From Geneva, the 14th of July, 
1558. Your brother to command in godli- 
ness. John Knox. 



Knox's acknowledged productions ; and there- 
fore I leave it out, as David Buchanan did ; 
or, perhaps, he never saw it : but in its room he 
gives what Crawford's edition wants; namely, 
"A faithful Admonition made by John Knox 
to the true professors of the gospel of Christ 
within England, 1554." It is very long ; but I 
think this volume would be reckoned incom- 
plete without it. It is in the Paisley edition, 
and, I believe, also in the Edinburgh ones 
which copied Buchanan's. It is as follows. 
— Ed. 



A 



FAITHFUL ADMONITION, 

MADE BY 

JOHN KNOX, 

TO THE TRUE PROFESSORS OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST 
WITHIN THE KINGDOM OF ENGLAND, 1554. 

John Knox wisheth grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, with the perpetual comfort of the Holy Ghost, to be with you 
for ever and ever, dear brethren, the afflicted members of christ's church in 
England.* 



Having no less desire to comfort such as j 
now be in trouble within the realm of j 
England, — and especially you, for many 
causes, most dear to me, — than hath the 
natural father to ease the grief and pain of 
his dearest child ; I have considered with 
myself, what argument or parcel of God's 
scriptures was most convenient and meet 
to be handled for your consolation, in these 
most dark and dolorous days : and so, — as for 
the same purpose I was turning my book, — 
I chanced to see a note in the margin writ- 
ten thus in Latin, Videat Anglia, Let Eng- 
land beware ; which note when I had con- 
sidered, I found, that the matter written 
in my book in Latin was this, " Seldom it 
is that God worketh any notable work to 
the comfort of his church, but that trouble, 



* This is upon the whole a very interesting 
production. It contains an edifying example of 
humility and self-condemnation on the part of 
the author, on account of the defects of his min- 
istry, when he enjoyed the liberty of preaching 
in England. He seems to think he had done 
nothing, while his brethren, no doubt, thought 
he had laboured more abundantly than they all. 
1 suppose, if the most faithful preacher of the 
present day, were -to have his mouth finally 
shut, he would remember a thousand things 
which he ought to have said while he had free- 
dom of speech. This seems to have been pre- 
cisely Knox's feeling ; and from the manner in 
which he expresses himself, no one can doubt 



i fear, and labour come upon such as God 
j hath used for his servants and workmen ; 
and also tribulation most commonly fol- 
loweth that church where Christ Jesus is 
most truly preached." This note was 
made upon a place of scripture written in 
the fourteenth chapter of St Matthew's 
gospel; which place declareth, that after 
Christ Jesus had used the apostles as min- 
isters and servants to feed, — as it had been 
by their hands, — five thousand men, beside 
women and children, with five barley 
loaves and two fishes ; he sent them to the 
sea, commanding them to pass over before 
him to the other side. Which thing as 
they attempted to obey, and for the same 
purpose did travail and row forth in the 
sea, the night approached, the wind was 



that he is recording the genuine sentiments of 
his deeply afflicted heart. We have here also a 
faithful statement of the miserable condition of 
England, with respect to religion, during the 
reign of the bloody Queen Mary. But what 
will be found most fraught with instruction, is 
a very lively specimen of Knox's manner of ex- 
pounding and applying passages of scripture. 
It is in fact an expository lecture, though it is 
not so announced. Perhaps he finds some 
things in his text, that the Holy Spirit does not 
directly teach in it ; but they seem all to arise 
so naturally, that I cannot call any of them 
forced or far-fetched. — Ed. 

3F 



4.10 



ADMONITION TO 



THE PROFESSORS 



contrary, the vehement and raging storm 
arose, and was like to overthrow their 
poor boat and them. When I considered, — 
as dolour and my simplicity would suffer, — 
the circumstances of the text, I began to 
reckon and ask account of myself, and as 
God knoweth, not without sorrow and 
sobs, whether at any time I had been so 
plain by my tongue, as God had opened 
his holy will and wisdom in that matter 
unto me, as mine own pen and note bear 
witness to my conscience : and shortly it 
came to my mind, that the same place of 
the scripture I had handled in your pre- 
sence, when God gave opportunity and 
time for you to hear God's messenger 
speak the words of eternal life. Where- 
fore, I thought nothing more expedient, 
than shortly to call to rnind against such 
things as then I trust were touched ; albeit 
perad venture neither of me so plainly ut- 
tered, neither of you so plainly perceived, 
as these most dolorous days declare the 
same to us. 

It shall not be necessary to handle the 
text word by word, but of the whole sum 
to gather certain notes and observations, — 
which shall not far disagree from the state 
of these days, — it shall be sufficient. And 
first, it is to be observed, that after this 
great miracle that Christ had wrought, he 
neither would retain with himself the mul- 
titude of people whom he had fed, neither 
yet his disciples ; but the one he sent away 
every man to return to his place of accus- 
tomed residence, and the others he sent to 
the danger of the seas ; not as he that was 
ignorant what should chance unto them, 
Dut knowing and foreseeing the tempest, 
yea and appointing the same so to trouble 
them. 

It is not to be judged, that the only and 
true Pastor would remove and send away 
from him the wandering and weak sheep ; 
neither yet that the only provident gover- 
nor and guide would set out his rude war- 
riors to so great a jeopardy, without suffi- 
cient and most just cause. 

Why Christ removed and sent away 
from him the people, the evangelist St 
John declare th, saying, " When Jesus knew 



that they were come to take him, that they 
might make him king, he passed secretly 
— or alone — to the mountain." Whereof 
it is plain what chiefly moved Christ to 
send away the people from him, because 
that by him they sought a carnal and 
worldly liberty, regarding nothing his 
heavenly doctrine of the kingdom of God 
his Father, which before he had taught and 
declared unto them plainly ; showing them, 
that such as would follow him must suffer 
for his name's sake persecution, must be 
hated of all men, must deny themselves, 
must be sent forth as sheep among wolves : 
but no part of this doctrine pleased them, 
or could enter into their hearts, but their 
whole mind was upon their bellies, for 
sufficing whereof they devised and imagin- 
ed, that they would appoint Christ Jesus 
to be their worldly king ; for he had power 
to multiply bread at his pleasure. Which 
vain opinion and imagination perceived by 
Christ Jesus, he withdrew himself from 
their company, to avoid all suspicion, and 
to let them understand, that no such ho- 
nours did agree with his vocation, who 
came to serve, and not to be served : and 
when this same people sought him again, 
he sharply rebuked them, because they 
sought him more to have their bellies fed 
with corruptible meat, than to have their 
souls nourished with lively bread that 
eame down from heaven. And thus in the 
people there was just cause why Christ 
should withdraw himself from them for a 
time. 

Why the disciples should suffer that 
great danger, fear and anguish, St Mark in 
his gospel plainly showeth, saying, " That 
their hearts were blinded, and therefore did 
neither remember nor consider the miracle 
of the loaves :" that is, albeit with their 
hands they had touched that bread by 
which so great a multitude was fed ; and 
albeit also they had gathered up twelve 
baskets full of that which remained of a 
few loaves, which before the miracle a 
boy was able to have borne ; yet did they 
not rightly consider the infinite power of 
Christ Jesus by this wonderful miracle : 
and therefore of necessity it was, that in 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



41] 



their own bodies they should suffer trouble j 
for their better instruction. j 

When I deeply consider, dearly beloved, 
in our Saviour Christ, how abundantly 
and how miraculously the poor and small 
flock of Christ Jesus was fed within the 
realm of England, under that elect and 
chosen vessel of God to glory and honour, 
Edward the Sixth ; and now again behold 
not only the dispersion and scattering 
abroad, but also the appearing destruction 
of the same, under these cursed, cruel, and 
abominable idolaters, methink I see the 
same causes to have moved God, not only 
to withdraw his presence from the multi- 
tude, but also to have sent his well-be- 
loved servants to the travails of the seas, 
wherein they were sore tossed and tur- 
moiled, and apparently most like to per- 
ish. 

What were the affections of the great- 
est multitude that followed the gospel in 
this former rest and abundance, is easy to 
be judged, if the life and conversation of 
every man should have been thoroughly 
examined : for who lived in that rest, 
as that he had refused himself? who lived 
in that rest, as that he had been crucified 
with Christ ? who lived in that rest, as 
that he had certainly looked for trouble to 
come upon him ? yea, who lived not rather 
in delicacy and joy, and seeking the world 
and pleasures thereof, caring for the flesh 
and carnal appetites, as though death and 
sin had clean been devoured ? and what 
was this else, than to make of Christ an 
earthly king ? The word that we professed 
daily cried in our ears, that our kingdom, 
our joy, our rest, and felicity, neither were, 
are, nor shall be upon the earth, neither 
in any transitory thing thereof, but in 
heaven, into which we must enter by 
many tribulations. But, alas ! we slept 
in such security, that the sound of the 
trumpet could of many never be perfectly 
understood, but always we persuaded our- 
selves of a certain tranquillity, as though 
the troubles whereof mention is made 
within the scriptures of God, appertained 
nothing at all to this age, but unto such as 
of long time are passed before us: and 



therefore was our heavenly Father compelled 
to withdraw from us the, presence of his 
verity, — whose voice in those days we 
could not believe, — to the end that more 
earnestly we may thirst for the same, and 
with more obedience embrace and receive 
it, if ever it shall please his infinite good- 
ness, in such abundance, to restore the 
same again. 

I mean nothing of those that followed 
Christ only for their bellies, for such per- 
ceiving that they could not obtain their 
heart's desire of Christ, have grudged, and 
left him in body and heart ; which thing 
their blasphemous voices, spoken against 
his eternal verity, doth witness and de- 
clare. For such, brethren, be ye not 
moved ; for in the time of their profession 
they were not of us, but were very dissem- 
blers and hypocrites ; and therefore God 
justly permitteth that they blaspheme the 
truth, which they never loved. I mean 
not that ever such dissembling hypocrites 
shall embrace the verity,* but I mean such 
as by infirmity of the flesh, and by natural 
blindness, — which in this life is never alto- 
gether expelled, — then could not give the 
very obedience which God's word required, 
neither now by weakness of faith dare 
openly and boldly confess that which their 
hearts know to be most true, and yet la- 
ment and mourn, both for the imper- 
fection bypast and present ; from such 
shall not the amiable presence of Christ 
for ever be withdrawn ; but yet again shall 
the eyes of their sore-troubled hearts be- 
hold and see that light of Christ's gospel, 
wherein they most delight. We, the min- 
isters, who were the distributers of this 
bread, the true word of God, wherewith 
the multitude within England was fed, 
lacked not our offences, which also moved 
God to send us to the sea. And because 
the offences of no man are so manifest un- 
to me, as mine own, I will only censuro 
myself. 

It is not unknown unto many, that I, the 
most wretched, was one of that number 

* Perhaps it should be, I mean not such dis- 
semblers and hypocrites as never shall, &c, 
— Ed. 



412 



ADMONITION TO THE PROFESSORS 



whom God appointed to receive that bread, 
as it was broken by Christ Jesus, to dis- 
tribute and give the same to such as he 
had called to this banquet, in that part of 
his table where he appointed me to serve. 
It is not in my knowledge or judgment 
to define or determine what portion or 
quantity every man received of this bread, 
neither yet how that which they received 
agreed with their stomachs ; but of this I 
am assured, that the benediction of Christ 
Jesus so multiplied the portion which I re- 
ceived of his hands, that during the ban- 
quet, — this I write to the praise of His 
name, and to the accusation of mine own 
unthankfulness, — the bread never failed 
when the hungry soul craved or cried for 
food ; and at the end of the banquet, mine 
own conscience beareth witness, that mine 
hands gathered up the crumbs that were 
left, in such abundance, that the banquet 
was full among the rest. To be plain, 
mine own conscience beareth record to 
myself, how small was my learning, and 
how weak I was of judgment, when Christ 
Jesus called me to be his steward, and 
how mightily, day by day, and time by 
time, he multiplied his graces with me, if I 
should conceal, I were most wicked and 
unthankful. 

But, alas ! how blinded was my heart, and 
how little I did consider the dignity of 
that office, and the power of God that then 
multiplied and blessed the bread which the 
people received of my hands, this day mine 
own conscience beareth witness to myself. 
God I take to record in my conscience, 
that I delivered the same bread that I re- 
ceived of Christ's hands ; and that I mixed 
no poison with the same ; that is, I taught 
Christ's gospel without any mixture of 
men's dreams, devices, or fantasies. But, alas! 
I did it not with such fervency, with such 
indifferency [impartiality], and with such 
diligency as this day I know my duty was 
to have done. 

Some complained in those days, that the 
preachers were undiscreet persons, yea, 
some called them railers, and worse, be- 
cause they spake against the manifest ini- 
quity of men, and especially of those that 
then were placed in authority, as well in 



court, as in other offices universally 
throughout the realm, both in cities, towns, 
and villages. And among others, perad- 
venture, my rude plainness displeased some, 
who did complain, that rashly I did speak 
of men's faults, so that all men might know 
and perceive of whom 1 meant. But, alas ! 
this day my conscience accuseth me, that I 
spake not so plainly as my duty was to 
have done : for I ought to have said to the 
wicked man expressly by his name, '* Thou 
shalt die the death." For I find Jeremiah 
the prophet to have done so to Pashur the 
high priest, and to Zedekiah the king. 
And not only he, but also Elijah, Elisha, 
Micah, Amos, Daniel, Christ Jesus him- 
self, and, after him, his apostles, expressly 
to have named the blood-thirsty tyrants, 
abominable idolaters, and dissembling 
hypocrites of their days. If that we the 
preachers within the realm of England, 
were appointed by God to be the salt of 
the earth, as his other messengers were 
before us, alas ! why withheld we the 
salt, where manifest compunction did ap- 
pear ? I accuse none but myself. The 
blind love that 1 did bear to this my wick- 
ed carcase was the chief cause that I was 
not fervent and faithful enough in that be- 
half ; for I had no will to provoke the ha- 
tred of all men against me : and therefore 
so touched I the vices of men in the pre- 
sence of the greatest, that they might see 
themselves to be offenders, — I dare not say 
that I was the greatest flatterer. But yet, 
nevertheless, I would not be seen to pro- 
claim manifest war against the manifest 
wicked : whereof unfeignedly I ask my God 
mercy. 

As I was not so fervent in rebuking 
manifest iniquity as it became me to have 
been ; so was I not so indifferent a feeder 
as is required of Christ's steward : for in 
preaching Christ's gospel, albeit mine eye, as 
knoweth God, was not much upon worldly 
promotion, yet the love of friends, and car- 
nal affection of some men with whom I 
was most familiar, allured me to make 
more residence in one place than in ano- 
ther, having more respect to the pleasure 
of a few, than to the necessity of many. 
That day I thought I had not sinned, if I 



OP THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



413 



had not been idle; but this day I know it 
was my duty to have had consideration 
how long I had remained in one place, and 
how many hungry souls were in other 
places, to whom, alas ! none took pain to 
break and distribute the bread of life. 

Moreover, remaining in one place I was 
not so diligent as mine office required; 
but sometime, by counsel of carnal friends, 
I spared the body ; sometime I spent in 
worldly business of particular friends ; and 
sometime in taking recreation and pastime 
by exercise of the body. 

And albeit men may judge these to be 
light and small offences, yet I acknowledge 
and confess, that unless pardon should be 
granted to me in Christ's blood, that every 
one of these three offences aforenamed, 
that is to say, lack of fervency in reprov- 
ing sin, the lack of indifferency [impar- 
tiality] in feeding those that were hungry, 
and the lack of diligence in the execution 
of mine office, deserved damnation. 

And beside these, I was assaulted, yea, 
infected and corrupted with more gross 
sins ; that is, my wicked nature desired the 
favours, the estimation, and praise of men ; 
against which, albeit that sometime the 
Spirit of God did move me to fight, and 
earnestly did stir me, — God knoweth, I lie 
not, — to sob and lament for those imper- 
fections ; yet never ceased they to trouble 
me when any occasion was offered : and so 
privily and craftily did they enter into my 
breast, that I could not perceive myself to 
be wounded, till vainglory had almost got- 
ten the upper hand. 

" O Lord be merciful to my great offence, 
and deal not with me according to my 
great iniquity ; but according to the multi- 
tude of thy mercies, remove from me the 
burden of my sin : for of purpose and mind 
to have avoided the vain displeasure of 
man, I spared little to offend thy majesty." 

Think not, beloved in the Lord, that 
thus I accuse myself without just cause, as 
though, in so doing, I might appear more 
holy ; or that yet I do it of purpose and 
intent, by occasion thereof to accuse others 
of my brethren, the true preachers of Christ, 
of like or greater offences : no, God is 
judge to my conscience, that I do it even 



from an unfeigned and sore-troubled heart, 
as I that know myself grievously to have 
offended the majesty of my God, during 
the time that Christ's gospel had free pas- 
sage in England. And this I do let you 
understand, that the taking away of the 
heavenly bread, and this great tempest 
that now bloweth against the poor dis- 
ciples of Christ within the realm of Eng- 
land, — as touching our part, — cometh from 
the great mercy of our heavenly Father, to 
provoke us to unfeigned repentance, for 
that neither preacher nor professor did 
rightly consider the time of our merciful 
visitation : but altogether so we spent the 
time, as though God's word had been 
preached rather to satisfy our fantasies, 
than to reform our evil manners. Which 
thing if we earnestly repent, then shall 
Jesus Christ appear to our comfort, be the 
storm never so great. " Haste, O Lord, for 
thy name's sake." 

The second thing that I find to be noted, 
is, the vehemency of the fear which the 
disciples endured in that great danger, 
being of longer continuance than ever they 
had at any time before. 

In St Matthew's gospel it appeareth, 
that at another time there arose a great 
stormy tempest, and sore tossed the boat 
wherein Christ's disciples were labouring: 
but that was nigh the daylight, and then 
they had Christ with them in the ship, 
whom they awaked, and cried for help un- 
to him, — for at that time he slept in the 
boat, — and so were shortly delivered from 
their sudden fear. But now were they in 
the midst of the raging sea, and it was 
night, and Christ their Comforter absent 
from them, and cometh not to them ei- 
ther in the first, second, or third watch, 
what fear, think ye, were they in? and 
what thoughts arose out of their so 
troubled hearts, during that storm ? Such 
as this day are in like danger within the 
realm of England, do by this storm bet- 
ter understand than my pen can express. 
But of one thing I am well assured, that 
Christ's presence would in that great per- 
plexity have been to them more comfor- 
table than ever it was before ; and that 
patiently they would have suffered their 



414 



ADMONITION TO 



THE PROFESSORS 



incredulity [unbelief] to have been re- 
buked, so that they might have escaped the 
present death. 

But profitable it shall be, and somewhat 
to our comfort, to consider every parcel of 
their danger : and first, ye shall understand, 
that when the disciples passed to the sea 
to obey Christ's commandment, it was 
fair weather, and no such tempest seen. 
But suddenly the storm arose with a con- 
trarious flaw [blast] of wind, when they 
were in the midst of their journey. For if 
the tempest had been as great in the be- 
ginning- of their entrance into the sea, as it 
was after, when they were about the midst 
of their journey, neither would they have 
adventured such a great danger; neither 
yet had it been in their power to have at- 
tained to the midst of the sea. And so it 
may be evidently gathered, that the sea 
was calm when they entered into their 
journey. 

Then it is to be remarked, by what 
means and instruments was this storm 
moved. Was the plunging of their oars, and 
force of their small boat, such as might stir 
the waves of the great sea? no, doubtless : 
but the Holy Ghost declareth, that the 
seas were moved by a vehement and con- 
trary wind, which blew against their ship 
in the time of darkness. But seeing the 
wind is neither the commander nor mover 
of itself, some other cause is to be in- 
quired, which hereafter we shall touch. 

And last, it is to be noted and consider- 
ed, what the disciples did in all this vehe- 
ment tempest. Truly they turned not to 
be driven back for land or shore, by the 
vehemency of the contrary wind ; for so it 
might be thought that they could not have 
escaped shipwreck and death: but they 
continually laboured in rowing against the 
wind, abiding the ceasing of that horrible 
tempest. 

Consider and mark, beloved in the Lord, 
what we read here to have chanced to 
Christ's disciples, and to their poor boat ; 
and you shall well perceive, that the same 
thing hath chanced, doth and shall chance, 
to the true church and congregation of 
Christ, — which is nothing else in this mise- 
rable life but a poor ship, — travailing in the 



seas of this unstable and troublesome 
world, toward the heavenly port, and ha- 
ven of eternal felicity, which Christ Jesus 
hath appointed to his elect. 

This I might prove by the posterity of 
Jacob in Egypt ; by the Israelites in their 
captivity; and by the church during the 
time that Christ himself did preach, — and 
sometime after his resurrection and ascen- 
sion, — against whom the vehement storm 
did not rage immediately after they entered 
into the ship of their travail and tribula- 
tion: for the bloody sentence of Pharaoh 
was not pronounced against the seed of Ja- 
cob when he first did enter into Egypt: 
neither was the cruel counsel and devilish 
device of proud Ham an invented by and by 
after Israel and Judah were translated from 
their possessions : neither yet in the time 
of Christ Jesus being conversant with his 
apostles in the flesh, was there used any 
such tyranny against the saints of God, as 
shortly after followed in the persecution of 
St Stephen, and other disciples. But all 
these in the beginning of their travail with 
a contrary wind, had always some calm ; 
that is, albeit they had some trouble, yet 
had they not extreme persecution. 

Even so, most dearly beloved, is happen- 
ed now to the afflicted church of God 
within the realm of England: at all times 
the true word of God suffered contradic- 
tion and repugnancy; and so the wind 
blew against us even from the beginning 
of the late uprising of the gospel in Eng- 
land : but yet it could not stop our course, 
till now of late days, that the raging wind 
bloweth without bridle upon the unstable 
seas, in the midst whereof we are in this 
hour of darkness. 

To write my mind plainly unto you, be- 
loved brethren, this wind that always hath 
blown against the church of God, is the 
malice and hatred of the devil, which 
rightly in this case is compared to the 
wind ; for as the wind is invisible, and yet 
the poor disciples feel that it troubleth and 
letteth [hinders] their ship ; so is the pesti- 
lent envy of the devil, working always in 
the hearts of the reprobate so subtile and 
crafty, that it cannot be espied by God's 
elect, nor by his messengers, till first they 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



415 



feel the blasts thereof to blow their ship 
backward: and as the vehement wind 
causeth the waves of the sea to rage, and 
yet the dead water neither knoweth what 
it doth, neither yet can it cease nor refrain ; 
so that both it is troubled by the wind, and 
also itself doth trouble Christ's disciples in 
their poor ship : so by the envy and malice 
of the devil, are wicked and cruel, as 
well subjects as princes, whose hearts are 
like the raging sea, compelled to persecute 
and trouble the true church of Christ ; and 
yet so blinded are they, and so enthralled 
under the bondage of the devil, that nei- 
ther can they see their manifest iniquity, 
neither yet can they cease to run to their 
own destruction. And hereof, England, 
hast thou manifest experience : for in the 
time of king Henry the eighth, how the 
wolf, that wicked Winchester, and others, 
by the vehement wind of six bloody ar- 
ticles, by the devil devised, intended to 
have overthrown the poor ship and Christ's 
disciples, is evidently known already. But 
then had we Christ Jesus with us sleeping 
in the ship, who did not despise the faith- 
ful crying of such as then were in trouble : 
but by his mighty pow r er, gracious good- 
ness, and invincible force of his holy word, 
he compelled those wicked winds to cease, 
and the raging of those seas to be stilled 
and calm ; so that all the hearts of God's 
elect within the realm of England did 
wonder at that sudden change, while that 
under a lamb the fearful edge of that de- 
vouring sword was taken from the necks 
of the faithful; and the tyranny of those 
ravening and blood-thirsty wolves, — I mean 
of wily Winchester, and of some other his 
brethren, the sons of Belial, — was repressed 
for a time. But yet ceased not the devil to 
blow his wind, by his wicked instruments, 
who found the means, how against nature 
the one brother should assent to the death 
of the other. But that could not hinder the 
course of the travailing boat, but forth she 
goeth in despite of the devil, who then 
more cruelly raged, perceiving his own 
honour and service, that is, his detestable 
mass, to be disclosed and opened before the 
people, to be damnable idolatry, and as- 
sured damnation to such as put their trust 



in it : and therefore began he more craftily 
to work, and finding the same instruments 
apt enough, whose labours he had used be- 
fore, he blew such mortal hatred between 
two, which appeared to be the chief pil- 
lars under the king: for that wretched, 
alas ! and miserable Northumberland could 
not be satisfied, till such time as simple 
Somerset most unjustly was bereft of his 
life. What the devil and his members the 
pestilent papists, meant by his away-taking, 
God compelled my tongue to speak in more 
places than one ; and especially before you, 
and in Newcastle, as Sir Robert Bradling 
did not forget a long time after. God grant 
that he may understand all other matters 
spoken before him then, and at other times, 
as rightly as he did that mine interpreta- 
tion of the vineyard, whose hedges, ditches, 
towers, and winepress God destroyed, be- 
cause it would bring forth no good fruit : 
and that he may remember, that whatever 
was spoken by my mouth that day, is now 
complete, and come to pass ; except that 
final destruction and vengeance is not yet 
fallen upon the greatest offenders, as as- 
suredly shortly it shall, unless that he and 
some other of his sort, that then were ene- 
mies to God's truth, will speedily repent, 
and that earnestly, their stubborn disobe- 
dience. God compelled my tongue, I say, 
openly to declare, that the devil and his 
ministers intended only the subversion of 
God's true religion, by that mortal hatred 
among those which ought to have been 
most assuredly knit together by Christian 
charity, and by benefits received; and es- 
pecially that the wicked and envious pa- 
pists, by that ungodly breach of charity, 
diligently minded [intended] the overthrow 
of him, that, to his own destruction, pro- 
cured the death of his innocent friend. 
Thus, I say, I was compelled of conscience 
oftener than once to affirm, that such as 
saw and invented the means how the one 
should be taken away, saw and should find 
the means also to take away the other; 
and that all that trouble was devised by 
the devil and his instruments, to stop and 
let [hinder] Christ's disciples and their poor 
boat ; but that was not able, because she 
was not yet come to the midst of the sea. 



416 



ADMONITION TO THE PROFESSORS 



Trams instantiation, the bird that the 
devil hatched by pope Nicholas, and since 
that time fostered and nourished by all his 
children, priests, friars, monks, and other 
his conjured and sworn soldiers, and in 
these last days chiefly by Stephen Gardner 
and his black brood in England; transub- 
stantiation, I say, was then clearly con- 
futed and mightily overthrown ; and there- 
fore God had put wisdom in the tongues 
of his ministers and messengers to utter 
that vain vanity ; and especially gave such 
strength to that reverend father in God, 
Thomas Cranmer, to cut the knots of 
devilish sophistry linked and knit by the 
devil's gardener, and his blind buzzards, to 
hold the verity of the everliving God un- 
der bondage, that rather I think they shall 
condemn his works, which notwithstand- 
ing shall continue and remain to their con- 
fusion, than they shall enterprize to answer 
the same. And also God gave boldness 
and knowledge to the court of parliament 
to take away the round clipped god,* 
wherein standeth all the holiness of papists, 
and to command common bread to be used 
at the Lord's table, and also to take away 
the most part of superstitions — kneeling at 
the Lord's supper excepted — which before 
profaned Christ's true religion. Then, 
dear brethren, was the boat in the midst 
of the sea, and suddenly ariseth the hor- 
rible tempest, most fearful and dolorous; 
our king is taken away from us, and the 
devil bloweth in such organs as always he 
had found obedient to his precepts, and by 
them he inflameth the heart of that wretch- 
ed and unhappy man,f whom I judge more 
to be lamented than hated, to covet the 
imperial crown of England to be established 
to his posterity, and what thereupon hath 
succeeded, it is not now necessary to be 
written. 

Of this short discourse, beloved in the 
Lord, you may consider and perceive two 
special notes : — 

1. That the whole malice of the devil 



* The round god or wafer was taken away 
by act of parliament. 

f Northumberland, whose son had married 
lady Jane Gray.— Ld. 



hath always this end, to vex and overthrow 
Christ's afflicted church ; for what else in- 
tended the devil and his servants, the pes- 
tilent papists, by all these their crafty 
policies, during the time that Christ's gos- 
pel was preached in England, than the sub- 
version of the same gospel, and that they 
might recover power to persecute the 
saints of God, as this day in the hour of 
darkness they have obtained for a time, to 
their own destruction. Let no man won- 
der though I say, that the crafty policies 
of pestilent papists wrought all the mis- 
chief ; for who could easier and better 
work greater mischief than such as bare 
authority and rule ? And who, I pray you, 
ruled the roast in the court all this time, 
by stout courage and proudness of stomach, 
but Northumberland ? But who, I pray 
you, under king Edward, ruled all by 
counsel and wit ? shall I name the man ? I 
will write no more plainly now than my 
tongue spake, the last sermon that it pleas- 
ed God that I should make before that in- 
nocent and most godly king Edward the 
sixth, and before his council at Westmin- 
ster, and even to the faces of such as of 
whom 1 meant. Handling this place of 
scripture, Qui edit mecum pantm sustulit 
adversus me calcaneum suum ; that is, " He 
that eateth bread with me, hath lift up his 
heel against me." I made this affirmation, 
that commonly it was seen, that the most 
godly princes had officers and chief 
counsellors most ungodly, conjured ene- 
mies to God's true religion, and traitors to 
their princes ; not that their wickedness and 
ungodliness was speedily perceived and es- 
pied out of the said princes and godly men, 
but that for time those crafty colourers 
could so cloak their malice against God 
and his truth, and their hollow hearts to- 
ward their loving masters, that by worldly 
wisdom and policy at length they attained 
to high promotions. And for the proof of 
this mine affirmation, I recited the his- 
tories of Ahitophel, Shebna, and Judas, 
of whom the two former had high offices 
and promotions with great authority, under 
the most godly princes, David and Heze- 
kiah, and Judas was purse-master with 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



417 



Christ Jesus. And when I had made some 
discourse in that matter, I moved this 
question : 

Why permitted so godly princes so 
wicked men to be of their council, and to 
bear office and authority under them ? 

To the which I answered, that either 
they so abounded in worldly wisdom, fore- 
sight, and experience, touching the govern- 
ment of a commonwealth, that their coun- 
sel appeared to be so necessary, that the 
commonwealth could not lack them, and so 
by the colour to preserve the tranquillity 
and quietness in realms, they were main- 
tained in authority ; or else they kept their 
malice which they bare towards their mas- 
ters and God's true religion, so secret in 
their breasts, that no man could espy it, 
till by God's permission they waited for 
such occasion and opportunity, that they 
uttered all their mischief so plainly, that all 
the world might perceive it : and that was 
most evident by Ahitophel and Shebna; 
for of Ahitophel it is written, that he 
was David's most secret counsellor, and 
that, because his counsel in those days was 
like the oracle of God ; and Shebna was un- 
to good king Hezekiah sometime comp- 
troller, sometime secretary, and last of all 
treasurer; to the which offices he had 
never been promoted under so godly a 
prince, if the treason and malice which he 
bare against the king, and against God's 
true religion, had been manifestly known. 
No, quoth I, Shebna was a crafty fox, and 
could show such a fair countenance to the 
king, that neither he nor his council could 
espy his malicious treason. But the pro- 
phet Isaiah was commanded by God to go 
to his presence, and to declare his traito- 
rous heart and miserable end. 

Was David, said I, and Hezekiah, princes 
of great and godly gifts and experience, 
abused by crafty counsellors and dissem- 
bling hypocrites ? what wonder is it then, 
that a young and innocent king be deceived 
by crafty, covetous, wicked, and ungodly 
counsellors ? I am greatly afraid that Ahi- 
tophel is counsellor, that Judas bears the 
purse, and that Shebna is scribe, comptrol- 
ler, and treasurer. 

This and somewhat more I spake that 



clay, not in a corner, as many yet can wit- 
ness, but even before those whom my con- 
science judged worthy of accusation : and 
this day no more do I write, albeit I may 
justly, because they have declared them- 
selves most manifestly ; but yet do I affirm, 
that under that innocent king, pestilent 
papists had greatest authority. Oh ! who 
was judged to be the soul and life to the 
council in every matter of weighty impor- 
tance ? who but Shebna? Who could best 
despatch businesses, that the rest of the 
council might hawk, and hunt, and take 
their pleasure ? none like unto Shebna. 
Who was most frank and ready to destroy 
Somerset, and set up Northumberland ? 
was it not Shebna ? Who was most bold to 
cry, Bastard, bastard ! incestuous, bastard 
Mary shall never reign over us ? And who, 
I pray you, was most busy to say, Fear not 
to subscribe with my lords of the king's 
majesty's most honourable privy council, 
agree to his majesty's last will and perfect 
testament, and let never that obstinate 
woman come to authority, — she is an arrant 
papist, she will subvert the true religion, 
and will bring in strangers to the destruc- 
tion of this commonwealth ? which of the 
council, I say, had these and greater per- 
suasions against Mary, to whom now he 
coucheth and kneeleth ? Shebna the trea- 
surer. And what intended such traito- 
rous and dissembling hypocrites by all 
these and such like crafty nights and 
counterfeit conveyance [contrivance] ? 
doubtless, the overthrow of Christ's true 
religion, which then began to nourish in 
England; the liberty whereof fretted the 
guts of such pestilent papists, who now 
have gotten the days which they long 
looked for, but yet to their own destruc- 
tion and shame; for in the spite of their 
hearts the plagues of God shall strike 
them : they shall be comprehended in the 
snare which they prepare for others ; for 
their own counsels shall make themselves 
slaves to a proud, mischievous, unfaithful 
and vile nation [Spain]. 

Now to the second note of our dis- 
course, which is this: albeit the tyrants of 
this earth have learned by long experience, 
that they are never able to prevail against 
3G 



418 



ADMONITION TO THE PROFESSORS 



God's truth, yet "because they are bound 
slaves to their master the devil, they can- 
not cease to persecute the members of 
Christ, when the devil blows his wind in 
the darkness of the night, that is, when 
the light of Christ's gospel is taken away, 
and the devil reigneth by idolatry, super- 
stition, and tyranny. 

This most evidently may be seen from 
the beginning of this world to the time of 
Christ, and from thence till this day. Ish- j 
mael might have perceived, that he could j 
not prevail against Isaac, because God had ! 
made his promise unto him, as no doubt 
Abraham their father taught to his whole ! 
household; Esau likewise understood the 
same of Jacob ; Pharaoh might plainly 
have seen, by many miracles, that Israel 
were God's people, whom he could not , 
utterly destroy ; and also the scribes, and 
Pharisees, and chief priests were utterly 
convinced in their conscience, that Christ's 
whole doctrine was of God, and that to the 
profit and commodity of man, his miracles, 
and works were wrought by the power of 
God, and therefore that they could never 
prevail against him : and yet as the devil j 
stirred them, none of these could refrain to J 
persecute him whom they knew most cer- 
tainly to be innocent. 

This I write that you shall not wonder, j 
albeit, now ye see the poisoned papists, 
wicked Winchester, and dreaming Dur- 
ham, with the rest of the faction, — who, j 
sometimes were so confounded, that neither 
they durst, nor could speak or write in the 
defence of their heresies, — now so to rage 
and triumph against the eternal truth of 
God, as though they had never assayed 
the power of God speaking by his true 
messengers. 

Wonder not hereat, I say, beloved breth- 
ren, that the tyrants of this world are so 
obedient, and ready to follow the cruel 
counsels of such disguised monsters ; for 
neither can the one nor the other refrain, 
because both sorts are as subject to obey 
the devil, their prince and father, as the 
unstable sea is to lift up the waves when 
the vehement wind bloweth upon it. 

It is fearful to be heard, that the devil 
hath such power over any man, but yet the 



word of God hath so instructed us. And, 
therefore, albeit it be contrary to our fan- 
tasy, yet we must believe it : for the devil 
is called the prince and god of this world, 
because he reigneth and is honoured by 
tyranny and idolatry in it. 

He is called the prince of darkness that 
hath power in the air ; it is said, that he 
worketh in the children of unbelief, be- 
cause he stirreth them to trouble God's 
elect, as he invaded Saul, and compelled 
him to persecute David ; and likewise he 
entered into the heart of Judas, and moved 
him to betray his master. He is called 
prince over the sons of pride, and father of 
all those that are liars, and enemies to 
God's truth ; over whom he hath no less 
power this day, than sometimes he had 
over Annas and Caiaphas, whom no man 
deuieth to have been led and moved by 
the devil to persecute Christ Jesus, and his 
most true doctrine. And, therefore, won- 
der not, I say, that now the devil rageth 
in his obedient servants, wily Winchester, 
dreaming Durham, and bloody Bonner, 
with the rest of their bloody, butcherly 
brood ; for this is their hour and power 
granted unto them. They cannot cease nor 
assuage their furious fumes ; for the devil, 
their sire, stirreth, moveth, and carrieth 
them even at his will. But in this that I 
declare, the power of the devil working in 
cruel tyrants, think you that I attribute 
or give to him or to them power at their 
pleasure ? no, not so, brethren, not so ; for 
as the devil hath no power to trouble the 
elements, but as God shall suffer, so hath 
worldly tyrants, albeit the devil hath fully 
possessed their hearts, no power at all to 
trouble the saints of God, but as their 
bridle shall be loosed by God's hands. 

And herein, dear brethren, standeth my 
singular comfort this day, when I hear 
that those bloody tyrants within the realm 
of England, doth kill, murder, destroy, and 
devour man and woman, as ravenous lions 
now loosed from bonds. I lift up, there- 
fore, the eyes of mine heart, as my iniquity 
and present dolour will suffer, and to my 
heavenly Father will I say : 

" O Lord, those cruel tyrants are loosed 
by thy hand, to punish our former ingrati- 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



4*9 



tude, whom, we trust, thou wilt not suffer 
to prevail for ever ; but when thou hast 
corrected us a little, and hast declared un- 
to the world the tyranny that lurked in 
their boldened breasts, then wilt thou 
break their jaw-bones, and wilt shut them 
up in their caves again, that the genera- 
tion and posterity following, may praise 
thy holy name before thy congregation. 
Amen." 

When I feel any taste or motion of 
these promises, theu think I myself most 
happy, and that I have received a just 
compensation, albeit I, and all that to me 
in earth belongeth, should suffer present 
death, — knowing that God shall yet show 
mercy to his afflicted church within Eng- 
land, and that he shall repress the pride of 
these present tyrants, likeas he hath done 
of those that were before our days. 

And therefore, beloved brethren, in our 
Saviour Jesus Christ, hold up to God your 
hands that are fainted through fear, and 
let your hearts that have in these dolorous 
days slept in sorrow, awake, and hear the 
voice of your God, who sweareth by him- 
self, that he will not suffer his church to 
be oppressed for ever ; neither that he will 
despise our sobs to the end, if we will row 
and strive against this vehement wind ; I 
mean, if that ye will not run back head- 
long to idolatry, then shall this storm be 
assuaged in depsifce of the devil. Christ 
Jesus shall come with speed to your de- 
liverance, he shall pierce through the 
wind, and the raging seas shall obey, and 
bear his feet and body, as the massy [solid], 
stable, and dry land. Be not moved from 
the sure foundation of your faith : for al- 
beit, that Christ Jesus be absent from you, 
as he was from his disciples in that great 
storm, by his bodily presence, yet is he 
present by his mighty power and grace. 
He standeth upon the mountain in security 
and rest; that is, his flesh and whole 
humanity is now in heaven, and can suffer 
no such trouble as sometimes he did : and 
yet he is full of pity and compassion, and 
doth consider all our travail, anguish, and 
labours ; wherefore, it is not to be doubted, 
but that he will suddenly appear to our 
great comfort. The tyranny of this world 



cannot keep back his coming, more than 
the blustering wind and raging seas, let 
[hindered] Christ to come to his- disciples, 
when they looked for nothing but present 
death. And therefore, yet again I say, 
beloved in the Lord, let your hearts attend 
to the promises that God hath made unto 
true repentant sinners, and be fully per- 
suaded with a constant faith, that God is 
always true and just in his performance of 
his promises. You have heard these days 
spoken of very plainly, when your hearts 
could fear no danger, because you were 
nigh the land, and the storm was not yet 
risen ; that is, ye were young scholars of 
Christ when no persecution was felt or 
seen : but now ye are come into the midst 
of the sea, — for what part of England 
heard not of your profession ? — and the 
vehement storm whereof Ave then almost 
in every exhortation spake of, is now sud- 
denly risen up. But what? hath God 
brought you so far forth, that you shall, 
both in souls and bodies, every one perish ? 
nay, my whole trust in God's mercy 
and truth is to the contrary. For God 
brought not his people into Egypt, and 
from thence through the Red sea, to the in- 
tent they should perish, but that he in them 
should show a most glorious deliverance : 
neither sent Christ his apostles into the 
midst of the sea, and suffering the storm to 
assault them and their ship, to the intent 
they should there perish, but because he 
would the more have his great goodness to- 
wards them, felt and perceived, in so might* 
ily delivering them out of the fear of perish- 
ing, giving us thereby an example, that he 
would do the like to us, if we abide con- 
stant in our profession and faith, with- 
drawing ourselves from superstition and 
idolatry. We gave you warning of these 
days long ago : for the reverence of Christ's 
blood let these words be noted : " The same 
truth that spake before of these dolorous 
days, forespake also the everlasting joy 
prepared for such as should continue to the 
end." The trouble is come ; O clear breth- 
ren, look for the comfort, and, after the 
example of the apostle, abide in resisting 
this vehement storm a little space. 

The third watch is not yet ended; re- 



420 



ADMONITION TO THE PROFESSORS 



member that Christ Jesus came not to his 
disciples till it was the fourth M atch : and 
they were then in no less danger than you 
are now ; for their faith fainted, and their 
bodies were in danger. But Christ Jesus 
came when they looked not for him ; and 
so shall he do to you, if you will continue 
in the profession that you have made. 
This dare I be bold to promise, in the 
name of Him whose eternal verity and 
glorious gospel ye have heard and received ; 
who also putteth into my heart an earnest 
thirst, — God knoweth I lie not, — of your 
salvation, and some care also for your bod- 
ies, which now I wdll not express. 

Thus shortly have I passed through the 
outrageous tempest, wherein the disciples 
of Christ were tempted, after that the 
great multitude were by Christ fed in the 
desert, omitting many profitable notes, 
which might well have been marked in the 
text, because my purpose is at this present 
not to be tedious, nor yet curious, but only 
to note such things as are agreeable to 
these most dolorous days. 

And so let us now speak of the end of 
this storm and trouble, in which I find 
four things chiefly to be noted : 

First, That the disciples, at the presence 
of Christ, were more afraid than they were 
before. 

Secondly, That Christ useth no other 
instrument but his word to pacify their 
hearts. 

Thirdly, That Peter in a fervency first 
left his ship, and yet after feared. 

Fourthly and lastly. That Christ per- 
mitted neither Peter nor the rest of his 
disciples to perish in that fear, but glo- 
riously delivered all, and pacified the tem- 
pest. 

Their great fear and the cause thereof, 
are expressed in the text, in these words ; 
" When the disciples saw him walking 
upon the sea, they were afraid, saying, it is 
a spirit ; and they cried through fear." 

It is not my purpose in this treatise, to 
speak of spirits, nor yet to dispute, whether 
spirits good or bad may appear and trouble 
men : neither yet to enquire, why man's 
nature is afraid of spirits, and so vehement- 
ly abhorreth their presence and company. 



But my purpose is only to speak of things 
necessary for this time. 

And first, let us consider that there were 
three causes why the disciples knew not 
Christ, but judged him to be a spirit. 

The first cause w r as, the darkness of the 
night. 

The second was, the unaccustomed vision 
that appeared. 

And the third was, the danger and the 
tempest, in which they so earnestly labour- 
ed for the safeguard of theirselves. 

The darkness, I say, of the night letted 
their eyes to see him : and it w r as above 
nature, that a massy, heavy, and w eighty 
body of a man, such as they understood 
their master Christ to have, should walk, 
go upon, or be borne up of the water of 
the raging sea, and not sink. And finally, 
the horror of the tempest, and great dan- 
ger that they were in, persuaded them to 
look for none other, but certainly to be 
drowned. 

And so all these three things concurring 
together, confirmed in them this ima^ina- 
tion, that Christ Jesus, who came to 
their great comfort and deliverance, was a 
fearful and wicked spirit appearing to their 
destruction. 

What here happened to Christ Jesus 
himself, that I might prove to have chanc- 
ed and daily to happen to the verity of 
his blessed word in all ages from the be- 
ginning. 

For as Christ himself in this their 
trouble, was judged and esteemed by his 
disciples at the first sight, a spirit or fan- 
tastical body ; so is the truth and sincere 
preaching of his glorious gospel, sent by 
God for man's comfort, deliverance from 
sin, and quietness of conscience, when it is 
first offered and truly preached; it is, I 
say, no less but judged to be heresy and 
deceivable doctrine, sent by the devil to 
man's destruction. 

The cause hereof, is the dark ignorance 
of God, which in every age since the be- 
ginning so overwhelmed the world, that 
sometimes God's very elect were in like 
blindness and error with the reprobate : 
as Abraham was an idolater; Moses was 
instructed in all the ways of the Egyp- 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



421 



tians; Paul a proud Pharisee, conjured 
against Christ and his doctrine ; and many 
in this same our age, when the truth of 
God was offered unto them, were sore 
afraid, and cried against it, only because the 
dark clouds of ignorance had troubled 
them before. But this matter I omit and 
let pass, till more opportunity. 

The chief note that I would have you 
well observe and mark in this preposte- 
rous fear of the disciples, is this : 

" The more nigh deliverance and salva- 
tion approacheth, the more strong and 
vehement is the temptation of the church 
of God. And the more nigh that God's 
vengeance approacheth to the wicked, the 
more proud, cruel, and arrogant are they. 

Whereby it commonly cometh to pass, 
that the very messengers of life are judged, 
and deemed to be the authors of all mis- 
chief : and this in many histories is evident. 
When God had appointed to deliver the 
afflicted Israelites by the hand of Moses, 
from the tyranny of the Egyptians, and 
Moses was sent to the presence of Pha- 
raoh for the same purpose, such was their 
affliction and anguish by the cruelty which 
newly was exercised over them, that with 
open mouths they cursed Moses, and no 
doubt in their hearts they hated God who 
sent him, alleging, that Moses and Aaron 
were the whole cause of their last extreme 
trouble. 

The like is to be seen in the book of the 
Kings, both under Elisha and Isaiah the 
prophets : for in the days of Joram, son of 
Ahab, was Samaria besieged by the king 
of Syria ; in which Samaria, no doubt, al- 
beit the king and the most multitude were 
wicked, there were yet some members of 
God's elect church, who were brought to 
such extreme famine, that not only things 
of small price were sold beyond all mea- 
sure, but also women, against nature, were 
compelled to eat their own children. In 
this same city Elisha the prophet most 
commonly was most conversant and dwelt, 
by whose counsel and commandment, no 
doubt, the city was kept : for it appeareth, 
the king, to lay that to his charge, when 
he, hearing of the piteous complaint of the 
woman, who for hunger had eaten her own 



son, rent his clothes with a solemn oath 
and vow, that the head 6f Elisha should 
not stand upon his shoulders that day. If 
Elisha had not been of counsel, that the 
city should have been kept, why should 
the king have more fumed against lrim, 
than against others ? but whether he was 
the author of the defending the city or 
not, all is one to my purpose : for before 
the deliverance, was the church in such 
extremity, that the chief pastor of that 
time was sought to be killed by such as 
should have defended him. 

The like is read of Hezekiah, who, de- 
fending his city Jerusalem, and resisting 
proud Sennacherib, no doubt, obeying the 
counsel of Isaiah, at length was so oppress- 
ed with sorrow and shame, by the blas- 
phemous words of Rabshakeh, that he had 
no other refuge, but in the temple of ihi 
Lord, as a man desperate and without 
comfort, to open the disdainful letters sent 
unto him, by that haughty and proud 
tyrant. 

By these and many histories more, it is 
most evident, that the more nigh salvation 
and deliverance approach, the more 
vehement is the temptation and trouble. 

This I write to admonish you, that al- 
beit yet you shall see tribulation so 
abound, that nothing shall appear but ex- 
treme misery, without all hope of com- 
fort, that yet you decline not from God ; 
and that albeit sometimes ye be moved to 
hate the messengers of life, that, therefore, 
ye shall not judge that God will never 
show mercy after. No, dear brethren, as 
he hath dealt with others before you, so 
will he deal with you. 

God will suffer tribulation and dolour to 
abound, that no manner of comfort shall be 
seen in man, to the intent, that when de- 
liverance cometh, the glory may be His, 
whose only word may pacify the tempest 
most vehement. 

He drowned Pharaoh and his army ; 
he scattered the great multitude of Ben- 
hadad ; and by his angel, killed the host 
of Sennacherib, — and so delivered his 
afflicted, when nothing appeared to them 
but utter destruction. So shall he do to 
you, beloved brethren, if patiently ye will 



422 



ADMONITION TO 



THE PROFESSORS 



abide his consolation and counsel. God 
open your eyes that ye may rightly under- 
stand the meaning of my writing - . Amen. 

But yet, peradventure, you would won- 
der not a little why God permitteth such 
blood-thirsty tyrants, to molest and grieve 
his chosen church, I have recited some 
causes before, and yet more I could recite, 
but at this time I will hold me content 
with one. 

The justice of God is such, that he will 
not pour forth his extreme vengeance upon 
the wicked, until such time as their iniqui- 
ty is so manifest, that their very flatterers 
cannot excuse it. Pharaoh was not de- 
stroyed, till his own household servants 
and subjects, abhorred and condemned 
his stubborn disobedience. 

Jezebel and Athaliah were not thrust from 
this life into death, till all Israel and Judah 
were witnesses of their cruelty and abomi- 
nations. Judas was not hanged till the 
princes of the priests bare witness of his 
traitorous act and iniquity. 

To pass over the tyrants of old time, 
whom God hath plagued, let us come to 
the tyrants which now are within the 
realm of England, whom God will not long- 
spare. If Stephen Gardner, Cuthbert Tun- 
stal, and butcherly Bonnar, false bishops 
of Winchester, Durham, and of London, 
had for their false doctrine and traitorous 
acts, suffered death when they justly de- 
served the same, then would arrant papists 
have alleged, as I and others have heard 
them do, that they were men reformable, 
that they were meet instruments for a 
commonwealth ; that they were not so 
obstinate and malicious as they were 
judged, neither that they thirsted for the 
blood of any man ; and of lady Mary, who 
hath not heard, that she was not sober, 
merciful, and one that loved the common- 
wealth of England ? Had she, I say, and 
such as now be of her pestilent council, 
been dead before these days, then should 
not their iniquity and cruelty, so manifest- 
ly have appeared to the Avorld ; for who 
could have thought that such cruelty 
could have entered into the heart of a 
woman ? and into the heart of her that is 
called a virgin, that she would thirst for J 



the blood of innocents, and of such as, 
by just laws and faithful witnesses, can 
never be proved to have offended by them- 
selves. 

I find that Athaliah, through appetite to 
reign, murdered the seed of the kings of 
Judah, and that Herodias' daughter, at the 
desire of a whorish mother, obtained the 
head of John the Baptist ; but yet that ever 
a woman suffered herself to be called the 
most blessed virgin, caused so much blood 
to be spilt, for establishing of the usurped 
authority of the pope, I think, the like is 
rare to be found in scripture or other his- 
tory. 

I find that Jezebel, that cursed idola- 
tress, caused the blood of the prophets of 
God to be shed, and Naboth to be murder- 
ed unjustly for his own vineyard; but yet, 
I think, she never erected half so many 
gallows in all Israel, as mischievous Mary 
hath done within London alone. But you 
papists, will excuse your Mary the virgin. 
Well, let her be your virgin, and a goddess 
meet to entertain such idolaters, yet shall I 
rightly lay to her charge, that which I think 
no papist within England will justify or de- 
fend : and, therefore, O ye papists, here I 
will a little turn my pen unto you. Answer 
unto this question, O ye seed of the ser- 
pent, would any of you have confessed two 
years ago, that Mary, your mirror, had 
been false, dissembling, unconstant, proud, 
and a breaker of promises, — except such 
promises as she made to your god the 
pope, to the great shame and dishonour of 
her noble father. I am sure you would 
hardly have thought it of her : and now, 
doth she not manifestly show herself to be 
an open traitoress to the imperial crown of 
England, contrary to the just laws of the 
realm, to bring in a stranger, and make a 
proud Spaniard king, to the shame, dis- 
honour, and destruction of the nobility ; to 
the spoil of their honours, lands, posses- 
sions, chief offices, and promotions of them 
and theirs ; to the utter decay of the trea- 
sures, commodities, navy, and fortifications 
of the realm ; to the abasing of the yeoman- 
ry ; to the slavery of the commonalty ; to 
the overthrow of Christianity and God's 
true religion; and finally to the utter 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



423 



subversion of the whole public estate and 
commonwealth of England ? Let Norfolk 
and Suffolk, let her own promise and pro- 
clamation, let her father's testament, let 
the city of London, let the ancient laws 
and acts of parliaments before established 
in England, be judges betwixt mine accu- 
sation and her most tyrannous iniquity. 

First, her promise and proclamation did 
signify and declare, that neither she would 
bring in, neither yet marry, any stranger. 
Norfolk, Suffolk, and the city of London, 
do testify and witness the same. The an- 
cient laws and acts of parliament pro- 
nounce it treason, to transfer the crown of 
England into the hands of a foreign nation ; 
and the oath made to observe the said sta- 
tutes, crieth out, that all they are perjured 
that consent to that her traitorous fact. 

Speak now, O ye papists, and defend 
your monstrous masters, and deny, if ye 
can for shame, that she hath not uttered 
herself to be borne, alas ! therefore, to the 
ruin and destruction of noble England? 
Oh who would ever have believed, — I write 
now in bitterness of heart, — that such un- 
natural cruelty should have had dominion 
over any reasonable creature ? but the 
saying to be true, that the usurped govern- 
ment of an affectionate [passionate] woman 
is a rage without reason. 

Who would ever have thought, that the 
love of that realm, which hath brought 
forth, which hath nourished, and so nobly 
maintained that wicked woman, should not 
have moved her heart with pity ? Who 
seeth not now, that she in all her doings 
declareth most manifestly, that under an 
Enoiisli name she beareth a Spaniard's 
heart ? If God, I say, had not for our scourge 
suffered her and her cruel council to have 
come to authority, then could never these 
their abominations, cruelty, and treason 
against God, against his saints, and against 
the realm, whose liberties they are sworn 
to defend, so manifestly have been declar- 
ed : and who ever could have believed, 
that proud Gardner, and treacherous Tun- 
stall, whom all papists praised, for the 
love they bare to their country, could have 
become so manifestly traitorous, not only 
against their solemn oaths, that they should 



never consent nor agree unto, that a 
foreign stranger should reign over Eng- 
land; but also, that they would adjudge the 
imperial crown of the same, to appertain 
to a Spaniard by inheritance of lineal 
descent ? O traitorous traitors ! how can 
you for shame show your faces ? 

It cometh to my mind, that upon Christ- 
mas day, anno 1552, preaching in New- 
castle-upon-Tyne, and speaking against the 
obstinacy of the papists, I made this affir- 
mation, that whosoever in his heart was 
enemy to Christ's gospel and doctrine, 
which then was preached within the realm 
of England, was enemy also to God, and se- 
cret traitors to the crown and commonwealth 
of England; for as they thirsted nothing 
more than the king's death, which their 
iniquity could procure ; so they regarded 
not who should reign over them, so that 
their idolatry might be erected again. 
How these my words at that time pleased 
men, the crimes and actions intended 
against me did declare. But let my very 
enemies now say their conscience, if those 
my words have not proved true. 

What is the cause that Winchester and 
the rest of his pestilent sect, so greedily 
would have a Spaniard to reign over Eng- 
land ? the cause is manifest ; for as that hell- 
ish nation surmounteth all other in pride and 
whoredom, so for idolatry and vain papis- 
tical and devilish ceremonies, they may 
rightly be called the very sons of super- 
stition : and therefore, are they found and 
judged by the progeny of antichrist, most 
apt instruments to maintain, establish, and 
defend the kingdom of that cruel beast, 
whose head and wound is lately cured 
: within England, which, alas ! for pity, 
| must now be brought into bondage and 
thraldom, that pestilent papists may reign 
without punishment. 

But, O thou beast ! I speak to thee, 
Winchester, more cruel than any tiger. 
Shall neither shame, nor fear, nor benefits 
received, bridle thy tyrannous cruelty ? Art 
thou not ashamed, thou bloody beast, to 
betray thy native country, and the liberties 
of the same ? Fearest thou not to open such 
a door to all iniquity, that whole England 
should be made a common stews to Span- 



421 



ADMONITION TO THE PROFESSORS 



iards ? Wilt thou recompense the benefits 
which thou hast received of that noble 
realm with that ingratitude ? rememberest 
thou not that England hath brought thee 
forth ? that England nourished thee ? that 
England hath promoted thee to riches, 
honour, and high dignity? and wilt thou 
now, O wretched captive, for all these 
manifold benefits received, be the cause 
that England shall not be England ? yea, 
verily : for so wilt thou gratify thy father 
the devil, and his lieutenant the pope, 
whom with all his baggage thou labourest 
now, with tooth and nail, to make flourish 
again in England ; albeit, like a dissem- 
bling hypocrite, and double-faced wretch, 
thou being thereto compelled by the in- 
vincible verity of God's holy word, wrot- 
est, long ago, thy book entitled True Obe- 
dience, against that monstrous whore of 
Babylon, and her falsely usurped power 
and authority : but now, to thy perpetual 
shame, thou returnest to thy vomit, and 
art become an open arch-papist again. 
Furthermore, why seekedst thou the blood 
of Thomas Cranmer, of good father Hugh 
Latimer, and of that learned and discreet 
man doctor Ridley ? Dost thou not con- 
sider, that the lenity, sincere doctrine, pure 
life, godly conversation, and discreet coun- 
sel of these three, are notably known in 
more realms than in England ? Art thou 
not ashamed to seek the destruction of 
those, who laboured for the safeguard of 
thy life, and obtained the same, when thou 
justly deservedst death? but, O thou son 
of Belial, well declarest thou, that nothing- 
can mollify the cruel malice, nor purge the 
deadly venom of him, in whose heart 
wickedness beareth the dominion. Thou 
art like to Cain, and fellow to Judas the 
traitor, and therefore, canst thou do no- 
thing but thirst for the blood of Abel, and 
betray Christ Jesus and his eternal verity? 

Thus, dear brethren, must the sons of 
the devil declare their own impiety and 
ungodliness, that when God's vengeance, 
which shall not sleep, shall be poured forth 
upon them, all tongues shall confess, 
acknowledge, and say, that God is right- 
eous in all his judgments : and to this end 
are cruel tyrants permitted and suffered 



for a space and time, not only to live in 
wealth and prosperity, but also to prevail 
and obtain victory, as touching the flesh, 
over the very saints of God, and over such 
as enterprise to resist their fury at God's 
commandment. But now to the subse- 
quent, and that which followeth. 

The instrument and means wherewith 
Christ Jesus used to remove and put away 
the horrible fear and anguish of his dis- 
ciples, is his only word ; for so it is writ- 
ten, " But by and by Jesus spake unto 
them, saying, be of good comfort, it is I, 
be not afraid." The natural man, that 
cannot understand the power of God, 
would have desired some other present 
comfort in so great a danger ; as, either to 
have had the heavens to have opened, and 
to have showed unto them such light in 
that darkness, that Christ might have been 
fully known by his own face ; or else, that 
the winds and raging waves of the seas 
suddenly should have ceased; or some 
other miracle that had been subject to all 
their senses, whereby they might have 
perfectly known that they were delivered 
from all danger. And truly, equal it had 
been to Christ Jesus to have done any of 
these, or any work greater, as to have said, 
" It is I, be not afraid :" but willing to 
teach us the dignity and effectual power of 
his most holy word, he usetb no other in- 
strument to pacify the great and horrible 
fear of his disciples, but the same his com- 
fortable word and lively voice ; and this is 
not done only at one time, but when- 
soever his church is in such strait per- 
plexity, that nothing appeareth but ex- 
treme calamity, desolation, and ruin ; then 
the first comfort that ever it receiveth, is 
by the means of his word and promise : as 
in the troubles and temptations of Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and Paul may 
appear 

To Abraham was given no other de- 
fence, after that he had discomfited four 
kings, whose posterity and lineage, no doubt, 
he being a stranger, greatly feared, but only 
this premise of God made to him by his holy 
w ord : " Fear not, Abraham, I am thy buck- 
ler ;" that is, thy protection and defence. 

The same we find of Isaac, who flying 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



425 



from the place of his accustomed habita- 
tion, compelled thereto by hunger, got no 
other comfort nor conduct, but this promise 
only, I will be with thee. 

In all the journeys and temptations of 
Jacob, the same is to be espied ; as when 
he fled from his father's house, for fear of 
his brother Esau, when he returned from 
Laban; and when he feared the inhabi- 
tants of the region of the Canaanites, and 
Perizzites, for the slaughter of the Sheehe- 
mites committed by his sons; he receiveth 
none other defence, but only God's word 
and promise. 

And this in Moses, and in the afflicted 
church under him, is most evident: for 
when Moses himself was in such despair, 
that he was bold to chide with God, say- 
ing, " Why hast thou sent me ? for since 
that time I have come to Pharaoh, to speak 
in thy name, he hath oppressed this people: 
neither yet hast thou delivered thy people." 

This same expostulation of Moses, de- 
clareth how sore he was tempted ; yea, and 
what opinion he had conceived of God, 
that is, that God was either impotent, and 
could not deliver his people from such a 
tyrant's hands ; or else, that he was muta- 
ble, and unjust of his promises. And this 
same, and sorer temptations, assaulted the 
people ; for in anguish of heart, they both 
refused God and Moses, as we before have 
partly touched. And what means used 
God to comfort them in that great extrem- 
ity? did he straightway suddenly kill 
Pharaoh, the great tyrant ? no. Did he 
send them a legion of angels, to defend 
and deliver them ? no such thing : but he 
only reciteth and beateth into their ears 
his former promises to them, which often- 
times they had before ; and yet the re- 
hearsal of the same wrought so mightily 
in the heart of Moses, that not only were 
bitterness and despair removed away, but 
also he was enflamed with such boldness, 
that without fear he went again to the pre- 
sence of the king, after he had been threat- 
ened and repulsed by him. 

This I write, beloved in the Lord, that 
ye, knowing the word of God not only to 
be that whereby were created heaven and 
earth, but also to be the power of God to 



salvation, to all that believe ; the bright 
lantern to the feet of those that by nature 
walk in darkness ; the life to those that 
by sin are dead.,- a comfort to such as be 
in tribulation ; the tower of defence to 
such as be most feeble ; the wisdom and 
great felicity of such as delight in the 
same; and to be short, you know God's 
word to be of such efficacy and strength, 
that thereby is sin purged, death vanquish- 
ed, tyrants suppressed, and finally, the 
devil, the author of all mischief, over- 
thrown and confounded. This, I say, I 
write, that ye, knowing this of the holy 
word, and most blessed gospel and voice 
of God, which once you have heard, I 
trust, to your comfort, may now, in this 
hour of darkness and most raging tempest, 
thirst and pray, that ye may hear yet once 
again this amiable voice of your Saviour 
Christ, " Be of good comfort, it is I, fear 
not." And also that ye may receive some 
consolation, by that blessed gospel which 
before you have professed, assuredly know- 
ing, that God shall be no less merciful un- 
to you, than he hath been to others afflict- 
ed for his name's sake before you. And 
albeit, that God speedily removeth not 
this horrible darkness, neither suddenly 
pacifieth this tempest, yet shall he not 
suffer his tossed ship to be drowned. 

Remember, brethren, that God's ven- 
geance plagued not Pharaoh the first year of 
his tyranny ; neither did the dogs devour and 
consume both the flesh and bones of wicked 
Jezabel, when she first erected and set up 
her idolatry : and yet, as none of them es- 
caped due punishment, so did God pre- 
serve his afflicted church, in despite of Sa- 
tan, and of his blind and most wretched 
servants ; as he shall not fail to do in this 
great tempest and darkness within the 
realm of England. And therefore, yet 
again, beloved in the Lord, let the comfort 
of God's promises somewhat quicken your 
dulled spirits ; exercise yourselves now 
secretly, in revolving that which some- 
times you have heard openly proclaimed in 
your ears ; and be every man now a faith- 
ful preacher unto his brother. If your 
communication be of Christ, assuredly he 
will come before you be aware : his word 

3H 



426 



ADMONITION TO THE PROFESSORS 



is like unto sweet smelling- ointment, or 
fragrant flowers, which never can be mov- 
ed nor handled, but forth goeth the odour, 
to the comfort of those that stand by ; 
which is nothing so delectable, if the oint- 
ment remain within the box, and the 
flowers stand or lie without touching our 
motion. 

Mark well, dear brethren, before that 
Christ spake, his disciples judged him to 
have been some wicked spirit, which was 
to them no delectable savour ; but when he 
speaketh, the sweet sound of his voice 
pierceth their hearts ; for what comfort 
was in the hearts of the disciples, when 
they heard these words, " Be of good com- 
fort, it is I?" that is, judge not that I am 
a spirit come to your destruction ; no, even 
I am come for your deliverance : it is I, 
your Master; yea, your master most fa- 
miliar : it is I, whose voice and doctrine 
you know, for ye are my sheep : it is I, 
whose works you have seen, although per- 
fectly ye considered not the same : it is I, 
who commanded you to enter into this 
journey, and therefore, am I come to you 
now in the hour of your trouble; and 
therefore, be not afraid, this storm shall 
cease, and you shall be delivered. 

What comfort, I say, dear brethren, was 
in the hearts of the disciples, hearing 
Christ's voice, and knowing him by the 
same, can neither the tongue nor pen of 
man express, but only such as, after long 
conflict and strife, which is betwixt the 
flesh and the spirit, in the time of extreme 
troubles, when Christ appeareth to be ab- 
sent, feeleth at last the consolation of the 
Holy Ghost, witness and declare. 

And Peter giveth some external sign, 
what Christ's words wrought inwardly in 
his heart : for immediately after he heard 
his Master's voice, he saith, " Lord, if it be 
thou, command me to come unto thee upon 
the waters. Here it may be seen what 
Christ's voice had wrought in Peter's 
heart ; truly, not only a forgetting and 
contempt of the great tempest, but also 
such boldness and love, that he could fear 
no danger following, but assuredly did be- 
lieve, that his master Christ's puissance, 
power, and might were such, that nothing 



might resist his word and commandment, 
and therefore he saith, " command me to 
come :" as though he should say, I desire 
no more but the assurance of thy com- 
mandment: if thou wilt command, I am 
determined to obey ; for assuredly, I know, 
that the waters cannot prevail against me, 
if thou speak the word: so that whatso- 
ever is possible unto thee, by thy will and 
word, may be possible unto me. 

Thus Christ, to instruct Peter further, 
and us by his example, condescended to 
his petition, and commanded him to come ; 
and Peter quickly leaving the ship, came 
down from it, and walked upon the waters, 
to come to Christ. Thus far of Peter's 
fact, in which lieth great abundance of 
doctrine; but I will pass over all that 
especially appertaineth not to the quality 
of this time within the realm of England. 

Before it is said, well-beloved brethren, 
that sometimes the messengers of life are 
judged to be the very messengers of death ; 
and that not only with the reprobate, but 
also with God's elect ; as was Moses with the 
Israelites, Jeremiah w ith the city of Jeru- 
salem, and Christ himself with his apostles : 
but that is not a sin permanent, and that 
abideth for ever with God's elect, but it 
vanisheth away in such sort, that not only 
they know the voice of their Pastor, but 
also they earnestly study to obey and fol- 
low it, with the danger of their own lives : 
for this is the special difference betwixt 
the children of God and the reprobate : 

The one obeyetli God speaking by his 
messengers, whom they embrace with un- 
feigned love ; and that they do, sometimes 
not only against all worldly appearance, 
but also against civil statutes and ordi- 
nances of men : and therefore, in their 
greatest extremity receive they comfort 
beyond expectation. 

The other always resisteth God's mes- 
sengers, and hateth his word : and there- 
fore, in their great adversity, God either 
taketh from them the presence of his 
word, or else they fall into so deadly des- 
pair, that although God's messenger be 
sent unto them, yet neither can they re- 
ceive comfort by God's promises, neither 
folloAv the counsel of God's true messen- 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



427 



gers, be it never so perfect and fruitful. 
Hereof have we many evident testimonies 
within the scriptures of God. 

Of Saul it is plain, that God so left him, 
that neither would he give him answer by 
prophet, dream, nor vision. 

To Ahaz king- of Judah, in his great 
anguish and fear which he had conceived 
by the multitude of those that were con- 
jured against him, was sent Isaiah the 
prophet, to assure him by God's promise, 
that his enemies should not prevail against 
him ; and to confirm him in the same, the 
prophet required him to desire a sign of 
God, either from the heaven, or beneath in 
the deep : but such was the deadly despair 
of him, that always had despised God's 
prophets, and had most abominably defiled 
himself with idolatry, that no consolation 
could enter into his heart, but desperately, 
and with a dissembling and feigned excuse, 
he refused all the offers of God. 

And albeit God kept touch with [stood 
by] that hypocrite for that time, which 
was not done for his cause, but for the 
safety of his afflicted church, yet after 
escaped he not the vengeance of God. 

The like we read of Zedekiah, the 
wretched and last king of Judah, before 
the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, 
who in his great fear, and extreme anguish, 
sent for Jeremiah the prophet, and secretly 
demanded of him, how he might escape the 
great danger that appeared when the Chal- 
deans besieged the city. And the prophet 
boldly spake, and commanded the king, if 
he would save his life and the city, to ren- 
der and give up himself into the hands of 
the king of Babylon. But the miserable 
king had no grace to follow the prophet's 
counsel, because he never delighted in the 
said prophet's doctrine, neither yet had 
showed unto him any friendly favour ; but 
even as the enemies of God, the chief 
priests and false prophets, required of the 
king, so was the good prophet ill used, 
sometimes cast into prison, and sometimes 
judged and condemned to die. The most 
evident testimony of the wilful blinding of 
wicked idolaters, is written and recited in 
the same prophet Jeremiah, as followeth. 

After that the city of Jerusalem was 



burnt and destroyed, the king led away 
prisoner, his sons and chief nobles slain, 
and the whole vengeance of God poured out 
upon the disobedient; yet there was left a 
remnant in the land, to make use of and 
possess the same, who called upon the 
prophet Jeremiah, to know concerning 
them the will and pleasure of God, whether 
they should remain still in the land of 
Judea, as was appointed and permitted by 
the Chaldeans, or if they should depart and 
fly into Egypt : to certify them of this their 
duty, they desire the prophet to pray unto 
God for them : who, condescending and 
granting their petition, promised to keep 
back nothing from them, which the Lord 
God should open unto him. And they in 
like manner taking God to record and wit- 
ness, made a solemn vow, to obey whatso- 
ever the Lord should answer unto him. 
But when the prophet, by the inspiration 
of the spirit of God, and assured revelation 
and knowledge of his will, commanded 
them to remain still in the land that they 
were in, promising them, if they so would 
do, that God would there plant thorn ; and 
that he would repent of all the plagues 
that he had brought upon them, and that 
he would be with them, to deliver them 
from the hands of the king of Babylon. 
But contrariwise, if they would not obey 
the voice of the Lord, but would against 
his commandment go to Egypt, thinking 
that there they should live in rest and 
abundance, without any fear of war and 
penury of victual, then the very plagues 
which they feared should come upon 
them, and take them : for, saith the pro- 
phet, it shall come to pass, that all men 
that obstinately will go to Egypt, there to 
remain, shall die, either by sword, by 
hunger, or pestilence : but when the pro- 
phet of God had declared unto them this 
plain sentence and will of God, I pray you, 
what was their answer '? The text declared 
it, saying, " Thou speakest a lie, neither 
hath the Lord our God sent thee unto us, 
commanding that we should not go into 
Egypt, but Baruch the son of Neriah pro- 
voketh thee against us, that he may give 
us into the power of the Chaldees, that 
they might kill us, and lead us prisoners 



458 



ADMONITION TO 



THE PROFESSORS 



into Babylon: and thus they refused the 
counsel of God, and followed their own 
fantasies. 

Here may be espied in this people great 
obstinacy and blindness; for nothing which 
the Lord had before spoken by this pro- 
phet Jeremiah, had fallen in vain ; their 
own eyes had seen the plagues and miseries 
which he had threatened take effect in 
every point, as he had spoken before ; yea, 
they were yet green and fresh both in 
mind and presence, for the flame and fire 
wherewith Jerusalem was consumed and 
burnt, -was then scantily quenched, and yet 
could they not believe his threatenings 
then spoken, neither yet could they follow 
his fruitful counsel, given for their great 
wealth and safeguard. And why so ? Be- 
cause they never delighted in God's truth, 
neither had they repented their former 
idolatry, but still continued and rejoiced in 
the same, as manifestly appeareth in the 
four and fortieth chapter of the same pro- 
phet ; and therefore, would they and their 
wives have been in Egypt, where all kind 
of idolatry and superstition abounded, that 
they, without reproach or rebuke, might 
have their bellies full thereof, in despite of 
God's holy laws and prophets. In writing 
hereof, it came to my mind, that after the 
death of that innocent and most godly 
king, Edward the sixth, while that great 
tumult was in England, for the establishing 
of that most unhappy and wicked woman's 
authority, — I mean of Mary that now 
reigneth in God's wrath, — entreating the 
same argument in a town in Buckingham- 
shire, named Haramersham, before a great 
congregation, with sorrowful heart, and 
Weeping eyes, I fell into this exclamation : 

O England, now is God's wrath kindled 
against thee, now hath he begun to punish, 
as he hath threatened a long while, by his 
true prophets and messengers ; he hath 
taken from thee the crown of thy glory, 
and hath left thee without honour, as a 
body without a head : and this appeareth 
to be only the beginning of sorrows, which 
appear to increase ; for I perceive that 
the heart, the tongue, and hand of one Eng- 
lishman is bent against another and di- 



vision to be in the whole realm, which h 
an assured sign of desolation to come. O 
England, England, dost thou not consider, 
that the commonwealth is like a ship sail- 
ing in the sea, if thy mariners and gover- 
nors shall one consume another, shalt thou 
not suffer shipwreck in short process of 
time ? O England, England, alas ! these 
plagues are poured upon thee, for that thou 
wouldst not know the most happy time of 
thy gentle visitation: but wilt thou yet 
obey the voice of thy God, and submit 
thyself to his holy words ? Truly, if thou 
wilt, thou shalt find mercy in his sight, and 
the estate of thy commonwealth shall be 
preserved. 

But, O England, England, if thou obsti- 
nately wilt return into Egypt, that is, if thou 
contract marriage, confederacy, or league, 
with such princes as do maintain and ad- 
vance idolatry, — such as the emperor, who 
is no less enemy unto Christ than ever was 
Nero ; — if for the pleasure and friendship, 
I say, of such princes thou returnest to 
thine old abominations, before used under 
the papistry, then assuredly, O England, 
thou shalt be plagued and brought to deso- 
lation, by the means of those whose fa- 
vours thou seekest, and by whom thou art 
procured to fall from Christ, and to serve 
antichrist. 

This and much more in the dolour of 
my heart, that day, in the audience of such 
as yet may bear record, — through God's 
permission,- — I then pronounced: the thing 
that I then most feared, and which also 
my tongue spake, that is, the subversion of 
the true religion, and bringing in of stran- 
gers to reign over that realm, — this day 
I see come to pass in men's councils and 
determinations ; which if they proceed and 
take effect, as by men it is concluded, then, 
so assuredly as my God liveth, and as 
those Israelites, that obstinately returned 
into Egypt again, were plagued to the. 
death ; so shall England taste what the 
Lord hath threatened by his prophets be- 
fore. God grant us true and unfeigned 
repentance of our former offences. God 
for his great mercies' sake stir up some 
Phineas, Elijah, or Jehu, that the blood 4*f 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



429 



abominable idolaters may pacify God's 
wrath, that it consume not the whole mul- 
titude. Amen. 

But to return to our matter; of the 
premises it is plain, that such as contemn 
God's eternal verity and grace, can neither 
in their troubles receive comfort by God's 
messengers, neither yet can they follow 
the counsel of God, be it never so profi- 
table, but God giveth them over, and suf- I 
fereth them to wander in their own vani- | 
ties, to their own perdition ; whereas, con- 
trariwise, such as bear a reverence to God's 
most holy word, are drawn by the power 
and virtue of the same, — as before is said, 
— to believe, follow, and obey that which 
God commandeth, be it never so hard, 
so unapparent, or contrary to their affec- 
tions : and therefore, as God always keep- 
eth appointment with them, so are they 
wondrously preserved, when God's ven- 
geances are poured forth upon the disobe- 
dient. And this is most evident in Abra- 
ham, at God's commandment, leaving his 
country, and going forth, he knew not 
whither ; which was a thing not so easy to 
be done, as it is to be spoken or read. It 
appeareth also in Abraham, believing God's 
promises, against all appearance, and also 
in offering his son Isaac, against all father- 
ly love and natural affection. The same is 
said, in Moses, Samuel, Hezekiah, Mi- 
caiah, and other of the prophets, who at 
the commandment of God's word, boldly 
passed to the presence of tyrants, and 
there to them did [deliver] their message, as 
charge was given unto them. 

But lest that some should allege, that 
these examples appertain nothing to a 
multitude, because they were done in 
single men, 1 answer, we will consider 
what the power of God's word hath 
wrought in many, at one instance. After 
that the Israelites had made the golden 
calf, and so fallen to idolatry ; Moses com- 
ing down from the mountain and beholding 
their abominations, — the honour that they 
gave to an idol, — and the people spoiled of 
their ear-rings and jewels, to their great 
rebuke and shame, was inflamed with such 
zeal, indignation, and wrath, that first, he 
brake the tables of the commandments; 



then he beat their calf to powder, and gave 
it to them to drink, to cause them to under- 
stand, that their filthy guts should receive 
that which they worshipped for God : and 
finally, he commanded ihat every man that 
was of God should approach and come nigh 
unto him : and the sons of Levi, saith the 
text, came to him, to whom he said, " Thus 
saith the Lord God of Israel; let every 
man put his sword upon his thigh, and go 
in and out, from port to port in the tents ; 
and let every man kill his brother, his 
neighbour, and every man his nigh kins- 
man : and the sons of Levi did according 
to the word of Moses : and there fell the 
same day of the people, nigh three thou- 
sand." It is evident by this history, that 
the power of God's word, pronounced by 
the mouth of a man, prevailed atone time in 
a great number against nature, and com- 
pelled them to be executers of God's ven- 
geance, regarding nothing the affinity or 
nighness of blood : and also that their doing 
so well, pleased Moses the ambassador of 
God, that he said unto them, " Consecrate 
your hands this day every man in his own 
son, and in his own. brother, that a fortu- 
nate benediction may be given to you 
this day." As though he should say; 
your father Levi profaned and defiled his 
hands, killing the Shechemites in his blind 
rage, which moved his father Jacob in his 
last testament, to condemn, execrate, and 
curse, that his most vehement and ungodly 
zeal: but because in this work you have 
preferred God's commandment before 
blood, nature, and also affection, in place of 
that rebuke and curse, you have obtained 
blessing and praise. 

The like puissance and virtue of God's 
word, working in a multitude, is to be read 
in the prophet Jeremiah; who perceiving 
the time of God's vengeance to draw nigh, 
and the city of Jerusalem to be besieged, 
boldly crieth out in his open sermon, say 
ing, " He that remain eth in this city, shall 
die, either by sword, by hunger, or by pes- 
tilence. But he that shall go forth to the 
Chaldeans, shall live, and shall find his 
soul for a prey." This might have ap- 
peared a deceivable, seditious, and ungodly 
sermon, to command subjects to depart 



430 



ADMONITION TO THE PROFESSORS 



from the obedience and defence of their 
native prince, rich citizens and valiant sol- 
diers, from their possessions and strong- 
holds, and to will them to render them- 
selves, without all manner of resistance, 
into the hands of strangers, being- their 
enemies. What carnal man would not 
have judged the persuasions of the prophet 
most foolish and false ? and yet in the 
hearts of such as God had elected and 
appointed to life, so effectually wrought 
this sermon, that a great number of Jerusa- 
lem left their king, their city, riches, and 
friends, and obeyed the prophet's counsel : 
for so may be espied by the answer of 
Zedekiah the king, when Jeremiah coun- 
selled him, that he should render himself 
into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, he 
saith, " 1 fear these Jews, that are fled to 
the Chaldeans, lest perchance, they give 
me into their hands." 

Hereof it is plain, that many were de- 
parted from him, whom he feared more 
than he did his enemies. 

Many more testimonies might be 
brought, to declare how mightily God's 
word, spoken by man, hath wrought in the 
hearts of great multitudes : as in the hearts 
of the Ninevites, who at Jonah's preaching 
condemned their former religion, conversa- 
tion, and life : and in the hearts of those 
three thousand, who at Peter's first ser- 
mon, openly made after Christ's ascension, 
acknowledged their offences, repented, and 
were soon after baptized. But these pre- 
mises are sufficient to prove, as well that 
God's word draweth his elect after it 
against worldly appearance, against natural 
affections, and against evil statutes and con- 
stitutions; as also, that such as obey God's 
speaking by his ministers, never lack 
just reward and recompence : for only such 
as obeyed the voice of the prophet, found 
favour and grace, to the praise and glory of 
God's name, when his just judgments took 
vengeance upon the disobedient. But 
now briefly by notes we will touch the 
rest of Peter's act, and Christ's merciful 
deliverance of him ; which is the end of all 
troubles sustained by God's elect. 

And first, that Peter seeing a mighty 
wind, was afraid, and so, when he began to 



sink, he cried, Lord save me, are three 
things principally to be noted : — 

The first, From whence cometh the fear 
of God's elect. 

The second, What is the cause that they 
faint and fall in adversity. 

The third, What resteth with them in 
the time of this fear and down-sinking. 

And first, it is plain, that so long as 
Peter had his eyes fixed upon Christ, and 
attended upon no other thing but the 
voice of Christ, he was bold, and without 
fear : but when he saw a mighty wind, — 
not that the wind was visible, but the 
vehement storm and waves of the sea that 
were stirred up, and carried by the wind 
were seen, then began he to fear, and to 
reason, no doubt, in his heart, that better 
it had been for him to have remained in 
his ship ; for so might Christ have come to 
him : but now the storm and rage of wind 
was so vehement, that he could never 
come to Christ, and so he greatly feared. 
Whereof it is plain, that the only cause of 
our fear that have left our ship, and 
through the storms of the sea would go to 
Christ with Peter, is, that we more con- 
sider the dangers and lets that are in our 
journey, than we do the Almighty power 
of him that hath commanded us to come to 
himself. And this is a sin common to all 
the elect and chosen children of God, that 
whensoever they see a vehement trouble 
appearing to let them, and drive them 
back from the obedience of God, then be- 
gin they to fear and to doubt of God's 
power and good will. 

With this fear was Abraham stricken, 
when he denied his wife. This storm saw 
Moses, when he refused to be God's mes- 
senger. And Hezekiah's sore complaint 
declareth, that more he believed, consider- 
ed, and looked upon the proud voices, and 
great power of Sennacherib, than he did 
the promises of the prophet. 

This I note for this purpose, that albeit, 
this late and most raging storm within the 
realm of England, has taken from you the 
presence of Christ for a time, so that you 
have doubted, whether it was Christ which 
you saw before, or not. And albeit, that the 
vehcmency of this contrary wind that 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



431 



would drive you from Christ, has so em- 
ployed your ears, that almost you have 
forgotten what he was who commanded 
you to come to himself, when that he cried, 
" Come unto me all ye that labour and are 
burdened, and I shall refresh you. Pass 
from Babylon, O my people, &c." Albeit, 
I say, that this raging tempest hath strick- 
en such fear in your heart, that almost all 
is forgotten, yet, dear brethren, despair not, 
such offences have chanced to God's elect 
before you. If obstinately ye shall not con- 
tinue, yet shall you find mercy and grace. 
It had been your duty indeed, and agree- 
able to your profession, to have looked to 
Christ alone, and to have contemned all 
impediments ; but such perfection is not 
alway with man, but happy is he that 
feeleth himself to sink. 

The cause that God's elect begin to 
faint and to sink down in the time of great 
adversity, is fear and unbelief, as in Peter 
doth appear ; for so long as he neither 
feared danger, neither mistrusted Christ's 
word, so long the waves above, and 
contrary to their nature, did obey and 
serve his feet, as they had been the dry, 
solid, and sure ground : but so soon as he 
began to despair and fear, so soon began he 
to sink : to instruct us, that lively faith 
maketh man bold, and is able to carry us 
through such perils, as be uncapable to 
nature ; but when faith beginneth to faint, 
then beginneth man to sink down in every 
danger : as in the histories before rehears- 
ed, it may appear, and in the prophets it is 
plain ; for Elias at God's commandment 
passing to the presence of king Ahab, in 
the fervency of his faith, obtained the fire 
to come from heaven, and to consume his 
sacrifice : by which also he was made so 
bold, that in the presence of the king he 
feared nothing to kill his false prophets. 
But the same Elias hearing of the manag- 
ing and threatenings of cursed Jezebel, and 
considering that the wrath of a wicked 
woman could by no reasonable means be 
appeased, he saw a storm, and feared the 
same, and so he prepared to fly ; which he 
doth not without some sinking down, for 
he began to reason and dispute with God, 
which never can be done by the creature, 



without foolishness and offence. The 
same we find in Jeremiah, and many more. 

But the question may b'e asked, seeing 
Christ knew before what should happen to 
Peter, why did he not hinder him from 
coming from his boat ? or else, why did he 
not so confirm him in faith, that he should 
not have doubted ? 

To the which may be answered ; albeit, 
that we could render no reason of this 
work of Christ, yet were the work itself 
a sufficient reason ; and it were enough to 
answer, that so it pleased him, who is not 
bound to render a reason of all his 
works : but yet if we shall mark with dili- 
gence to what office Peter was to be called, 
and what offences long rested with him, 
we shall find most just and necessary 
causes of this work of Christ, and down- 
sinking of Peter. It is plain that Peter 
had many notable virtues, as a zeal and 
fervency towards Christ's glory, and a 
readiness and forwardness to obey his com- 
mandments ; but it is like plain, that of 
long continuance there rested with Peter 
a desire of honour and worldly rest, and 
that moved him to persuade Christ that he 
should not die. There rested with him 
pride, presumption, and a trust in himself ; 
which presumption and vain trust in his 
own strength, unless it had been corrected, 
he had never been fit to have fed Christ's 
flock : and such sins can never be fully cor- 
rected or reformed, till they be felt, known, 
and confessed. Doubtless so arrogant is 
our nature, that neither will it know or 
confess the infirmity of itself, until such 
time as it hath a trial by manifest expe- 
rience ; this is most plain by Peter, long 
after this tempest ; for when Christ said to 
his disciples, " This night shall ye all be 
slandered in me," Peter boldly bragged 
and said, " Albeit that all should be slan- 
dered, and should fly from thee, yet shall 
not I be slandered, but I am ready to go to 
prison, and to die with thee." This w as 
a bold presumption, and an arrogant pro- 
mise spoken in contempt of all his breth- 
ren, from which he could not be reduced 
by Christ's admonition, but the more that 
Christ showed him, that he should deny 
him, the more bold was he to affirm the 



432 



ADMONITION TO 



THE PROFESSORS 



contrary ; as though his master Christ, the 
author of all truth, yea rather truth itself, 
should make a loud lie ; and therefore, of 
necessity it was, that he should prove in 
experience what was the frailty of man's 
nature, and what was the imbecility and 
weakness of faith, even in those that were 
his chief apostles, who had continually 
heard his heavenly doctrine, seen daily 
his wonderful miracles, who had heard 
themselves so many admonitions of him, 
who also had followed and obeyed him in 
many things. That imbecility and weak- 
ness of faith, if Peter had not proved and 
felt it in himself, neither could he rightly 
have praised God's infinite goodness, and 
embraced his free mercy ; neither had he 
been apt and meet to have been a pastor 
to the weak sheep and tender lambs of 
Christ, but he should have been as proud 
a contemner and despiser of his weak 
brethren, as the arrogant papists, that con- 
temn and despise all godly and great learn- 
ed men, though they be a thousand parts 
more excellent than they. But to correct 
and inform both presumptuous arrogancy, 
and frail imbecility, and weakness of faith, 
Peter was permitted once to sink, and 
thrice most shamefully to refuse and deny 
his Master, to the intent, that by the 
knowledge of his own weakness he might 
be the more able to instruct others of the 
same ; and also, that he might more 
largely magnify God's free grace and 
mighty deliverance : and that Christ taught 
him before his falling ; saying, " When 
thou art converted, strengthen thy breth- 
ren :" as though Christ should have said, 
Peter, yet art thou too proud to be a pastor, 
thou canst not stoop nor bow thy back 
down to take up the weak sheep, thou 
dost not yet know thine own infirmity and 
weakness, and therefore canst thou do 
nothing, but despise the weak ones; but 
■when thou shalt be instructed by expe- 
rience of thine own self, what hid iniquity 
lurketh within the nature of man, then 
shalt thou learn to be humble, and stoop 
among other sinners ; and also shalt be an 
example to others, which after shall offend, 
as thou didst, so that if they repent as thou 
didst, they need not despair of mercy, but 



may trust most assuredly of Christ to ob- 
tain grace, mercy, and forgiveness of sins, 
as thou didst. 

This fruit have we to gather, dear 
brethren, of Peter's down-sinking in the 
sea, — which was a secret knowledge and 
privy admonition, that he after should 
deny Christ, — that we are assured by the 
voice of Christ, if in the time of trouble 
and extreme danger we cry with Peter, 
we shall be delivered as he was; and if we 
mourn for our denial of Christ, as he did, 
we shall find the same grace and favour at 
Christ's hand, that he found. 

But now let us touch the third note, 
which is this, that with God's elect in 
their greatest fear and danger there resteth 
some small spark of faith, which by one 
means or other declareth itself, albeit the 
afflicted person in fear or danger, doth not 
presently perceive the same. As herein 
Peter is most clear and manifest. For 
perceiving himself to sink down, he cried, 
saying, Lord, save me, which words were a 
declaration of a lively and quick faith, 
which lay hid within his afflicted and sore 
perplexed heart, whose nature is, — I mean 
of faith, — to hope against hope, that is, 
against all appearance or likelihood to 
look for help and deliverance, as the words 
of Peter witnesseth that he did. He saw 
nothing but the raging sea ready to swal- 
low him up. He felt nothing but himself 
sinking down in body, and sore troubled 
in heart, and yet he cried, Lord, save me. 
Which words first declare, that he knew 
the power of Christ able to deliver him. 
For foolishness it had been to have called 
for the help of him, whom he had known 
to be impotent and unable to help. 

The calling for Christ's help by prayer 
in this extreme danger, declared also that 
Peter had some hope through his gracious 
goodness to obtain deliverance. For in 
extreme perils, impossible it is, that the 
heart of man can cry for God's help, with- 
out some hope of his mercy. 

It is also to be noted, that in his great 
jeopardy Peter murmureth not against 
Christ. Neither doth he impute or lay 
any crime or blame upon Christ, albeit, at 
his commandment he had left his boat. 



OF THE TRUTH 



IN ENGLAND. 



433 



lie saith not, why lettest thou me sink, 
seeing- that I have obeyed thy command* 
ment. Moreover, Peter asked help at 
Christ alone, of whom he was persuaded, 
both could and would help at a pinch. 
He cried not upon Abraham, Jacob, 
Moses, Samuel, David ; neither upon 
any other of the patriarchs, prophets, or 
saints departed : neither yet upon his 
own fellows in the boat, but upon Christ, 
at whose commandment he had left the 
boat. 

All these things together considered, 
declare, that Peter in this his extreme fear 
and danger, had yet some spark of faith, 
albeit, in that present jeopardy he had nei- 
ther consolation nor comfort. For these 
premises are undoubted tokens that he 
had faith. But noAV to the end, which is 
this : 

" And immediately Jesus stretched forth 
his hand, and caught him, and said unto 
him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst 
thou doubt ? And when they were come 
into the ship, the wind ceased; and they 
that were in the ship came and worshipped 
him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of 
God : and immediately the ship was at the 
land whither they went." 

Hereof first is to be noted, that God is 
always nigh to those that call upon him 
faithfully; and so willing is he to deliver 
them, that neither can fear, nor extreme 
danger hinder his godly hand. Peter was 
sinking down, and looked for no other 
thing but present death, and yet the hand 
of Christ prevented him. That that was 
visibly and openly done to Peter in that 
his great peril, is invisibly and secretly 
done to Christ's holy church, and to the 
chosen members of Christ's mystical 
body in all ages. 

How nigh and ready was the hand of 
God to deliver his people Israel, when they 
were almost overwhelmed with despair in 
the days of Moses and Esther, the history 
doth witness : how nigh was God to Daniel 
amongst the lions, to Jonah in the whale's 
belly, to Peter in the prison, is likewise 
most evidently declared in the Holy Scrip- 
tures. How suddenly and beyond all ex- 
pectation was David many times delivered 



from Saul's tyranny, his own heart con- 
fessed, and compelled his pen to write, and 
tongue to sing, saying, He sent from 
above, and hath delivered me, he hath 
drawn me forth of many waters." 

Open your ears, dear brethren, and let 
your hearts understand, that as our God 
is unchangeable, so is not his gracious 
hand shortened this day. Our fear and 
trouble is great, the storm that bloweth 
against us is sore and vehement, and 
we appear to be drowned in the deep : 
but if we unfeignedly know the danger,, 
and will call for deliverance, the Lord's 
hand is nigher than the sword of our 
enemies. 

The sharp rebuke that Christ Jesus gave 
to Peter, teacheth us, that God doth not flat- 
ter nor conceal the faults of his elect, but 
maketh them manifest to the end that the 
offenders may repent, and that others may 
avoid the like offences. 

That Christ called Peter of little faith, 
argueth and declareth, as we before have 
noted, that Peter was not altogether faith- 
less, but that he fainted, or was uncertain 
in his faith, for so soundeth the Greek 
term oKiyoxtarog, whereof we ought to be 
admonished, that in passing to Christ 
through the storms of this world, is not 
only required a fervent faith in the begin- 
ning, but also a constancy to the end ; as 
Christ saith, " He that continueth to the 
end shall be saved ;" and St Paul, " Un- 
less a man shall strive lawfully, he shall 
not be crowned." The remembrance of 
this ought to put us in mind, that the most 
fervent man, and such as have long con- 
tinued in profession of Christ, is not yet 
sure to stand at all hours, but that he is 
subject to many dangers, and that he ought 
to fear his own frailty, as the apostle 
teacheth us, saying, " Let him that stand- 
eth take heed lest he fall;" for if Peter 
that began so fervently, yet fainted ere he 
came to Christ, what ought we to fear, in 
whom such fervency was never found? 
No doubt we ought to tremble and fear 
the worst ; and by the knowledge of our 
own weakness, with the apostles, inces- 
santly to pray, " O Lord increase our 
faith." Christ's demand and question, 
3 I 



434 



ADMONITION TO THE PROFESSORS 



asking- Peter, <£ Why doubtest thou ?" con- 
taineth in itself a vehemency; as if he 
should have said, whether doubtest thou of 
my power, or of my promises, or of my 
good will ? If my power had not been 
sufficient to have saved thee, then could I 
neither have come to thee through the 
stormy sea, neither have made the waters 
obey thee, when thou beganest to come to 
me ; and if my good will had not been to 
have delivered tiiee, and thy brethren, then 
had I not appeared unto you, neither had I 
called upon thee, but had permitted the 
tempest to devour and swallow you up : 
but considering that your eye saw me pre- 
sent, your ears heard my voice, and thou, 
Peter, especially knewest the same, and 
obeyedst my commandment, why then 
doubtedst thou ? Beloved brethren, if this 
same demand and question were laid to our 
charge, we should have less pretence of 
excuse than had Peter; for he might have 
alleged, that he was not advertised that 
any great storm should have risen betwixt 
him and Christ, which justly we cannot 
allege ; for, since that time, that Christ hath 
appeared unto us by the brightness of his 
word, and called upon us by his lively 
voice. He hath continually blown in our 
ears, that persecution and trouble should 
follow the word that we professed, which 
days are now present. Alas! then, why 
doubt we through this storm to go to 
Christ ? Support, O Lord, and let us sink 
no further. 

Albeit that Peter fainted in faith, and, 
therefore, was worthy most sharply to be re- 
buked, yet doth not Christ leave him in the 
sea, neither long permitted he that fear and 
tempest to continue, but first they entered 
both into the ship, and thereafter the wind 
ceased ; and last, their ship arrived with- 
out longer delay, at the place for which 
they long had laboured. 

O blessed and happy are those that pa- 
tiently abide this deliverance of the Lord ; 
the raging sea shall not devour them : 
albeit they have fainted, yet shall not 
Christ Jesus leave them behind in the 
stormy sea, but suddenly he shall stretch 
forth his mighty hand, and shall place 



them in the ship amongst their brethren ; 
that is, he shall conduct them to the num- 
ber of his elect and afflicted church, with 
whom he will continue to the end of the 
world. 

The majesty of his presence shall put to 
silence this boisterous wind, the malice 
and envy of the devil which so bloweth in 
the hearts of princes, prelates, kings, and of 
earthly men, that altogether they are con- 
jured against the Lord, and against his 
anointed Christ; in despite of whom, he 
safely shall conduct, convey, and carry his 
sore troubled flock to the life and rest for 
which they travel. 

Albeit, I say, that sometimes they have 
fainted in their journey, albeit, that weak- 
ness in faith permitted them to sink, yet 
from the hand of Christ can they not be 
rent : he may not suffer them to drown, 
nor the deep to devour them ; but for the 
glory of his own name he must deliver, 
for they are committed to his charge, pro- 
tection, and keeping; and therefore must 
he keep and defend such as he hath re- 
ceived at his father, from sin, from death, 
from devil and hell. 

The remembrance of these promises is to 
mine own heart such occasion of comfort, 
as neither can any tongue or pen express, 
but yet, peradventure, some there are of 
God's elect that cannot be comforted in 
this tempest, by any meditations of God's 
election or defence, but rather beholding 
such as sometimes boldly have professed 
Christ's verity, now to be returned to their 
accustomed abominations ; and also them- 
selves to be overcome with fear, that 
against their knowledge and conscience 
they stoop to an idol, and with their pre- 
sence maintain the same ; and being at 
this point, they begin to reason, whether 
it be possible that the members of Christ's 
body may be permitted so horribly to fall 
to the denial of their head ; and in the 
same to remain of long continuance : and 
from this reasoning, they enter in dolour, 
and from dolour they begin to sink to the 
gates of hell and ports of despair. 

The dolour and fear of such I grant to 
be most just; for oh ! how fearful is it for 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



435 



the love of this transitory life, in the pre- 
sence of man to deny Christ Jesus, and his 
known and undoubted verity ? 

But yet to such as are not obstinate 
contemners of God, and of all godliness, I 
would give this ray weak counsel, that 
rather they should appeal to mercy, than 
by the severe judgments of God to pro- 
nounce against themselves the fearful sen- 
tence of condemnation ; and to consider 
that God includeth all under unbelief, that 
he may have mercy upon all : that the Lord 
killeth and giveth life, he leadeth down to 
hell, and yet lifteth up again. But I will 
not that any man think, that by this my 
counsel, I either justify such as horribly 
are returned back to their vomit; either 
yet that I flatter such as maintain that 
abominable idol with their daily presence ; 
God forbid ! for then were I but a blind 
guide, leading the blind headlong to per- 
dition : only God knoweth the dolour and 
sobs of my heart, for such as I hear daily 
do turn back ; but the cause of my counsel 
is, that I know the conscience of some to 
be so tender, that whensoever they feel 
themselves troubled with fear, wounded 
with anguish, or to have slidden back in 
any point, that then they judge their faith 
to be quenched, and themselves to be un- 
worthy of God's mercies for ever ; to such 
direct I my counsel, to those, I mean, that 
rather offend by weakness and infirmity, 
than of malice and set purpose. And I 
would that such should understand and 
consider, that all Christ's apostles fled from 
him, and denied him in their hearts : and 
also I would, they should consider, that no 
man from the beginning stood in greater 
fear, greater danger, or greater doubt, than 
Peter did, when Christ's presence was 
taken from him; yea, no man felt less 
comfort, nor saw less appearance of de- 
liverance ; and yet, neither were the dis- 
ciples rejected for ever, neither was Peter 
permitted to drown in that deep. 

But some shall object, faith was not ut- 
terly quenched in them, and therefore they 
got deliverance, and were restored to com- 
fort. 

Ans. That is it which I would, that the 
afflicted and troubled consciences in this 



age should consider, that neither fear, 
neither danger, neither yet doubting, nor 
backsliding, can utterly destroy and quench 
the faith of God's elect, but that always 
there remaineth with them some root and 
spark of faith ; howbeit in their anguish, 
they neither feel nor can discern the same. 
Yet some shall demand, how shall it be 
known in whom the spark and root of 
faith remaineth, and in whom not, seeing 
that all flee from Christ, and bow down to 
idolatry ? Hard it is, and in a manner im- 
possible, that one man shall wittingly judge 
of another, — for that could not Elijah do 
of the Israelites of his days, — but every 
man may easily judge of himself : for the 
root of faith is of that nature, that long it 
will not be idle, but of necessity, by process 
of time it will send forth some branches 
that may be seen and felt by the outward 
man, if it remain lively in the heart ; 
as you heard it did in Peter, compelling 
him to cry upon Christ, when that he was 
in greatest necessity. Wilt thou have a 
trial whether the root of faith remaineth 
with thee, or not ? I speak to such as are 
weak, and not to proud contemners of 
God. 

1. Feelest thou thy soul fainting in faith, 
as Peter felt his body sink dow r n in the 
waters ? 

2. Art thou as sore afraid that thy soul 
shall drown in hell, if thou consentest or 
obeyest idolatry, as Peter was that his 
body should drown in the waters ? 

3. Desirest thou as earnestly the de- 
liverance of thy soul, as Peter did the 
deliverance of his body ? 

4. Believest thou that Christ is able to 
deliver thy soul, and that he will do the 
same, according to his promise ? 

5. Dost thou call upon him without 
hypocrisy, now in the day of thy trouble ? 

6. Dost thou thirst for his presence, and 
for the liberty of his word again ? 

7. Mournest thou for the great abomina- 
tions that now overflow the realm of 
England ? 

If these premises, I say, remain in thy 
heart, then art thou not altogether desti- 
tute of faith, neither shalt thou descend to 
perdition for ever ; but mercifully shall the 



436 



Ai MONITION TO 



THE PROFESSORS 



Lord stretch forth his mighty hand, and 
shall deliver thee from the very throat and 
bottom of hell ; but by what means he 
shall perform that his merciful work, it 
neither appertaineth to thee to demand, 
nor to me to define : but this is requisite, and 
is our bounden duty, that such means as 
the hand of our God shall offer, — to avoid 
idolatry, — we refuse not, but that willingly 
we embrace the same, albeit, it partly disa- 
gree to our affections. Neither yet think 
I, that suddenly, and by one means, shall 
all the faithful in England be delivered 
from idolatry : no, it may be that God so 
strengthen the hearts of some of those that 
have fainted before, that they will resist 
idolatry to the death, and that were a glo- 
rious and triumphant deliverance. Of 
others God may so touch the hearts, that 
they will rather choose to walk and go as 
pilgrims, from realm to realm, suffering 
hunger, cold, heat, thirst, weariness, and 
poverty, than that they will abide having 
all abundance, in subjection of idolatry. 
To some may God offer such occasion, that 
in despite of idolaters, be they princes or 
prelates, they may remain within their 
own dominions, and yet neither bow their 
knees to Baal, neither yet lack the lively 
food of God's most holy word. If God 
offer unto us any such means, let us assur- 
edly know, that Christ Jesus stretched 
forth his hand unto us, willing to deliver 
us from that danger wherein many are like 
to perish ; and therefore, let us not refuse 
it, but with gladness let us take hold of it, 
knowing that God hath a thousand means, 
very unappearing to man's judgment, 
whereby he will deliver, support, and com- 
fort his afflicted church. And therefore, 
most dearly beloved in our Saviour Jesus 
Christ, considering that the remembrance 
of Christ's banquet, whereof, I doubt not, 
some of you have tasted with comfort and 
joy, is not yet utterly taken from your 
mind; and that w r e have entered in this 
journey at Christ's commandment, con- 
sidering that we find the sea-winds blow 
contrary and against us, as before was 
prophesied unto us, and that we see the same 
tempest rage against us, that ever hath raged 
against Christ's elect church; and con- 



sidering also that we feel ourselves read? 
to faint, and like to be oppressed by these 
stormy seas, — let us prostrate ourselves 
before the throne of grace, in the presence 
of our heavenly Father, and in the bitter- 
ness of our hearts, let us confess our 
offences, and for Christ Jesus' sake let us 
ask deliverance and mercy, saying, with 
sobs and groanings from our troubled 
hearts : — 

COMPLAINT. 

" O God, the heathen are entered into 
thine inheritance, they have defiled thy 
holy temple, and have profaned thy blessed 
ordinance. In place of thy joyful signs> 
they have erected their abominable idola- 
try : the deadly cup of all blasphemy is 
restored again to their harlot's hand : thy 
prophets are persecuted, and none are per- 
mitted to speak thy word freely : the poor 
sheep of thy pasture are commanded to 
drink the venomous waters of men's tra- 
ditions. But, O Lord, thou knowest how 
sore they grieve us. But such is the 
tyranny of these most cruel beasts, that 
plainly they say, they shall root us out at 
once, so that no remembrance shall re- 
main of us on earth. 

" O Lord, thou knowest that we are but 
flesh, and that we have no power of our- 
selves to withstand their tyranny; and 
therefore, O Father, open the eyes of thy 
mercy upon us, and confirm thou in us the 
work which thine own mercy hath begun. 
We acknowledge and confess, O Lord, 
that we are punished most justly, because 
we lightly regarded the tyranny [time] of 
our merciful visitation. Thy blessed gos- 
pel was in our ears like a lover's song ; it 
pleased us for a time, but alas ! our lives 
did nothing agree with thy statutes and 
holy commandments : and thus we acknow- 
ledge that our iniquity hath compelled thy 
justice to take the light of thy word from 
the whole realm of England. But be thou 
mindful, O Lord, that it is thy truth which 
we have professed, and that thy enemies 
blaspheme thy holy name, and our pro- 
fession, without cause : thy holy gospel is 
called heresy, and we are accused as trai- 
tors fo/ professing the same. Be merciful 



OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND. 



437 



therefore, O Lord, and be salvation unto 
us in this time of our anguish : albeit our 
sins accuse and condemn us, yet do thou 
according- to thine own name. We have 
offended against thee ; our sins and iniqui- 
ties are without number, and yet art thou 
in the midst of us, O Lord, albeit, that 
tyrants bear rule over our bodies, yet thirti- 
eth our souls for the comfort of thy word : 
correct us, therefore, but not in thy hot 
displeasure ; spare thy people, and permit 
not thine inheritance to be in rebuke for 
ever. Let such, O Lord, as now are most 
afflicted, yet once again praise thy holy 
name before thy congregation ; repress the 
pride of those blood-thirsty tyrants ; con- 
sume them in thine anger, according to the 
reproach which they have laid against thy 
holy name. Pour forth thy vengeance 
upon them, and let our eyes behold the 
blood of thy saints required of their hands. 
Delay not thy vengeance, O Lord, but let 
death devour them in haste. Let the earth 
swallow them up, and let them go down 
quick to hell ; for there is no hope of their 
amendment ; the fear and reverence of thy 
holy name is quite banished from their 
hearts : and therefore, yet again, O Lord, 
consume them, consume them in thine 
anger, and let them never bring their 
wicked counsels to effect ; but according to 
the godly powers, let them be taken in the 
snare which they have prepared for thine 
elect. Look upon us, O Lord, with the eyes 
of thy mercy, and show pity upon us, thy 
weak and sore oppressed flock. Gather us 
yet once again to the wholesome treasures 
of thy most holy word, that openly we 
may confess thy blessed name within the 
realm of England. Grant this, O heavenly 
Father, for Christ Jesus thy Son's sake. 
Amen." 

If on this manner or otherwise, as God 
shall put in our hearts, without hypocri- 
sy, in the presence of our Go< J ,, respecting 
more his glory than our private wealth, 
continually we pour forth our complaint, 
confession, and prayers ; then so assuredly 
as our God liveth, and as we feel these 
present troubles, shall our God himself rise 
to our defence. He shall confound the 



counsels of our enemies, and trouble the 
wits of such as most wrongfully trouble 
us. He shall send Jesus to execute his just 
judgments against idolaters, and against 
such as obstinately defend them. Yea, 
the chief men of our times shall not escape 
the vengeance and plagues that are pre- 
pared for their portion. The flatterers and 
maintainors of her abominations shall drink 
the cup of God's wrath. And, in despite of 
the devil, shall yet the glory of Christ 
Jesus, and the brightness of his counte- 
nance, so shine in our hearts by the pre- 
sence of his grace, and before our eyes by 
the true preaching of his gospel, that alto- 
gether we shall fall before him, and say : 
" O Lord thou art our God, we shall extol 
thee, and shall confess thy name, for thou 
hast brought wondrous things to pass, ac- 
cording to thy counsels, which albeit, 
appear to be far off', yet are they true and 
most assured. Thou hast brought to ruin 
the palaces of tyrants, and therefore shall 
the afflicted magnify thee, and the city of 
tyrannical nations shall fear thee. Thou 
hast been, O Lord, a strong defence to the 
poor, a sure place of refuge to the afflicted 
in the time of his anguish. 

This, no doubt, dear brethren, shall one 
day be the song of God's elect within the 
realm of England, after that God hath 
poured forth his vengeance upon those 
disobedient and blood-thirsty tyrants, 
who now triumph in all abominations : 
and therefore, yet again, beloved in the 
Lord, abide patiently the Lord's deliver- 
ance, avoiding and flying such offences as 
may separate and divide you from the 
blessed fellowship of the Lord Jesus at his 
second coming. Watch and pray, resist 
the devil, and row against this vehement 
tempest, and shortly shall the Lord come 
to the comfort of your hearts, which now 
are oppressed with anguish and care : 
but then shall ye so rejoice, that through 
gladness you shall say, " Behold this is 
our God, we have waited upon him, and 
he hath saved us." This is our Lord, we 
have long thirsted for his coming, now 
shall we rejoice and be glad in his salva- 
tion, Ameu. The great bishop of our 



438 



ADMONITION TO THE PROFESSORS, &c. 



souls, Jesus our Lord, so strengthen and 
assist your troubled hearts with the 
mighty comfort of his Holy Ghost, that 
earthly tyrants nor worldly torments have 
no power to drive you from the hope 
and expectation of that kingdom, which 
for the elect was prepared from the be- 
ginning by our heavenly Father, to whom 



be all praise and honour, now and ever. 
Amen. 

Remember me, dear brethren, in your 
daily prayers. The grace of our Lord 
Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. 
Yours with sorrowful heart, 

John Knox. 



THE 

FIRST BLAST OF THE TRUMPET, 

AGAINST THE 

MONSTROUS REGIMEN [GOVERNMENT] 

OF WOMEN. 



[In all the copies of the Blast, attached to former editions of the history, there are in the 
two or three first pages, and in the preface, a vast numher of errors, and some con- 
siderable omissions. I have to thank Dr M'Crie for the use of a copy belonging- to 
him, corrected with his own hand, from an old copy in the Advocates' Library. This 
has enabled me to give this, the most celebrated of Knox's productions, perhaps ver- 
batim as it was published by himself.] 



THE PREFACE. 

" THE KINGDOM APPERTAINETH TO OUR GOD.' 



Wonder it is, that amongst so many preg- 
nant wits, as the isle of Great Britain 
hath produced, so many godly and zea- 
lous preachers as England did sometime 
nourish, and amongst so many learned, and 
men of grave judgment as at this day by 
Jezebel are exiled, none are found so stout 
of courage, so faithful to God, nor loving 
to their native country, that they dare ad- 
monish the inhabitants of that isle, how 
abominable before God is the empire or 
rule of a wicked woman, yea of a trai- 
tress and bastard,* and what a people or 
nation left destitute of a lawful head may 
do, by the authority of God's word, in 
electing and appointing common rulers and 
magistrates. That isle, alas ! for the con- 
tempt and horrible abuse of God's mercies 



*From the use of this opprobrious word, Knox 
must have believed in the nullity of Henry 
VlII.'s marriage with his brother's widow. 
—Ed. 



offered, and for the shameful revolting to 
Satan from Christ Jesus, and frcm his gos- 
pel once professed, doth justly merit to be 
left in the hands of their own counsel, and 
so to come to confusion and bondage of 
strangers. But yet I fear that this uni- 
versal negligence of such as were some- 
times esteemed watchmen, shall rather 
aggravate our former ingratitude, than 
excuse this our universal ungodly silence 
in so weighty a matter. We see our coun- 
try set forth for a prey to foreign nations, 
we hear the blood of our brethren the 
members of Christ Jesus, most cruelly to 
be shed, and the monstrous empire of a 
cruel woman, — the secret counsel of God 
excepted, — we know to be the only occa- 
sion of all these miseries ; and yet with 
silence we pass the time as though the 
matter did appertain nothing to us. But 
the contrary examples of the ancient 
prophets move me to doubt of this our 



440 



THE FIRST BLAST AGAINST 



fact. For Israel did universally decline 
from God by embracing- idolatry under 
Jeroboam, in which they did continue even 
to the destruction of their commonwealth, 1 
and Judah with Jerusalem did follow the 
vile superstition, and open iniquity of 
Samaria: yet ceased not the prophets of 
God to admonish the one and the other, 
yea, even after that God had poured forth 
his plagues upon them ; for Jeremiah 2 did 
write to the captives in Babylon, and did 
correct their errors, plainly instructing 
them who did remain in that idolatrous 
nation. Ezekiel 3 from the midst of his 
brethren prisoners in Chaldea, did write 
his vision to those that were in Jerusalem; 
and, sharply rebuking- their vices, assured 
them that they should not escape God's 
vengeance, by reason of their abominations 
committed. The same prophets, for com- 
fort of the afflicted chosen saints of God, 
who did lie hid amongst the reprobate of 
that age, — as the corn commonly doth 
amongst the chaff, — did prophesy and be- 
fore speak the changes of kingdoms, the 
punishment of tyrants, and the vengeance 
which God would execute upon the op- 
pressors of his people. The same did 
Daniel, and the rest of the prophets, every 
one in their season, 4 by whose examples, 
and by the plain precept which was given 
to Ezekiel, commanding- that he shall say 
to the wicked, " thou shalt die the death." 
We in this miserable age are bound to ad- 
monish the world, and the tyrants thereof, 
of their sudden destruction, to assure 
them, and to cry unto them, whether they 
list to hear or not, that the blood of the 
saints which by them is shed, continually 
crieth and craveth vengeance, in the pre- 
sence of the Lord of hosts. And further 
it is our duty to open the truth revealed to 
us, unto the ignorant and blind world : 
unless that to our own condemnation, we 
list to wrap up and hide the talent com- 
mitted to our charge. I am assured, that 
God hath revealed to some in this our age, 
that it is more than a monster in nature, 
th at a woman shall reign and have empire 



1 Ezek. xvi. 2 Jer. xxix. 3 Ezek. vii. 
viii. ix. 4 Isa. xiii. Jex*. xlvi. Ezek. xxxvi. 



above man. And yet with us all, there is 
such silence, as if God therewith were 
nothing- offended. The natural man ene- 
my to God, shall find, I know, many causes 
w hy no such doctrine ought to be publish- 
ed in these our dangerous days, first, For 
that it may seem to tend to sedition. 
Secondly, it shall be dangerous, not only to 
the writer or publisher, but also to all such 
as shall read the writings or favour the 
truth spoken : and lastly, it shall not amend 
the chief offenders, partly because it shall 
never come to their ears, partly because 
they will not be admonished in such cases. 
I answer, if any of these be a sufficient 
reason, that a truth known shall be con- 
cealed, then were the ancient prophets of 
God very fools, who did not better pro- 
vide for their own quietness, than to haz- 
ard their lives for rebuking of vices, and 
for the opening of such crimes as were not 
known to the world, and Christ Jesus did 
injury to his apostles, commanding them to 
preach repentance and remission of sins in 
his name to every realm and nation ; and 
Paul did not understand his own liberty, 
when he cried 5 " woe be to me, if I preach 
not the evangel!" If fear, I say, of perse- 
cution, of slander, or any inconveniency 
before named, might have excused and 
discharged the servants of God from 
plainly rebuking the sins of the world, just 
cause had every one of them to have ceased 
from their office ; for suddenly their doc- 
trine was accused by terms of sedition, of 
new learning, and of treason." Persecu- 
tion and vehement trouble did shortly 
come upon the professors with the preach- 
ers; kings, princes, and worldly rulers, did 
conspire against God, and against his 
anointed Christ Jesus. But what ? Did 
any of these move the prophets and 
apostles to faint in their vocation ? No, 
but by the resistance which the devil made 
to them by his supposts, were they the 
more inflamed to publish the truth re- 
vealed unto them ; and to witness with 
their blood, that grievous condemnation 
and God's heavy vengeance should follow 



5 1 Cor. ix. 6 Mat. xxvi. Acta xviii. xxi. 
Psal. ii. Acts iv. 



THE REGIMEN OF WOMEN. 



441 



the proud contempt of graces offered. The 
fidelity, bold courage, and constancy of 
those that are passed before us, ought to pro- 
voke us to follow their footsteps, unless 
we look for another kingdom than Christ 
hath promised to such as persevere in 
profession of his name to the end. If any 
think that the empire of women is not of 
such importance, that for the suppressing 
of the same, any man is bound to hazard 
his life. I answer, that to suppress it is in 
the hand of God alone ; but to utter the 
impiety and abomination of the same, I say, 
it is the duty of every true messenger 
of God, to whom the truth is revealed in 
that behalf. For the special duty of God's 
messengers is to preach repentance, to ad- 
monish the offenders of their offences, 
and to say to the wicked, thou shalt die 
the death except thou repent. This I 
trust will no man deny to be the proper 
office of all God's messengers, to preach 
as I have said, repentance and remission of 
sins. But neither of both can be done, 
except the conscience of the offenders be 
accused and convicted of transgression. 
For how shall any man repent, not know- 
ing wherein he hath offended ? And where 
no repentance is found, there can be no 
entry to grace. And therefore, I say, that 
of necessity it is, that this monstriferous 
empire of women, — which among all enor- 
mities that this day do abound upon the 
face of the whole earth, is most detestable 
and damnable, — be openly revealed and 
plainly declared to the world, to the end 
that some may repent and be saved. And 
thus far be the first sort. Now to such as 
think that it will be long before such doc- 
trine come to the ears of the chief offenders, 
I answer, that the verity of God is of that 
nature, that at one time or at another it will 
purchase to itself audience. It is an odour 
and a smell that cannot be suppressed, yea, 
it is a trumpet that will sound in despite 
of the adversaries; it will compel the very 
enemies to their own confusion, to testify 
and bear witness of it : for I find that the 
prophecy and preaching of Elisha, was de- 
clared in the hall of the king of Syria, by 
the servants and flatterers of the same 
wicked king, making mention that Elisha 



declared to the king of Israel whatsoever 
the said king of Syria spoke in his most 
secret chamber. 1 And the wondrous works 
of Je^us Christ were notified to Herod, 
not in any great praise or commendation 
of his doctrine : but rather to signify, that 
Christ called that tyrant a fox, and that he 
did no more regard his authority than did 
John the baptist, whom Herod before had 
beheaded for the liberty of his tongue. 3 
But whether the bearers of the rumours 
were favourable of Christ, or flatterers of 
the tyrant, certain it is that the fame, as 
well of Christ's doctrine as of his works, 
came to the ears of Herod. Even so may 
the sound of our weak trumpet, by the 
support of some wind, — blow it from the 
south, or blow it from the north, it is no 
matter, — come to the ears of the chief 
offenders. But whether it do or not, yet 
dare we not cease to blow as God will give 
strength. For we are debtors to more 
than to princes, to wit, to the multitude of 
our brethren, of whom, no doubt, a great 
number have heretofore offended by error 
and ignorance, giving their suffrages, con- 
sent, and help to establish women in their 
kingdoms and empires, not understanding- 
how abominable, odious, and detestable is 
all such usurped authority in God's pre- 
sence. And therefore must the truth be 
plainly spoken, that the simple and rude 
multitude may be admonished. And as, 
concerning the danger which may hereof 
ensue, I am not altogether so brutish and 
insensible, but that I have laid mine ac- 
count what the finishing of the work may 
cost me for my own part. First, I am 
not ignorant how difficult and dangerous it 
is to speak against a common error, espe- 
cially when that the ambitious minds of 
men and women are called to the obe- 
dience of God's simple commandment : for, 
to the most part of men, lawful and godly 
appeareth whatsoever antiquity hath re- 
ceived. And, secondly, I look to have 
mine adversaries, not only of the ignorant 
multitude, but also of the wise, politic, and 
quiet spirits of the world, so that as well 
shall such as ought to maintain the truth 



1 Kings vi. 12. 2 Mat. xiv. 
3 K 



442 THE FIRST 

and verity of God, become enemies to me, 
in this case, as shall the princes and am- 
bitious persons, who, to maintain their un- 
just tyranny, do always study to suppress 
the same. And thus I am most certainly 
persuaded, that my labour shall not escape 
reprehension of many. But because I re- 
member that accounts of the talents re- 
ceived must be made to him, who neither 
respecteth the multitude, neither yet ap- 
proveth the wisdom, policy, peace, nor 
antiquity, concluding- or determining- any 
thing against his eternal will, revealed to 
us in his most blessed word, I am com- 
pelled to cover mine eyes, and shut up 
mine ears, that I neither see the multitude 
that shall withstand me in this matter, 
neither that I shall bear the opprobries, 
nor consider the dangers which I may in- 
cur for uttering- the same. I shall be 
called foolish, curious, despiteful, and a 
sower of sedition ; and one day perchance, 
although now I be nameless, I may be at- 
tainted of treason. But seeing that im- 
possible it is, but that either I shall offend 
God, daily calling to my conscience, that I 
ought to manifest the verity known, or 
else that I shall displease the world for 
doing the same ; I am determined to obey 
God, notwithstanding that the world shall 
rage thereat. I know that the world 
offended, may, by God's permission, kill 
the body ; but God's majesty being offend- 
ed, hath power to punish body and soul 
for ever. His majesty is offended, when 
that his precepts are contemned, and his 
threatenings esteemed to be of none effect ; 
and amongst his manifold precepts given to 
his prophets, and amongst his threatenings, 
none is more vehement than that which is 



BLAST, &c. 

pronounced to Ezekiel in these words, 
" Son of man, I have set thee a watchman 
unto the house of Israel, therefore, thou 
shalt hear the word at my mouth, and 
warn them from me ; when I say unto the 
wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely 
die, if thou do not speak to warn the wick- 
ed from his way, that wicked man shall die 
in his iniquity, but his blood will I require 
at thine hand ; nevertheless, if thou warn 
the wicked of his way, to turn from it, if 
he do not turn from his ways, he shall die 
in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy 
soul."* This precept, I say, with the threat- 
ening annexed, together with the rest that 
is spoken in the same chapter, not to Eze- 
kiel only, but to every one, whom God 
placeth watchman over his people and 
flock, — and watchmen are they, whose eyes 
he doth open, and whose conscience he 
pricketh to admonish the ungodly, — com- 
pelleth me to utter my conscience in this 
matter, notwithstanding that the whole 
world should be offended with me for so 
doing. If any wonder why I do conceal 
my name, let him be assured, that the fear 
of corporal punishment is neither the only, 
neither the chief cause. My purpose is 
thrice to blow the trumpet in the same 
matter, if God so permit. Twice I intend 
to do it without name ; but at the last blast 
to take the blame upon myself, that all 
others may be purged.f 



1 Ezek. xxxiii. 
* The old translation is used in the old 
edition. 

f Knox never found leisure to effect his pur- 
pose in this respect. He wrote only the heads 
of the second Blast, as will be seen in the se- 
quel, and nothing at all of the third. — Ed. 



THE FIRST BLAST 



TO 



AWAKE WOMEN DEGENERATE. 



To promote a woman to bear rule, supe- 
riority, dominion, or empire, above any 
realm, nation, or city, is repugnant to na- 
ture, contumely to God, a thing most con- 
trarious to his revealed will and approved 
ordinance, and, finally, it is the subversion 
of good order, of all equity and justice. 
In the probation of this proposition, I will 
not be so curious, as to gather whatsoever 
may amplify, set forth, or decore [adorn] 
the same, but I am purposed, even as I 
have spoken in most plain and few words, 
so to stand content with a simple proof of 
every member, bringing in for my wit- 
nesses God's ordinance in nature, his plain 
will revealed in his word, and the minds of 
such as be most ancient among godly 
writers. 

And first, when that I affirm the empire 
of a woman to be a thing repugnant to na- 
ture, I mean not only that God, by the 
order of his creation, hath spoiled woman 
of authority and dominion, but also that 
man hath seen, proved, and pronounced 
just causes why that so it should be. Man, I 
say, in many other cases blind, doth in this 
behalf see very clearly. For the causes be 
so manifest that they cannot be hid. -For 
who can deny but it repugneth to nature, 
that the blind shall be appointed to lead 
and conduct such as do see, that the weak, 
the sick, and impotent persons, shall nour- 
ish and keep the whole and strong; and 
finally, that the foolish, mad, and frantic, 
shall govern the discreet, and give counsel 
to such as be sober of mind ? and such be 
all women compared unto man in bearing 
authority. For their sight in civil regi- 
ment is but blindness, their strength weak- 
ness, their counsel foolishness, and judg- 
ment frenzy, if it be rightly considered. 
I except such as God, by singular privilege, 
and for certain causes, known only to him- 



self, hath exempted from the common 
rank of women, and do speak of women, 
as nature and experience do this day de- 
clare them. Nature, I say, doth paint them 
forth to be weak, frail, unpatient, feeble, 
and foolish ; and experience hath declared 
them to be unconstant, variable, cruel, and 
lacking the spirit of counsel and regimen. 
And these notable faults in all ages espied 
in that kind, for the which have men not 
only removed women from rule and autho- 
rity, but also some have thought that men 
subject to the counsel or empire of their 
wives, were unworthy of all public office. 
For thus writeth Aristotle in the second of 
his politics : what difference shall we put, 
saith he 1 , whether that women bear authori- 
ty, or husbands that obey the empire of their 
wives, be appointed to be magistrates ? For 
what ensueth the one, must needs follow 
the other, to wit, injustice, confusion, and 
disorder. The same author further reason- 
eth, that the policy or regimen of the 
Lacedaemonians, who, otherwise, amongst 
the Grecians were most excellent, was not 
worthy to be reputed nor accounted 
amongst the number of commonwealths 
that were well governed, because the magis- 
trates and rulers of the same, were too 
much given to please and obey their wives. 
What would this writer, I pray } T ou, have 
said to that realm or nation, where a 
woman sitteth crowned in parliament 
among the midst of men. O fearful and 
terrible are thy judgments, O Lord, who 
hath thus abased man for his iniquity. I 
am assuredly persuaded, that if any of those 
men, who, illuminated only by the light 
of nature, did see and pronounce causes 
sufficient why women ought not to bear 
rule nor authority, should this day live and 



1 2 Pol. Arist. 



444 



THE FIRST BLAST AGAINST 



see a woman sitting in judgment, or riding 
from parliament in the midst of men, hav- 
ing the royal crown upon her head, the 
sword and sceptre borne before her, in sign 
that the administation of justice was in 
her power ; I am assuredly persuaded, I 
say, that such a sight should astonish them 
that they should judge the Avhole world to 
be transformed into Amazons, 1 and that 
such a metamorphosis and change was made 
of all the men of that country, as poets do 
feign was made of [the] companions of 
Ulysses, or at least, that albeit the outward 
form of men remained, yet should they 
judge that their hearts were changed from 
the wisdom, understanding, and courage of 
men to the foolish fondness and cowardice 
of women. Yea, they further should pro- 
nounce that where women reign and be in 
authority, there must needs vanity be pre- 
ferred to virtue, ambition and pride, to 
temperance and modesty, and finally, that 
avarice the mother of all mischief must 
needs devour equity and justice. But lest 
that we should seem to be of this opinion 
alcne, let us hear what others have seen 
and decreed in this matter. In the rules 
of the law thus it is written, " women are 
removed from all civil and public office, 
so that neither they may be judges, nei- 
ther may they occupy the place of the 
magistrate ; neither yet may they be speak- 
ers for others." The same is repeated in 
the third and sixteenth books of the Di- 
gests, 2 where certain persons are forbid- 
den, ne pro aliis postulent, that is, that they 
be no speakers nor advocates for others, 
and among the rest are women forbidden, 
and this cause is added, that they do not 
against shamefacedness intermeddle them- 
selves with the causes of others ; neither 
yet that women presume to use the offices 
due to men. The law in the same place 
doth further declare, that a natural shame- 
facedness ought to be in womankind, which 
most certainly she loseth whensoever she 



1 Amazons were monstrous women, that 
could not bide the regiment of men, and there- 
fore killed their husbands. Read Justine. Aris. 
2 Pol. lib. 50. de regulis juris. 

2 Lib. 3. 15. Digestorum ad senatus consul. 
Vclleianum. lib. 3. de poslulatione. Tit. 1. 



taketh upon her the office and estate of 
man. As in Calphurnia 3 was evidently 
declared, for she having licence to speak 
before the senate, at length becomes so im- 
pudent and importune, that by her bab- 
bling she troubled the whole assembly, and 
so gave occasion that this law was estab- 
lished. 

In the first book of the Digests, 4 it is 
pronounced that the condition in many 
cases is worse than of the man. As in 
jurisdiction, saith the law, in receiving of 
cure and tuition, in adoption, in public 
accusation, in delation, in all popular ac- 
tion, and in motherly power, which she 
hath not upon her own sons. The law 
further will not permit, that the woman 
give any thing to her husband, because it 
is against the nature of her kind, being the 
inferior member, to presume to give any 
thing to her head. The law doth more- 
over pronounce womankind to be the 
most avaricious ; which is a vice intolerable 
in those that should rule or minister jus- 
tice. And Aristotle, 5 as before is touched, 
doth plainly affirm, that whensoever 
women bear dominion, there must needs 
the people be disordered, living and abound- 
ing in all intemperance, given to pride, ex- 
cess and vanity; and in the end, that 
they must needs come to confusion and 
ruin. 

Would to God the examples were not so 
manifest to the further declaration of the 
imperfections of women, their natural 
weakness, and inordinate appetites. I 
might adduce histories, 6 proving some 
women to have died for sudden joy; some 
for unpatience to have murdered them- 
selves, some to have burned with such 
inordinate lust, that for the quenching of 
the same, they have betrayed to strangers 
their country and city ; and some to have 
been so desirous of dominion, 7 that for the 

3 Calphurnia. 4> De statu hominum , Tit. 8. 
By the civil law power is taken from women 
over their own children, Dig. Lib. 24. de do- 
natione inter virum et jam. Lib. 1. Dig. de legi- 
bus et senatuscon. Tit. 3. 5 Politic. 2. Great im- 
perfections of women. 6 Romilda the wife of 
Gisulphus, betrayed to Cacanus the dukedom of 
Friual in Italy. Jane Queen of Naples hanged 
her husband, Athalia destroyed all the ssed 
royal, 2 Kings ii. 7 Icrne. Anton, hahdu 



THE REGIMEN OF WOMEN. 



445 



obtaining' of the same, they have murder- 
ed the children of their own sons, yea, and 
some have killed with cruelty their own 
husbands and children. But to me it is 
sufficient, because this part of nature is not 
my most sure foundation, to have proved, 
that men illuminated only by the light of 
nature, have seen and determined, that 
it is a thing most repugnant to nature, 
that women rule and govern over man, for 
these that will not permit a woman to 
have power over her own sons, will not 
permit her, I am assured, to have rule 
over a realm; and those that will not 
suffer her to speak in defence of those that 
be accused, nor admit her accusation in- 
tended against man, will not approve her 
that she shall sit in judgment, crowned 
with the royal crown, usurping' the autho- 
rity in the midst of men. 1 

But now to the second part of nature, 
in the which I include the revealed will 
and perfect ordinance of God ; and against 
this part of nature, I say, that it doth ma- 
nifestly repugn, that any woman shall reign 
or bear dominion over man. For God first, 
by the order of the creation, and, after by 
the curse and malediction pronounced 
against the woman, by the reason of her 
rebellion, hath pronounced the contrary. 
First, I say, the woman in her greatest 
perfection was made to serve and obey 
man, not to rule and command him. As 
St Paul doth reason in these words, " Man 
is not of the woman, but the woman of 
the man. a And man was not created for 
the woman, but the woman for the man : 
for this cause ought the woman to have 
a power upon head ;" that is, a cover- 
ture in sign of subjection; of which words 
it is plain that the apostle meaneth, that 
woman, in her greatest perfection, should 
have known that man was lord above her; 
and therefore, that she should never have 
pretended any kind of superiority above 
him, no more than do the angels above 
God the creator, or above Christ Jesus 
their head. So I say, that in her greatest 



1 The less things are denied to women, there- 
fore the greater cannot be granted. 

2 1 Cor. xi. 8, 9, 10. 



perfection, woman was created to be sub- 
ject to man. But after her fall and re- 
bellion committed against God, there was 
put upon her a new necessity, and she was 
made subject to man by the irrevocable 
sentence of God, pronounced in these 
words, 3 " I will greatly multiply thy sor- 
row and thy conception, with sorrow shalt 
thou bear thy children, and thy will shall 
be subject to thy man : and he shall bear 
dominion over thee." Hereby may such 
as altogether be not blinded, plainly see, 
that God by his sentence hath dejected all 
women from empire and dominion above 
man. For two punishments are laid upon 
her, to wit, a dolour, anguish, and pain, as 
oft as ever she shall be a mother, and a 
subjection of herself, her appetites, and 
will to her husband and his will. From 
the former part of this malediction, can 
neither art, nobility, policy, nor law made 
by man deliver womankind. But whoso- 
ever attaineth to that honour to be mo- 
ther, proveth in experience the effect and 
strength of God's word. But, alas ! igno- 
rance of God, ambition, and tyranny have 
studied to abolish and destroy the second 
part of God's punishment ; for women are 
lifted up to be heads over realms, and to 
rule above men at their pleasure and appe- 
tites : but horrible is the vengeance, which 
is prepared for the one and for the other, 
and for the persons promoted, except 
they speedily repent. For they shall 
be dejected from the glory of the sons 
of God to the slavery of the devil, and 
to the torment that is prepared for all such 
as do exalt themselves against God. Against 
God can nothing be more manifest, than 
that a woman should be exalted to reign 
above man : for the contrary sentence hath 
he pronounced in these words, " Thy will 
shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall 
bear dominion over thee. As God should 
say, for as much as thou hast abused thy 
former condition, and because thy free will 
hath brought thyself and mankind into the 
bondage of Satan, I will therefore bring 
thee in bondage to man. For when be- 



3 Gen. iii. 16. 



446 



THE FIRST BLAST AGAINST 



fore thy obedience should have been volun- 
tary, now it shall be by constraint and ne- 
cessity, and that because thou hast de- 
ceived thy man, thou shalt therefore be no 
longer mistress over thine own appetites, 
over thine own will and desires. For in 
thee there is neither reason nor discretion 
which be able to moderate thy affections, 
and therefore they shall be subject to the 
desire of thy man. He shall be lord and 
governor, not only over thy body, but even 
over thy appetites and will. This sen- 
tence, I say, did God pronounce against 
Neva and her daughters, as the rest of the 
scripture doth evidently witness. So that 
no woman can ever presume to reign 
above man, but the same she must needs 
do in despite of God, and in contempt of 
his punishment and malediction. I am 
not ignorant, that the most part of men do 
understand this malediction of the subjec- 
tion of the wife to her husband, and of the 
dominion which he beareth above her ; but 
the Holy Ghost giveth us another inter- 
pretation of this place, taking from all 
women all kind of superiority, authority, 
and power over man, speaking as follow- 
eth, by the mouth of St Paul, " I suffer 
not a woman to teach, neither yet to usurp 
authority above man." 1 Here he nameth 
women in general, excepting none : and in 
the first epistle to the Corinthians, chap, 
xiv. the apostle permitteth that all persons 
may prophesy one after another, that all 
may learn, and all may be comforted ; and 
lest the plurality of speakers should have 
bred confusion, he addeth, " The spirit of 
the prophets are subject to the prophets 
as if he should say, God shall always raise 
up some to whom the verity shall be 
revealed, and to such you shall give place, 
albeit they sit in the lowest place. And 
thus the apostle would have prophesying 
an exercise to be free to the whole church, 
that every one should communicate with 
the congregation what God had revealed 
to them, providing it were done orderly. 
But from this general privilege he seclud- 
eth all women, saying, 2 " Let women keep 
silence in the congregation :" and why, 1 



pray you ? Was it because he thought no 
women to have any knowledge? No, he 
giveth another, saying, "Let her be sub- 
ject as the law saith." In the words is 
first to be noted, that the apostle calleth 
the former sentence pronounced against 
women, a law, that is, the immutable de- 
cree of God, who by his own voice hath 
subjected her to one member of the con- 
gregation, that is, to her husband. Where- 
upon the Holy Ghost concludeth, that she 
may never rule, nor bear empire above 
man, for she that is made subject to one, 
may never be preferred to many. And 
that by the Holy Ghost is manifestly ex- 
pressed in these words, " I suffer not a 
woman to usurp authority above man." 
So both by God's law and the interpreta- 
tion of the Holy Ghost, women are utterly 
forbidden to occupy the place of God in 
the offices foresaid, which he has assigned 
to man, whom he hath appointed to be his 
lieutenant on earth. The apostle taketh 
power from all women to speak in the 
assembly : 3 ergo, he permitteth no woman 
to rule above man. The former part of 
the argument is evident, and so the con- 
clusion doth of necessity follow; for he 
that taketh from woman the least part of 
authority, will not permit unto her that 
which is greatest: but greater it is 4 to 
reign above realms and nations, to publish 
and make laws, to appoint judges and 
ministers, than to speak in the congrega- 
tion. Woman's judgment, sentence, or 
opinion proposed in the congregation may 
be judged by all, may be corrected by the 
learned, and reformed by the godly. But 
woman being promoted in sovereign autho- 
rity, her laws must be obeyed, her opinion 
followed, and her tyranny maintained, sup- 
pose it be expressly against God and the 
profit of the commonwealth. And there- 
fore yet again I repeat, that a woman 
promoted to sit in the seat of God, that is, 
to teach, to judge, or to reign above the 
man, is a monster in nature, contumely to 
God, and a thing most repugnant to his 
will and ordinance. That you may under- 
stand this my judgment to be no new in- 



1 Tim. ii. 2 1 Cor. xiv. 



3 A stroDg argument. 



4 Note. 



THE REGIMEN OF WOMEN. 



447 



terpretation of God's scriptures, I will re- 
cite the minds of some ancient writers in 
the same matter. Tertullian 1 in his book 
of Woman's apparel, after he hath showed 
many causes why gorgeous apparel is 
abominable and odious in a woman, he ad- 
deth these words, speaking, as it were, to 
every woman by name, " Doth not know, 
saith he, that thou art Eve ? The sentence 
of God liveth, and is effectual against thy 
kind ; and in this world, of necessity it is, 
that the punishment also live ; thou art the 
port and gate of the devil, thou art the 
first transgressor of God's law ; thou didst 
persuade and easily deceive him, whom 
the devil durst not assault ; for thy merit, 
— that is for thy death, — it behoved the 
Son of God to suffer death. And doth it 
yet abide in thy mind to deck them above 
thy skin coats?" By these and many 
other grave sentences and quick interro- 
gations did this godly writer labour to 
bring every woman in contemplation of 
herself, that she might avoid and abhor 
whatsoever thing might puff her up with 
pride, or that might be an occasion that 
should forget the sentence, which God 
hath pronounced against the whole race 
and daughters of Eve ; and what, I pray 
you, is more able to cause woman forget 
ner own condition, than if she be lifted up 
in authority above man ? It is a thing very 
difficile to man, — be he never so constant, 
— promoted to honours, not to be tickled 
somewhat with pride ; for the wind of vain- 
glory doth easily carry up the dry dust of 
the earth. But as for woman, it is no 
more possible that she, being set aloft in 
authority above man, shall resist the mo- 
tions of pride, than it is possible to the 
weak reed, or to the turning weather-cock, 
not to bow or to turn at the vehemency of 
the inconstant wind: and, therefore, the 
same writer expressly forbiddeth all women 
to intermeddle with the office of man, for 
thus he writeth in his book, 2 De virginibus 
velandiSy " It is not permitted to a woman 
to speak in the congregation, neither to 
teach, neither to baptize, neither to vindi- 



1 Tertullian de habitu mulierum. 2 Terlul. 
lib. 8. de virg. velandis. 



cate to herself any office of man." The 
same he speaketh yet more plainly in the 
preface of his sixth book against Marcion, 3 
when he, recounting certain monstrous 
things which were to be seen at the sea 
called Euxinum, amongst the rest he re- 
citeth, " there is a great monster in nature, 
that women in those parts were not tamed 
nor embossed by consideration of their 
own sex and kind, but that all shame laid 
apart, they made exercise upon weapons, 
and learned the feats of war, having more 
pleasure to fight, than to marry and be 
subject to man." Thus Tertullian, who 
taketh from woman all office appertaining 
to man, would never suffer her to reign 
above man; and he that judged it a mon- 
ster in nature, that a woman should exer- 
cise weapons, would judge it, no doubt, to 
be a monster of monsters, that a woman 
should be exalted above a whole realm and 
nation. Of the same mind is Origen and 
divers others, whose sentences I omit, to 
avoid prolixity. Augustine in his 22d 
book against Faustus, 4 proveth that a 
woman ought to do service to her husband 
as unto God, affirming, that in nothing 
hath woman equal power with man, ex- 
cept that neither have power over their 
own bodies, by which he would plainly in- 
clude, that woman ought never to pretend 
nor thirst for that power and authority 
which is due to man. And in another 
place he affirmeth, 5 that woman ought to 
be repressed and bridled betimes, if she as- 
pires to. any dominion : alleging that dan- 
gerous it is to suffer her to proceed, al- 
though it be in temporal and corporal 
things ; and thereto he addeth these words, 
" God seeth not for a time, neither is there 
any new thing in his sight, and know- 
ledge," meaning thereby, that what God 
had seen in one woman, — as concerning 
dominion and having of authority, — the 
same he seeth in all ; and what he hath 
forbidden to one, the same hath he for- 
bidden to all, and this most evidently ; yet 
in another place he writeth, moving this 



3 In proem. 6 lib. contra Marcion. 4 Aug. 
lib. 22. contra Faustinum, cap. 31. 5 De Trini- 
tate, lib. 12. cap. 7. 



448 



THE FIRST BLAST AGAINST. 



question, " How can woman be the image 
of God, seeing she is subject to man, and 
hath neither authority to teach, to be wit- 
ness, nor to judge, much less to rule or 
bear empire? Woman, saith Augustine, 
compared to other creatures is the image 
of God/ for she beareth dominion over 
them ; but compared to man, she may not 
be called the image of God, for she beareth 
not rule nor lordship over man, but ought 
to obey him," &c. And how woman ought 
to obey him, he speaketh 2 yet more clearly 
in these words, " The woman shall be sub- 
ject unto man as unto Christ," &c. With 
Augustine agreeth in every point St Am- 
brose, who thus writeth 3 in his Hexame- 
ron, " Adam was deceived by Eva, and not 
Eva by Adam, and therefore just it is, that 
woman receive and acknowledge him for 
governor whom she called to sin, lest 
again she slide by womanly facility." And 
writing upon the epistle to the Ephesians, 
chap. v. he saith, 4 " Let women be subject 
to their own husbands as unto the Lord, 
for the man is head to the woman," &c. 
As the congregation is subject to Christ, 
even so ought women to be to their hus- 
bands in all things. He proceedeth fur- 
ther, saying, " Women are commanded to 
be subject to men by the law of nature, 
because that man is the beginner of the 
woman : for as Christ is the head of the 
church, so is man of the woman ; from 
Christ the church took beginning, and 
therefore it is subject unto him, even so 
did woman take beginning from man that 
she should be subject." If any man think 
that all these former sentences be spoken 
only of the subjection of the married 
woman to her husband, as before I have 
proved the contrary by the plain words 
and reasoning of St Paul, so shall I shortly 
do the same by other testimonies of the 
foresaid writers. The same Ambrose, 5 
writing upon the second chapter of the 
first epistle to Timothy, after he hath 
spoken much of the simple arrayment of 
women, he addeth these words, " Woman 



1 In Quest. Vet. Test. Quest. 45. 2. Lib. 
de Continentia, cap. 4. 3. Ambros. in Hexae- 
meron, lib. 5. cap. 7. 4 Idem super, Ephes. 
chap. 5. 5 Ambros. super, cap. 2. 1 Tim. 



ought not only to have simple raiment, 
but all authority is to be denied unto her : 
for she must be in subjection to man, — of 
whom she hath taken her original, — as 
well in habit as in service." And after a 
few words, he saith, " Because death enter- 
ed into the world by her, there is no bold- 
ness that ought to be permitted unto her, 
but she ought to be in humility." Hereof 
it is plain, that from all women, married or 
unmarried, is all authority taken to exe- 
cute any office that appertaineth to man 
yea, plain it is, that all women are com- 
manded to serve, to be in humility and 
subjection, which thing the same writer 
speaketh yet more plainly in these words, 6 
"It is not permitted to women to speak, 
but to be in silence, as the law saith. What 
saith the law? Unto thy husband shall 
thy conversion be, and he shall bear do- 
minion over thee. This is a special law, 
saith Ambrose, whose sentence lest it 
should be violated, infirmed, or made weak 
women are commanded to be in silence." 
Here he includeth all women, and yet he 
proceedeth further in the same place, say- 
ing, " It is a shame for them to presume to 
speak of the law, in the house of the 
Lord, who hath commanded them to be 
subject to their men." But most plainly 
speaketh he, writing upon the xvi. chapter of 
the epistle to the Romans, upon these words, 
" Salute Rufus and his mother." " For 
this," saith Ambrose, " did the apostle place 
Rufus before his mother, for the election 
of the administration of the grace of God. 7 " 
In the which a woman hath no place by 
the administration of God's grace is under- 
stood, not only the preaching of the word 
and administration of the sacraments, by 
which God's grace is presented and ordi- 
narily distributed to man, but also the ad- 
ministration of civil justice, by the which 
virtue ought to be maintained, and vices 
punished, the execution whereof no less is 
denied to woman, than is the preaching of 
the evangel or administration of the sacra- 
ments, as hereafter shall most plainly ap- 
pear. Chrysostome among the Grecian 

6 Ambros. in 1 Eph. ad Cor. cap 14. Gen. 
3. 7 Rufus is by St Paul saluted before his 
mother. 



THE REGIMEN OF WOMEN. 



449 



writers of no small credit, speaking in re- 
buke of men, who in his days were become 
inferior to some women in wit and godli- 
ness, hath these words : l " For this cause 
was woman put under thy power," — he 
speaketh to man in general, — "and thou wast 
pronounced Lord over her, that she should 
obey thee, and that the head should not 
follow the feet." But often we see, that 
he who in his order ought to be the head, 
doth not keep the order of the feet, that is, 
doth not rule the feet, and that she that is 
in place of the feet is constitute to be 
head. He speaketh the words, as it were 
in admiration that man was become so 
brutish, that he did not consider it to be a 
thing most monstrous, that women should 
be preferred to men in any thing, whom 
God hath subjected to man iu all things. 
He proceedeth, saying, " Nevertheless, it is 
the part of the man, with diligent care to 
repel the woman that giveth him wicked 
counsel, and woman, who gave that pesti- 
lent counsel unto man, ought at all times 
to have the punishment, which was given 
to Eve, sounding in her ears." And in 
another place he bringeth in God speaking 
to the woman in this sort, 2 <c Because thou 
left him, of whose nature thou was par- 
ticipant, and from whom thou wast formed, 
and hast had pleasure to have familiarity 
with that wicked beast, and would take 
his counsel; therefore I subject thee to 
man, and I appoint him to be thy lord ; 
and because thou couldest not bear rule, 
learn well to be ruled." Why they should 
not bear rule, he declareth in other places, 3 
saying, " "Womankind is imprudent and 
soft, — or flexible ; — imprudent, because she 
cannot consider with wisdom and reason 
the things which she heareth and seeth, 
and soft, because she is easily bowed." I 
know Chrysostome bringeth in these words, 
to declare the cause why false prophets do 
commonly deceive women, because they 
are easily persuaded to any opinion, espe- 
cially if it be against God ; and because 
they lack prudence and right- reason to 
judge the things that are. spoken, they who 
are appointed to govern others, ought to be 

1 Chrysost. Homil. 17. in Gen. 2 Homil. 
16. in Gen. 3 In IVIatth. xxiii, Horn. 44. 



I constant, stable, prudent in doing every 
thing with discretion and reason, which 
virtues women cannot have in equality 
with men ; for that he doth witness in 
another place/ saying, " Women have in 
themselves a tickling and study of vain- 
glory ; and that they may have [in] com- 
mon with men : they are suddenly moved to 
anger ; and that they may have in com- 
mon with some men : but virtues in which 
they excel, they have not common with 
man : therefore the apostle has removed 
them from the office of teaching, which is 
an evident proof that in virtue they far 
differ from man." This writer further 
proceedeth ; and after he hath in many 
words lamented the effeminate manners of 
men, he finally concludeth, " That notwith- 
standing that men be degenerate, yet may 
not women usurp any authority above 
them." And in the end he addeth these 
words, " These things do I not speak to 
extol women, but to the confusion and 
shame of ourselves, and to admonish us to 
take again the dominion that is meet and 
convenient for us; not only that power 
which is according to the excellency of 
diguity, but that which is according to pro- 
vidence, and according to help and virtue, 
for then is the body in best proportion, 
when it hath the best governor : but women 
can never be the best governor, because in 
the nature of all women lurketh such 
vices, as in good governors are not tole- 
rable." Which the same writer expresseth 
in these words : " Womankind," 5 saith he, 
"is rash and fool-hardy ; and their covetous- 
ness is like the gulf of hell that is insa- 
tiable." And therefore in another place 6 
he willeth, that woman shall have nothing 
to do in judgment in common affairs, or in 

| the regimen of the commonwealth ; be- 
cause she is impatient of troubles : but that 
she shall live in tranquillity and quietness. 
And if she has occasion to go from the 
house, that yet she shall have no matter of 
trouble, neither to follow her, neither to 
be offered unto her, as commonly there 
must be to such as bear authority. And with 
Chrysostome fully agreeth Basilius Mag- 

4 Ad Ephes. cap. iv. serm. 3. 5 In Cap. 
xxii, Joh. Homil, 87. 6 In John, Horn. 41. 
3 L 



450 



THE FIRST BLAST AGAINST 



bus, in a sermon which he maketh upon 
some places of scripture, 1 wherein he re- 
proves divers vices, and amongst the rest, 
he affirm eth woman to be a tender crea- 
ture, flexible, soft, and pitiful, which nature 
God hath given unto her, that she may be 
apt to nourish children. The which facili- 
ty of the woman did Satan abuse, and 
thereby brought her from God's obedience. 
And therefore, in divers other places doth he 
conclude, that she is not apt to bear rule, 
and that she is forbidden to teach. Thus 
having proved by the determinations and 
laws, illuminated only by the light of na- 
ture, by the order of God's creation, by 
the curse and malediction pronounced 
against woman by the mouth of St Paul, 
who is the interpreter of God's sentence 
and law, and finally, by the minds of those 
writers who in God's church have been 
always holden in greatest reverence, — that 
it is a thing most repugnant to nature, to 
God's will and appointed ordinance, yea, 
that it cannot be without contumely against 
God, that a woman should be promoted to 
dominion or empire, to reign over man, be 
it in realm, nation, province or city. Now 
resteth in few words to be shown, that 
the same empire of women is the subver- 
sion of good order, equity and justice. 
Augustine 2 defineth order to be that thing 
by which God hath appointed and ordained 
all things. Augustine 3 will admit no or- I 
der where God's appointment is absent. ; 
And in another place he saith, * Order is a ! 
disposition giving their own proper places ! 
to things which be unequal," which he 
termeth in Latin, parium et disparium, that j 
is, of things equal or like, or things une- 
qual or unlike ; of which two places, and 
of the whole disputation, which is con- 
tained in his second book De ordine, it is 
evident, that whatsoever is done without 
the assurance of God's will, or else against 
his will revealed in his word, is done 
against order. But such is the empire and 
regimen of all women : therefore, I sa}', it 
is a thing plainly repugnant to good order, 



1 Basilius in aliquot Scriptuvse locos. 
2 Aug. de <;rd. lib. 1. cap. x. 3 De civit. 
Dei, lib. xix. cap. xiii. 



yea it is the subversion of the same. K 
any please to reject Augustine's definition, 
as either not proper to this purpose, or else 
as insufficient to prove my intent, let the 
same man understand, that in so doing he 
hath iutirmed mine argument nothing. 
For as I depend not upon the determina- 
tions of men, so I think my cause no 
weaker, albeit their authority be denied 
unto me, providing that God's revealed 
will stands evident on my side. That God 
hath subjected womankind to man, by the 
order of his creation, and by the curse 
that he hath pronounced against her, is be- 
fore declared. Besides these, he hath set be- 
fore our eyes two other mirrors and glasses, 
in which he willeth that we should behold 
the order which he hath appointed and 
established in nature : the one is the natu- 
ral body of man, the other is the politic or 
civil body of that commonwealth, in which 
God by his own word hath appointed an 
order. In man's natural body, God hath 
appointed an order that the head should 
occupy the uppermost place ; and the head 
hath he joined with the body, that from it 
doth life and motion flow to the rest of the 
members. In the head he hath placed the 
eye to see, the ear to hear, and the tongue 
to speak, which offices are appointed to 
none other members of the body. The 
rest of the members have every one their 
own place and office, but no member may 
have the place or office of the head, for 
who would not judge that body to be a 
monster, where there was no head emi- 
nent above the rest, hut that the eyes M ere 
in the hands, the tongue and the mouth 
beneath in the belly, and the ears in the 
feet : no less is the hody of that common- 
wealth, where a woman beareth empire; 
for either doth it lack a lawful head, as in 
very deed it doth, or else an idol is exalted 
instead of the true head. An idol I call 
that which hath the form and appearance, 
but lacketh the virtue and strength, which 
the name and proportion doth resemble 
and promise. 1 confess a realm may, in 
despite of God, — he of his wise judgment 
so giving them over unto a reprobate mind, 
— exalt up a woman to that monstriferous 
honour, to be esteemed as head. But im- 



THE REGIMEN OF WOMEN. 



451 



possible it is to man or angel to give unto 
her the properties and perfect offices of 
a lawful head ; for the same God that de- 
nied power to the hands to speak, to the 
belly to hear, and to the feet to see, hath 
denied to the woman power to command 
man, and hath taken away wisdom to con- 
sider, and providence to foresee, the things 
that be profitable to the commonwealth; 
yea, finally, he hath pronounced plainly, 
that man is head to woman, even as Christ 
is head to all men. 1 If men in a blind rage 
should assemble together and appoint them- 
selves another head than Jesus Christ, as 
the papists have done their Roman anti- 
christ, should therefore Christ lose his own 
dignity, or should God give to that coun- 
terfeit head power to give life to the body, 
to see whatsoever might endamage or hurt 
it, to speak in defence, and to hear the re- 
quests of every subject '? It is certain that 
he would not, for that honour which, be- 
fore all time, he hath appointed to his only 
son, will he give to no creature besides : 
no more will he admit or accept woman to 
be lawful head over man, although man, 
devil, and angel will conjure in her favour. 
Chrysostome explaining these words of the 
apostle, "The head of a woman is the 
man," compareth God in his universal 
regimen to a king sitting in his royal 
majesty, to whom all his subjects being 
commanded to give homage and obedience, 
appear before him, bearing every one such 
a badge and cognizance of dignity and 
honour, as he hath given to them ; which 
if they despise or contemn, then do they 
dishonour their king. "Even so," saith he, 
" ought men and women to appear before 
God, bearing the ensigns of the condition 
which they have received of him. Man 
hath received a certain glory and dignity 
above the woman ; and therefore ought he 
to appear before his high majesty bearing 
the sign of his honour, having no cover- 
ture upon his head, to witness, that on 
earth man hath no head." Beware, Chrysos- 
tome, what thou sayest ! thou shalt be re- 
puted a traitor if Englishmen hear thee ; 
for they must have my sovereign lady and 



1 Cor. xi. 



mistress, and Scotland hath drunken also 
the enchantment and venom of Circes, let 
it be to their own shame and confusion. 
He proceedeth in these words, "But woman 
ought to be covered, to witness that on 
earth she haih a head, that is, man." True 
it is, Chrysostome, woman is covered in 
both the said realms, but it is not with the 
sign of subjection, but it is with the sign of 
superiority, to wit with the royal crown. 
To that he answereth in these words : 
" What if man neglect his honour ? He is 
no less to be mocked," saith Chysostome, 
" than if a king should depose himself of his 
diadem or crown and royal estate, and 
clothe himself in the habit of a slave." 
What, I pray you, should this godly father 
have said, if he had seen the crown, scep- 
tre, and sword, which are the ensigns of 
the royal dignity, given to a woman cursed 
of God, and all the men of a realm to fall 
down before her ? I am assured he should 
have judged not only foolish, but also en- 
raged and slaves to Satan, manifestly fight- 
ing against God and his appointed order. 
The more I consider the subversion of 
God's order, which he hath placed gene- 
rally in all things, the more I do wonder 
at the blindness of man, who doth not con- 
sider himself in this case so degenerate, 
that the brute beasts are to be preferred 
unto him in this behalf: for nature hath in 
all beasts printed a certain mark of domi- 
nion in the male, and a certain subjection in 
the female, which they keep inviolate : for 
no man ever saw the lion make obedience 
and stoop before the lioness; neither yet 
can it be proved, that the hind taketh the 
conducting of the herd amongst the harts. 
And yet, alas ! man, who by the mouth of 
God hath dominion appointed to him over 
woman, doth not only to his own shame 
stoop under the obedience of woman, but 
also in despite of God and of his appointed 
order, rejoiceth and maintaineth that mon- 
strous authority, as a thing lawful and just. 
The insolent joy, the bonefires, and ban- 
quetting which were in London and else- 
where in England, when that cursed Jeze- 
bel was proclaimed queen, did witness to 
my heart, that men were become more than 
enraged ; for else how could they so have re- 



452 



THE FIRST BLAST AGAINST 



joiced at their own confusion and certain 
destruction ? For what man was there of 
so base judgment, supposing 1 that he had 
any lig-ht of God, who did not see the 
erecting of that monster to be the over- 
throw of true religion, and the assured 
destruction of England and of the ancient 
liberties thereof? And yet, nevertheless, 
all men so triumphed, as if God had de- 
livered them from all calamity. If any 
man think these my words sharp or vehe- 
ment, let him consider, that the offence is 
more heinous than could be expressed by 
words. God, for his great mercies' sake, 
illuminate the eyes of men, that they may 
perceive into what miserable bondage they 
are brought by the monstriferous em- 
pire of women ! The second glass which 
God hath set before man's eyes, wherein 
he may behold the order which pleases 
his wisdom, concerning authority and do- 
minion, is the commonwealth, to which it 
hath pleased his majesty to give laws, sta- 
tutes, rites and ceremonies, not only con- 
cerning religion, but also touching the 
policy and regimen of the same. And 
against that order it doth manifestly re- 
pugn, that any woman shall occupy the 
throne of God, that is, the royal seat, 
which he by his word hath appointed to 
man ; as in giving the law to Israel con- 
cerning the election of a king is evident : 
for thus it is written, 1 " If thou shalt say, 
I will set a king over me, like as all the 
nations that are about me, thou shalt make 
thee a king, whom the Lord thy God shall 
choose, one from among thy brethren shalt 
thou appoint king over thee, thou mayest 
not set a stranger over thee, that is not 
thy brother." Here expressly is a man 
appointed to be chosen king, and a man, 
native amongst themselves ; by which pre- 
cept is all women and all strangers seclud- 
ed. What may be objected for the part or 
election of a stranger, shall be, God willing, 
answered in the blast of the second trum- 
pet; for this present, I say, that the elect- 
ing of a woman to that honour, is not only 
to invert the order which God hath estab- 
lished, but also to defile and pollute, — so 



far as in man lieth,— -the throne and seat 
of God, which he hath sanctified and ap- 
pointed for man only, as his minister and 
lieutenant on earth. If any think that the 
foresaid law did bind the Jews only, let 
the same man consider that the election of 
a king and appointing of judges did neither 
appertain to the ceremonial law, neither 
yet was it merely judicial, but that it did 
flow from the moral law, as an ordinance 
having a respect to the conservation of 
both tables ; for the office of the magis- 
trate ought to have the first and chief 
respect to God's glory, commanded and 
contained in the former table, as is evident 
by that which God enjoined by Joshua 
when he was admitted governor over his 
people in these words : 2 " Thou shalt di- 
vide the inheritance to this people, the 
which I svvare to their fathers to give 
them ; only be thou strong and very coura- 
geous, that thou mayest observe to do all 
the law which Moses my servant com- 
manded thee : turn not from it to the right 
hand nor to the left, that thou mayest 
prosper Avhithersoever thou goest. Let 
not the book of the law depart from thy 
mouth, but meditate therein day and night, 
that thou mayest observe to do according 
to all that is written therein. For then 
shall thy ways prosper, and thou shalt 
have good success," &c. And the same 
precept giveth God by the mouth of Moses 
to kings, after they be elected, in these 
words : 3 " When he shall sit in the throne, 
or seat of his kingdom, he shall write to 
himself a copy of this law in a book, and 
that shall be with him, that he may read in 
it all the days of his life, that he may 
learn to fear the Lord his God, and to 
keep all the words of this law, and all 
these statutes that he may do them," &c. 
By these two places it is evident, that 
principally it appertaineth to the king or 
chief magistrate to know God's will, to be 
instructed in his law and statutes, and to 
promote his glory, with his whole heart 
and study, which be the chief points of the 
first table. No man denieth, but that the 
sword is committed to the magistrate, 



1 Ueut. xvii. 14, 15 ' 



2 Jobh. i. 3 Deut. xvii. 



THE REGIMEN OF WOMEN. 



453 



to the end that he should punish vice and 
maintain virtue. He ought not only to 
punish adultery, theft, murder, but also 
such vices as openly impugn God's glory, 
as idolatry, blasphemy, and manifest heresy 
taught and obstinately maintained, as the 
histories and notable acts of Hezekiah, 
Jehoshophat, and Josiah do plainly teach 
us, whose care was not only to glorify 
God in their own life, but also to bring 
their subjects to the true worship of God; 
and therefore, they destroyed all monu- 
ments of idolatry, punished to death the 
teachers thereof, and removed from office 
and honours such as were maintainers of 
the same, whereby, I suppose, it is evident, 
that the office of the king, or supreme 
magistrate, hath respect to the law moral, 
and to the conservation of both tables. 
Now if the law moral be the constant and 
unchangeable will of God, to the which 
the gentile is no less bound than was the 
Jew; and if God willeth that among the 
gentiles the ministers and executors of the 
law be now appointed, as sometimes they 
were amongst the Jews ; further, if the 
execution of justice be no less requisite in 
the policy of the gentiles, than ever it was 
amongst the Jews, — what man can be so 
foolish to suppose or believe, that God will 
now admit those persons to sit in judg- 
ment, or to reign over men in the com- 
monwealth of the gentiles, whom he by 
his express word and ordinance did before 
debar and seclude from the same ? And 
that women were secluded from the royal 
seat, besides the places before recited of 
the election of a king, and besides the 
places of the New Testament which be 
most evident, the order and election which 
were kept in Judah and Israel do mani- 
festly declare ; for when the males of the 
kingly flock failed, — as oft it chanced in 
Israel, and sometimes in Judah, — it never 
entered into the people's hearts to choose 
and promote to honour any of the king's 
daughters, had he never so many. For 
they, knowing God's vengeance to be 
poured forth upon the father by the away- 
taking of his sons, they had no further 
respect to his stock, but elected such a 
man or other as they judged most apt for 



that honour and authority ; of which pre- 
misses I conclude, as before, that to pro- 
mote a woman to be head over man is re- 
pugnant to nature, and a thing most con- 
trarious to that order, which God hath 
approved in that commonwealth which 
he did institute and rule by his word, 
But now to the last point, to wit, that the 
empire of a woman is a thing repugnant 
to justice and the destruction of every 
commonwealth when it is received, in few 
words, because the matter is more than 
evident, — I say, if justice be a constant and 
perpetual will to give to every person 
their own right, as the most learned in all 
ages have defined it to be, then to give, or 
to will to give to any person that which is 
not their right, must repugn to justice. 
But to reign above man can never be the 
right to woman, because it is a thing de- 
nied to her by God, as before is declared. 
Therefore to promote her to that estate or 
dignity can be nothing else but repugnan- 
cy to justice. If any find fault with jus- 
tice as it is defined, he may well accuse 
others, but me he shall not hurt, for I have 
the warrant of him who assuredly will de- 
fend the quarrel, and he commandeth me 
to cry that whatsoever repugneth to his 
will, expressed in his sacred word, repugn- 
eth to justice. But that women have 
authority above men repugneth to his will 
expressed in his word : and, therefore, at 
my Author's commandment, without fear 
I conclude, that all such authority repugn- 
eth to justice. The first part of the arcru- 
ment is a principle not only universally 
received, but also deeply printed in the 
heart of man, so that no less the reprobate 
are co-acted and constrained to acknow- 
ledge the same, than be the chosen children 
of God, albeit to divers ends. The elect 
with displeasure of their fact, confess their 
offence, having access to grace and mercy, 
as did Adam, David, Peter, and all other 
penitent offenders. But the reprobate, 
notwithstanding they are compelled to 
acknowledge the will of God to be just, 
the which they have offended, yet are 
they never inwardly displeased with their 
iniquity, but rage and complain, and storm 
against God, whose vengeance they cannot 



454 



THE FIRST BLAST AGAINST 



escape, as did Cain, Judas, Herod, Julian 
the apostate, yea, Jezebel and Athaliah : for 
Cain no doubt was convict in conscience, 
that he had done against justice in murder- 
ing of his brother. Judas did openly con- 
fess before the high priest, that he had 
sinned in betraying innocent blood. He- 
rod being stricken by the angel, did mock 
these his flatterers, saying unto them, be- 
hold your God," — meaning himself, — " can- 
not now preserve himself from corruption 
and worms." Julianus was compelled in 
the end to cry, " O Galilean," — so always 
in contempt did he name our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, — " thou hast now overcome." 
And who doubts but Jezebel and Athaliah 
were convicted in their cankered con- 
sciences to acknowledge, that the murder 
which they had committed, and the empire 
which the one had six years usurped, were 
repugnant to justice: even so shall they, I 
doubt not, which do this day possess and 
maintain their monstriferous authority of 
women, shortly be compelled to acknow- 
ledge, that their studies and devices have 
been bent against God, and that all such 
authority as women have usurped, repugn- 
eth to justice: because, as I have said, it 
repugneth to God's w ill expressed in his 
sacred word. Here might I bring in the 
oppression and injustice which is com- 
mitted against realms which sometimes 
have lived free, and now are brought in 
bondage of foreign nations, by reason of 
this monstriferous authority and empire of 
women. But that I delay till better op- 
portunity. And nov/ I think it expedient, 
such objections as carnal men, ignorant of 
God, use to make for maintenance of this 
tyranny, — authority, it is not worthy to be 
called, — and most unjust empire of women. 

1 First, they do object the example of De- 
borah and of Huldah the prophetess, of 
whom the one judged Israel, and the other 
by all appearance did teach and exhort. 

2 I answ r er, the men that object the same 
are not altogether ignorant that examples 



" 1 Objection 1. Judg. iv. Paral. 34. 2 Ex- 
amples against law have no strength when the 
question is of law. 



have no strength, when the question is 
of law : as if I should ask what marriage is 
lawful ? And it should be answered, That 
lawful it is to man not only to have so 
many wives at once, but also to marry two 
sisters, and to enjoy them both living at 
once, because David, Jacob, and Solomon, 
servants of God, had the same. I trust no 
man would justify the vanity of this rea- 
son: or if the question were demanded, if 
a Christian w r ith good conscience may de- 
fraud, or steal, or deceive ? and answer w r ere 
made, that so he might by the example of 
the Israelites, who, at God's command- 
ment, deceived the Egyptians, and spoiled 
them of their garments, gold, and silver, I 
think likewise this reason should be mock- 
ed. And what greater force, I pray you, 
hath the former argument ? Deborah did 
rule in Israel, and Huldah spake prophecy 
in Judah : ergo, it is lawful for women to 
reign above realms, or to teach in the pre- 
sence of men. The consequence is vain, 
and of none effect; for of particular ex- 
amples w r e may establish no common law, 
but are always bound to the law written 
and to the commandment expressed in the 
same. But the law written and pro- 
nounced by God forbiddeth no less that 
any woman reign over man, than it for- 
biddeth man to take plurality of wives, to 
marry two sisters living at once, to steal, 
to rob, to murder, to lie. If any of these 
have been transgressed, and yet God hath 
not imputed the same, it maketh not the 
like fact lawful to us; for God being free, 
may, for such causes as are approved by his 
inscrutable wisdom, dispense with the 
rigour of his own law, and may use his 
creatures at his pleasure. But the same 
power is not permitted unto man, whom he 
hath made subject to his law, and not to the 
examples of fathers. I think this suffi- 
cient to reasonable and moderate spirits. 
But to repress the raging of women's mad- 
ness, I will descend somewhat deeper in 
the matter, and not fear to affirm, that as 
we find a contrary spirit in all those most 
wicked women, that this day are exalted 
into this tyrranous authority, to the spirit 
that was in these godly matrons, so I fear 



THE REGIMEN OF WOMEN. 



4 55 



not to affirm, that their condition is unlike, j 
and their nd shall be diverse. 1 In these 
matrons we find that the spirit of mercy, J 
truth, and justice, and humility did reign, J 
and that under them God did show mercy j 
to his people, delivering- them from the 
tyranny of strangers, and from the venom 
of idolatry, but in these of our ages, we 
find cruelty, falsehood, pride, covetousness, 
deceit, oppression, the spirit of Jezebel and 
Athaliah, and under them simple people 
oppressed, true religion extinguished, and 
the blood of Christ's members most cruelly 
shed ; and, finally, the titles and liberties of 
ancient realms taken from the just pos- 
sessors, and given and betrayed into the 
hands of strangers. But to prosecute my 
purpose, let such as defend these monsters 
in their tyranny prove first, that their 
sovereign mistress is like to Deborah in 
godliness and piety, and secondly, that the 
same success doth follow their tyranny, 
which did follow the extraordinary regi- 
men of that godly matron, which although 
they were able to do, as they never shall 
be, let them blow till they burst, yet shall 
her example profit them nothing at all. 
For they are never able to prove that De- 
borah, or any other godly matron, having 
the commendation of the Holy Ghost 
within the scriptures, hath usurped autho- 
rity above any nation by reason of their 
birth and blood, neither yet did they claim 
it by right or inheritance, hut God by his 
singular privilege, favour, and grace, ex- 
empted Deborah from the common male- 
diction given in that behalf to woman, and 
against nature he made her prudent in 
counsel, strong in courage, happy in regi- 
men, and a blessed mother and a deliverer 
of his people. The which he did, partly to 
advance the power of his majesty in giving 
salvation and deliverance, by the means of 
the most weak vessels, and partly to con- 
found all men of that age, because they 
had for the most part deelined from his 
obedience. But what maketh this for Mary 
and her match Philip ? One thing I would 
ask such as depend upon the example of 



Deborah, whether she was a widow or 
wife when she judged Israel, and when 
God gave under her that riotable victory to 
his people? If they answer she was a 
widow, I would lay against them the testi- 
mony of the Holy Ghost, witnessing that 
she was the wife of Lapidoth : 2 and if they 
will allege that she might so be called, 
notwithstanding that her husband was 
dead. I urge them further, that they are 
not able to prove it to be any common 
phrase and manner of speech in scriptures, 
that a woman shall be called the wife of a 
dead man, except there be some note add- 
ed, whereby it may be known that her 
husband is departed, as is witness of Anna. 3 
But in the place of the Judges there is no 
note added, that her husband should be 
dead, but rather the contrary is expressed : 4 
for the text saith, " In that time a woman 
named Deborah, a prophetess, wife to Lapi- 
doth, judged Israel." The Holy Ghost 
plainly speaketh, that what time she 
judged Israel she was wife to Lapidoth. 
If she was wife, and if she ruled all alone 
in Israel, then I ask, did she not prefer her 
husband to that honour to be captain and 
leader of the host of the Lord ? If any 
think that it was her husband, the text 
proveth the contrary, for it affirmeth that 
Barak of the tribe of Naphtali was ap- 
pointed to that office. If Barak had been 
her husband, to what purpose should the 
Holy Ghost so diligently have noted the 
tribe, and another name than was before 
expressed ? yea, to what purpose should it 
be noted, that she sent and called him ? 
Thus, I doubt not, but every reasonable 
man doth consider, that this Barak was 
not her husband, and that her judgment or 
government in Israel was no usurped 
power, as our queens unjustly this day 
possess, but that it was the spirit of pro- 
phecy that rested upon her, what time the 
multitude of the people had wrought wick- 
edly in the eyes of the Lord, hy which 
spirit she did rebuke the idolatry and ini- 
quity of the people, exhort them to repen- 
tance, and in the end bring them this com- 
fort, that God should deliver them from 



1 An antithesis betwixt the former matrons 
and our Jezebels. 



2 Judg, iv. 3 Luke ii. 4 Judg. iv. 4. 



456 



THE FIRST BLAST AGAINST 



the bondage and thraldom of their ene- 
mies. And this she might do, notwith- 
standing- that another did occupy the place 
of the supreme magistrate, if any was in 
those days in Israel, for so I find did Hul- 
dah, the wife of Shallum, in the days of Jo- 
siah king- of Judah, 1 speak prophecy, and 
comfort the king ; and yet he resigned to 
her neither the sceptre nor the sword. 
That this our interpretation, how that 
Deborah did judge in Israel, was the true 
meaning of the Holy Ghost, the pondering 
of the history shall manifestly prove : when 
she sendeth for Barak, she saith not to him, 
I being thy princess, thy sovereign lady and 
queen, command thee upon thine allegi- 
ance, and under pain of treason, to go and 
gather an army ; but she speaketh as one 
that had a special revelation from God, 
which was neither known to Barak nor to 
the people, saying, "Hath not the Lord God 
of Israel commanded thee ?" Such like when 
she had delivered to him the whole counsel 
of God, appointing unto him the number 
of his soldiers, the tribes out of which they 
should be gathered, the place of the battle, 
and had assured him of the victory in 
God's name, which she could not have 
done without a special revelation from 
heaven, he fainted, and openly refused to 
enter into journey, except the prophetess 
would accompany him. But what, did she 
use against him any external power, did 
she threaten him with rebellion and death ? 
No, no ; but for assurance of his faint heart, 
being content to go with him, she pro- 
nounceth, that the glory should not be his 
in that journey, but that the Lord should 
sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. 
Hereby it is evident, that Deborah did all 
by his spiritual sword, the word of God, 
and not by any usurped temporal regimen 
nor authority over Israel; as our queens do 
this day claim. In Israel, I suppose, at 
that time, there was no lawful magistrate, 
by reason of their great affliction, for so 
witnesseth the history, saying, " And Ehud 
being dead, the Lord sold Israel into the 
hand of Jabin king of Canaan :" and he by 
Sisera his captain, afflicted Israel greatly 



the space of twenty years : and Deborah 
herself, in her song of thanksgiving, con- 
fesseth, that before she did arise as a 
mother in Israel, and in the days of Jael, 
there was nothing but confusion and 
trouble. If any stick to the term, alleging 
the Holy Ghost saith, "that she judged 
Israel," let them understand, that neither 
doth the Hebrew word, neither yet the 
Latin, always signify civil judgment, or 
the execution of the temporal sword, but 
most commonly is taken in the sense 
which we have before expressed; for of 
Christ it is said, " He shall judge many 
nations, and pronounce judgment to the 
Gentiles;" and yet it is evident that he 
was no minister of the temporal sword. 
God commandeth Judah and Jerusalem 
to judge between him and his vine- 
yard, and yet he appointed not all them to 
be civil magistrates. To EzekieF it is 
said, " Shalt thou not judge them, son of 
man?" And after, " Thou son of man, shalt 
thou not judge? Shalt thou not judge, I 
say, the city of blood ?" and also, " Behold 
I shall judge betwixt beast and beast." 
And such places in great numbers are to 
be found throughout the whole scriptures. 
And yet I trust no man will be so foolish 
as to think, that any of the prophets were 
appointed by God to be politic judges, or 
to punish the sins of men by corporal pun- 
ishment. No; the manner of their judg- 
ment is expressed in these words : 3 " De- 
clare to them all their abominations ; and 
thou shalt say to them, thus saith the 
Lord God, A city shedding blood in the 
midst of her, that her time may approach, 
and which hath made idols against herself, 
that she might be polluted ; thou hast 
transgressed in the blood that thou hast 
shed, and art polluted in the idols which 
thou hast made." Thus, I say, do God's 
prophets judge, pronouncing the sentence 
of God against malefactors. And so I 
doubt not but Deborah judged at that 
time, when Israel had declined from God, 
rebuking their defection, and exhorting 
them to repentance, without usurpation of 
any civil authority : and if the people gave 



1 2 Kings 22. 



2 Ezek. 20. 22, 34. 3 Ezek. 22. 



THE REGIMEN OF WOMEN. 



457 



to her for a time any reverence or honour, 
as her godliness and happy counsel did 
well deserve, yet it was no such empire as 
our monsters claim ; for which of her sons 
cr nearest kinsmen left she ruler and judge 
in Israel after her ? The Holy Ghost ex- 
pressed no such thing: wherefore it is 
evident, that by her example God offereth 
do occasion to establish any regimen of 
women above men, realms, and nations. 1 
But is it not lawful, say some, that women 
have their right and inheritance, like as 
the daughters of Zelophehad were com- 
manded by the mouth of Moses 2 to have 
their portion of ground in their tribe ? I 
answer, it is both lawful and equitable, 
that women possess their inheritance. 
But I add therewith, that to bear rule and 
authority over men, can never be right 
nor inheritance to a woman : for that can 
never be just inheritance to any person, 
which God by his word has plainly denied 
unto them : but to all women God hath 
denied authority above man, as most mani- 
festly is before declared : therefore to her 
it can never be inheritance. The portion 
of Zelophehad's daughters was not to reign 
over any one tribe, nor yet over any one 
man within Israel, but only that they 
might have a portion of ground amongst 
the men of their tribe, lest that the name 
of their father should be abolished. And 
this was granted to them without any 
respect had to any civil regimen. And 
what maketh this, I pray you, for the 
establishing this monstrous empire of 
women ? Although women may succeed to 
the possession, substance, patrimony, or 
inheritance of their fathers, yet they may 
not succeed in their father's offices, least 
of all to that office, the executor whereof 
doth occupy the place and throne of God. 
One thing there is yet to be observed in the 
law made concerning the inheritance of the 
daughters of Zelophehad, to wit, 3 that it was 
forbidden to them to marry without their 
own tribe, lest such portion as fell to 
their lot should be transferred from one 
tribe to another, and so should the tribe of 
Manasseh be defrauded and spoiled of 



1 2 Objection. 2 Num. 27. 3 Num. 36. 



their just inheritance by their occasion. 
Wonder it is that the patrons of our ladies 
did not consider this law, before they coun- 
selled the blind princes and unworthy 
nobles of their country, to betray the 
liberties thereof into the hands of stran- 
gers. England for satLfying the inordi- 
nate appetites of that cruel monster Mary, 
unworthy by reason of her bloody tyranny 
of the name of a woman, betrayed, alas ! 
to the proud Spaniard : and Scotland, by 
the rash madness of foolish governors, and 
by the practice of a crafty dame, resigned 
likewise under the title of marriage into 
the power of France. Doth such transla- 
tions of realms please God's justice ? or is 
the possession by such means lawful in 
God's sight? Assuredly no, for if God 
would not permit that the inheritance, 
commodity, and usual fence, which may be 
gathered Of the portion of ground limited 
and assigned to one tribe of the children 
of Israel should pass to another, by the 
marriage of any daughter, notwithstanding 
that they were all one people, speaking 
one tongue, descended of one father, pro- 
fessors of one God and one religion. Will 
he suffer that the laws, liberties, commo- 
dities, and fruits of whole realms be given 
into the power and distribution of others 
by reason of marriage, especially in the 
powers of such as, besides that of a strange 
tongue, of strange names and laws, but 
also ignorant of God, enemies to his truth, 
deniers of Christ Jesus, persecuters of his 
true members, and haters of all virtue. 
The Spaniards, for very despite which they 
do bear against Christ Jesus, whom their 
forefathers did crucify, — for Jews they are, 
as histories do witness, and themselves 
confess, — do this day make plain Mar 
against all true professors of his holy gos- 
pel. And the French king and his pesti- 
lent prelates, by the flaming fires which 
lick up the innocent blood of Christ's 
members, and by cruel edicts do notify and 
proclaim how blindly and outrageously 
they fight against the verity of God. And 
yet to these two cruel tyrants, France and 
Spain, is the right and possession of Eng- 
land and Scotland appointed. But just 
and lawful shall that possession never be, 
3 M 



458 



THE FIRST BLAST AGAINST 



till God do change the statute of his for- 
mer law, which he will not do for the 
pleasure of man ; for he hath not created 
the earth to satisfy the ambition of two or 
three tyrants, but for the universal seed of 
Adam, and hath appointed and defined the 
bounds of their habitation, assigning to 
divers nations divers countries, as he him- 
self confesseth, speaking- to Israel in these 
words : " 'You shall pass by the bounds and 
limits of your brethren, the sons of Esau, 
who dwell in mount Seir. They shall fear 
you ; but take diligent heed that you show 
not yourselves cruel against them, for I 
will give you no part of their land, no not 
the breadth of a foot; for mount Seir I 
have given to Esau to be possessed." And 
the same doth he witness of the sons of 
Lot, to whom he had given Ar to be pos- 
sessed. And Moses plainly affirmeth, 2 that 
when the Almighty did distribute and 
divide possessions to the Gentiles, and 
when he did disperse and scatter the sons 
of men, that then he did appoint the limits 
and bounds of the people, for the number 
of the sons of Israel, whereof it is plain, that 
God hath not exposed the earth in prey to 
tyrants, making all things lawful, which by 
violence and murder they may possess ; but 
that he hath appointed to every several na- 
tion a several possession, willing them to 
stand content, — as nature did teach an 
Ethnic to affirm, 3 — with that portion, which 
by lot and just means they had enjoyed. 
For what cause God permitteth this his 
distribution to be troubled, and realms and 
ancient nations to be possessed of stran- 
gers, I delay at the time to entreat : But 
come to a third objection. 4 The consent, 
say our ladies' advocates, of realm and 
laws, pronounced and admitted in this be- 
half, long consuetude and custom, to- 
gether with the felicity of some women in 
empires, have established their authority. 
I answer, neither can the tyranny of prin- 
ces, neither the foolishness of people, nei- 
ther wicked laws made against God, nei- 
ther yet the felicity that in this earth may 
hereof ensue, make that thing lawful, 



which he by his word hath manifestly 
condemned ; for if the approbation of prin- 
ces and people, and laws made by men, or 
the consent of realms, may establish any 
thing against God and his word, then 
should idolatry be preferred to true religion: 
for more realms and nations, more laws 
and decrees published by emperors, with 
common consent of their councils, have 
established the one, than have approved 
the other: and yet I think that no man of 
sound judgment will therefore justify and 
defend idolatry; no more ought any man this 
odious empire of women, although it were 
approved of all men by their laws : for the 
same God, that in plain words forbiddeth 
idolatry, doth also forbid the authority of 
women over men. I know these, who 
maintain this monstrous empire, have yet 
two main shifts. First, they allege, 5 that 
albeit women may not absolutely reign by 
themselves, because they may neither sit 
in judgment, neither pronounce sentence, 
neither execute any public office, yet they 
may do such things by their lieutenants, 
deputes, and judges substitute. Secondly, 
say they, a woman born to rule over any 
realm, may choose her own husband, and 
to him she may transfer and give her au- 
thority and right. To both I answer in 
few words. First, that from a corrupt and 
venomed fountain can spring no whole- 
some waters. Secondly, that no person 
hath power to give the thing which doth 
not justly appertain to themselves. But 
the authority of a woman is a corrupted 
fountain, and therefore, from her can never 
spring any lawful officer. She is not born 
to rule over man, and therefore, she can 
appoint none by her gift nor by her power, 
which she hath not, to the place of a law- 
ful magistrate : and therefore, whosoever 
receiveth of a woman office or authority, 
are adulterous and bastard office-bearers 
before God. This may appear strange at 
the first, but if we will look with an in- 
different eye, the reason will suddenly 
appear the case. Suppose that a tyrant by 
conspiracy usurped the royal seat and dig- 
nity of a king, and in the same did so 



1 Deut. ii. 2 Deut. xxxii. 3 Cicero 
de Offic. lib. 1. 4 Objection 3. 



5 Objection 4. 



THE REGIMEN OF WOMEN. 



459 



establish himself, that he appointed offi- 
cers, and did what pleased him for a time ; 
and in this meantime the native king- 
made straight inhibition to all his subjects, 
that none should acknowledge him or 
receive dignity of him, yet nevertheless 
they would honour the same traitor as 
king-, and become his officers in all affairs 
of the realm. If after the native prince 
did recover his just honour and possession, 
should he repute or esteem any man of the 
traitor's appointment for a lawful magis- 
trate, or for his friend and true subject ? 
Or should he not rather without sentence 
condemn the head with the members ? 
And if he should do so, who were able to 
accuse him of rigour, much less to con- 
demn his sentence of injustice ? And dare 
we deny the same power to God in the 
like case ? For that woman reigneth above 
man, she hath obtained it by treason and 
conspiracy; how can it be then, that she, 
being- guilty and criminal of treason against 
God committed, can appoint any officer 
pleasing in his sight ? It is impossible. 
Wherefore, let men that receive of women 
authority, honour', or office, be most surely 
persuaded, that in so maintaining that 
usurped power, they declare themselves 
enemies to God. If any think that because 
the realm and estates thereof have given 
their consents unto a woman, and have 
established her and her authority, that 
therefore, it is lawful and acceptable to 
God, let the same men remember what I 
have said before, to wit, that man cannot 
approve the doing nor consent of any mul- 
titude, concluding any thing against his 
word and ordinance. And, therefore, they 
must have a more assured defence against 
God's wrath, else they shall not be able to 
stand in the presence of the consuming- 
fire. That is, they must acknowledge that 
the regimen of a woman is a thing most 
odious in the presence of God ; they must 
refuse to be her officers, because she is a 
traitress and rebel against God ; and finally, 
they must study to repress her inordinate 
pride and tyranny to the uttermost of their 
powers. The same is the duty of the 
nobility and estates by whose blindness a 
woman is promoted. First, in so far as 



they have most heinously offended against 
God, placing in authority such as God by 
his word has removed from the same, 
unfeignedly they ought to call for mercy, 
and, being admonished of their error and 
damnable fact, in sign and token of true 
repentance, with common consent, they 
ought to retract that which unadvisedly 
and, by ignorance they have pronounced, 
and without further delay to remove from 
authority all such persons as by usurpa- 
tion, violence, or tyranny, do possess the 
same. For so did Israel and Judah after 
they had revolted from David, and Judah 
alone in the days of Athaliah. 1 For after 
that she, by murdering her son's children, 
had the empire over the land, and had 
most unhappily reigned in Judah six years, 
Jehoiada the high-priest called together 
the captains and chief rulers of the people, 
and showing to them the king's son Joash, 
did bind them by an oath to depose that 
wicked woman, and to promote the king 
to his royal seat, which they faithfully did, 
killing at his command not only that cruel 
and mischievous woman, but also the 
people did destroy the temple of Baal, 
break his altars and images, and kill Mat- 
tan, Baal's high-priest, before his altars. 
The same is the duty as well of the estates 
as of the people that have been blinded: 
first, they ought to remove from honour 
and authority that monster in nature. So 
call I a woman clad in the habit of a 
man, yea, a woman against nature reign- 
ing above man. Secondly, if any person 
presume to defend that impiety, they 
ought not to fear first to pronounce, and 
thereafter to execute against them the sen- 
tence of death. If any be afraid to violate 
the oath of obedience which they have 
made to such monsters, let them most 
assuredly be persuaded, that as the be- 
ginning of their oaths, proceeding from 
ignorance, was sin, so is the obstinate pur- 
pose to keep the same nothing but plain 
rebellion against God. But of this matter 
in the second Blast, God willing, we shall 
speak more at large. Now, to put an end 
to the first Blast; let all men take heed 

1 2 Kings xi. 



460 



THE FIRST BLAST AGAINST 



what quarrel and cause from henceforth 
they do defend. If God raise up any noble 
heart to vindicate the liberty of his coun- 
try, and to suppress the monstrous empire 
of women, let all such as shall presume to 
defend them in the same most certainly 
know, that in so doing they lift their 
hands against God, and that one day they 
shall find his power to fight against their 
foolishness. Let not Christ's faithful sol- 
diers be utterly discouraged ; neither let 
the tyrants rejoice, albeit for a time they 
triumph. For the cause why he suffereth 
his soldiers to fall in battle, as by holy 
scripture may be gathered, is sometimes to 
bear down the pride of flesh, sometimes to 
punish the offences of his own children, 
and to bring them to unfeigned acknow- 
ledgment of the same. You know the 
cause of the Israelites who did fight 
against Benjamin was most just, for it was 
to punish that most horrible abomination 
of these sons of Belial, abusing the Le- 
vite's wife, whom the Benjamites did de- 
fend ; and they had God's precept to assure 
them of well doing, for he not only com- 
manded them to fight, but also appointed 
Judah to be their leader and captain. But 
because at the first they trusted in their 
multitude, power, and strength, therefore 
they fell twice in battle against these most 
wicked adulterers. Yet after they had 
wept before the Lord, after they had 
fasted and made sacrifice in sign of their 
unfeigned repentance, they so prevailed 
against that proud tribe of Benjamin, that 
after twenty-five thousand strong men of 
war were killed in battle, they destroyed 
man, woman, child, and beast, as well in 
the fields as in the cities, which all were 
burned with fire: so that of that whole 
tribe remained only six hundred men, who 
fled to the wilderness, where they remain- 
ed four months, and so were saved. The 
same God who did execute this grievous 
punishment, even by the hands of those 
whom he suffered twice to be overcome in 
battle, doth this day retain his power and 
justice. Cursed Jezebel of England, with 
the pestilent and detestable generation of 
papists, make no little brag and boast, that 
they have triumphed not only against 



Wyat,* but also against all such as have 
enterprised any thing against them or their 
proceedings : but let her and them con- 
sider, that yet they have not prevailed 
against God. His throne is more high 
than that the length of their horns be able 
to reach. And let them further consider, 
that in the beginning of this their bloody 
reign, the harvest of their iniquity was not 
come to full maturity and ripeness : no, it 
was so green, so secret I mean, so covered, 
and so hid with hypocrisy, that some men, 
even of the servants of God, thought it not 
impossible, but that wolves might be chang- 
ed into lambs, and also that the viper might 
remove her natural venom. But God, who 
doth reveal in his time appointed the se- 
crets of hearts, and that will have his judg- 
ments justified, even by the very wicked, 
hath now given open testimony of her and 
their beastly cruelty. For man and wo- 
man, learned and unlearned, nobles and men 
of baser sort, aged father and tender dam- 
sels, and finally, the bones of the dead, as 
well women as men, have tasted of their 
tyranny. So that now, not only the blood 
of father Latimer, the mild man of God the 
bishop of Canterbury, of learned and dis- 
creet Ridley, of innocent lady Jane Dud- 
ley, and many godly and worthy preachers 
that cannot be forgotten, such as fire hath 
consumed, and the sword of tyranny most 
unjustly hath shed, doth call for vengeance 
in the ear of the Lord God of hosts ; but 
also the sobs and tears of the poor op- 
pressed, the groanings of the angels the 
watchmen of the Lord, yea, and every 
earthly creature abused by their tyranny, 
do continually cry and call for the hasty 
execution of the same. I fear not to say, 
that the day of vengeance, which shall 
apprehend that horrible monster Jezebel of 
England, and such as maintain her mon- 
strous cruelty, is already appointed in the 
counsel of the eternal : and I verily believe, 
that it is so nigh, that she shall not reign 
so long in tyrrany as hitherto she has 
done, when God shall declare himself to 
be her enemy, when he shall pour forth 

* Sir Thomas Wyat, who was at the head of 
an insurrection against queen Mary of Eng- 
land Ed. 



THE REGIMEN OF WOMEN. 



461 



contempt upon her according to her cruel- 
ty, and shall kindle the hearts of such as 
sometimes did favour her with deadly 
hatred against her, that they may execute 
his judgments. And therefore let such as 
Assist her take heed what they do ; for as- 
suredly her empire and reign is a wall without 
foundation ; I mean the same of the autho- 
rity of all women. It hath been under- 
propped this blind time that is past, with 
the foolishness of people, and with the wick- 
ed laws of ignorant and tyrannous princes. 
But the fire of God's word is already J aid 



to these rotton props, — I include the pope's 
law with the rest, — and presently they 
burn, albeit we espy not the flame. When 
they are consumed, as shortly they will be, 
— for stubble and dry timber cannot long en- 
dure the fire, — that rotten wall, the usurped 
and unjust empire of women, shall fall 
by itself in despite of all men, to the de- 
struction of so many as shall labour to 
uphold it. And therefore let all men 
be advertised, for the trumpet hath once 
blown. 

Praise God, ye that fear him. 



[The following- advertisement was first printed at the end of his appellation to the 
nobility, &c. of Scotland.] 



JOHN KNOX TO THE READER. 



Because many are offended at the first 
blast of the trumpet, in which I affirm, 
that to promote a woman to bear rule or 
empire above any realm, nation, or city, is 
repugnant to nature, contumely to God, 
and a thing most contrarious to his re- 
vealed and approved ordinance; and be- 
cause also, that some have promised, as I 
understand, a confutation of the same, I 
have delayed the second blast till such 
time as their reasons appear, by the which 
I either may be reformed in opinion, or 
else shall have further occasion more sim- 
ply and plainly to utter my judgment. 
Yet in the meantime, for the discharge of 
my conscience, and for avoiding suspicion, 
which might be engendered by reason of 
my silence, I could not cease to notify 
these subsequent propositions, which by 
God's grace I purpose to entreat in the 
second blast promised. 

1. It is not birth only, nor propinquity of 
blood, that maketh a king lawfully to 
reign above a people professing Christ 



Jesus and his eternal verity; but in his 
election must the ordinance, which God 
hath established in the election of inferior 
judges, be observed. 

2. No manifest idolater or notorious 
transgressor of God's holy precepts ought 
to be promoted to any public regimen, 
honour, or dignity, in any realm, province, 
or city, that hath subjected themselves to 
Christ Jesus and to his blessed evangel. 

3. Neither can oath or promise bind any 
such people to obey and maintain tyrants 
against God and against his truth known. 

4. But if either rashly they have pro- 
moted any manifestly wicked person, or yet 
ignorantly have chosen such a one, as after 
declareth himself unworthy of regimen 
above the people of God, — and such are all 
idolaters and cruel persecuters, — most justly 
may the same men depose and punish him, 
that unadvisedly before they did nominate, 
appoint, and elect. 

Math. vi. " If the eye be single, the 
whole body shall be clear." 



A 



LETTER OF JOHN KNOX'S 



TO THE 



PEOPLE OF EDINBURGH, 



FIRST PRINTED AT STIRLING BY ROBERT LEKPREVIK, ANNO 1571. 



TO HIS LOVING BRETHREN WHOM GOD ONCE GLORIOUSLY GATHERED IN THE CHURCH OF 
EDINBURGH, AND NOW ARE DISPERSED FOR TRIAL OF OUR FAITH, &C. 



The troubles of the just shall shortly come 
to an end, to the glory of God, and to their 
eternal comfort. Beloved brethren in the 
Lord Jesus, partakers now of his afflictions, 
if the inability of body would suffer, I 
would write a long letter : but being in 
that estate, that I may not write with my 
own hand two lines, I must abide the 
good leisure of God, and desire you to 
have me excused, that I have not sooner 
visited you in this your dolorous perse- 
cution. When I call to mind the fearful 
threatenings of God that have been often- 
times thundered out into your ears, and 
do consider these present days, in the 
midst of my dolour I praise my God that 
Satan hath not gotten the full victory, as 
he pretended. For this separation which 
now is made to the grief of many hearts, 
is yet a secure document, that the word of 
God hath not lost the whole strength in 
you : but that God, working thereby, hath 
pulled you forth from the midst of the 
wicked, lest that ye should be with them 
condemned, who now most manifestly re- 
bel both against God and man. 

Of one thing I must put you in mind, 
and I pray God that ye may fruitfully re- 
member it : that the word of God preached 
by the mouth of man, is not a vain sound 
and words spoken without a purpose : but 
is the summoning of God himself, fore- 
warning men before the judgment come. 
Ye have heard it plainly spoken, that we 
would [go] to Egypt again, in despite of 
Jeremiah and all admonitions : which 



threatening for that time was not only 
mocked, but also boldly spoken against. 
But whether this day declare th the truth 
of that and other threatenings, let the very 
blind world judge. For what can be to 
return to Egypt, if to join hands with 
idolaters be not ? Yea, to erect an autho- 
rity, — by God justly condemned, — without 
order, both against God and man ? Such 
men when they were spoken unto, and 
were plainly admonished of their appear- 
ing defection, could not abide to be called 
proud contemners of God ; who now 
spare not at every moment to blaspheme 
God, and by their wicked works plainly to 
deny, that there is a God that maketh dif- 
ference betwixt vice and virtue. 

Rejoice, therefore, and praise God's mer- 
cies, who hath called you from the com- 
pany of such ; and continue constant in 
that, that God of his mercy hath wrought 
in you, to wit, a fear to remain in the 
faction of the wicked ; which fear, I pray 
God, may daily increase in your hearts. 
I know the assaults that ye shall suffer, 
are sore and hard to be gainstood ; and 
therefore be ye fervent in prayer, that ye 
repent not that God hath chosen you to 
suffer affliction with his son Jesus Christ. 
Hard it is, I say, to gainstand flesh and 
blood, and whatsoever is most precious 
in this life only, in hope of that kingdom 
promised. And yet only they that con- 
tinue to the end, shall stand in assurance 
before the Lord Jesus, in that general 
day when virtue shall receive a just re- 



464 



A LETTER, &c. 



ward, and vice, with the workers of im- 
piety, shall suffer wrath and vengeance 
without end. 

Be ye not slandered at the multitude of 
them that have joined hands with impiety. 
" For if they had been of us," as St John 
saith, " they had remained with us." But 
now this their defection doth plainly de- 
clare, that when they w r ere with us, they 
were but as corrupted humours within the 
body, which behoved to be expelled forth, 
before the body could convalesce and come 
to perfection again. Lament their fail, 
but follow not their trade. For howso- 
ever they prosper in their attempts, the 
end thereof shall be their destruction, 
temporal and eternal, unless speedy repen- 
tance prevent God's judgments ; which to 
wish is godly, but to believe is foolish 
presumption, as ofttimes ye have heard. 

Look not for final victory, before that 
the strength and pride of flesh be beaten 
down; neither be ye discouraged, albeit 
that iniquity prosper before the world. 

For the time of their felicity, which 



troubleth you for the present, shall be 
short. Join not with them, therefore, as 
ye will avoid plagues present, and con- 
demnation eternal. Be faithful and loving 
one to another. Let bitterness and sus- 
picion be far out of your hearts : and let 
every one watch for the preservation of 
another, without grudging or murmuring ; 
being assured, that as God hath appointed 
you to suffer affliction for righteousness' 
sake, so hath he appointed you to possess 
a kingdom, wherein neither Satan, sin, nor 
death shall have power to molest you. 
Rejoice in the Lord, that he hath counted 
you worthy to suffer for his name's sake. 
Pray for me, brethren, that I may fight 
my battle joyfully to the end. The Lord 
Jesus preserve you now and ever. Amen. 
Of St Andrews, the 17th of July, 1571. 
Your brother to power in Christ Jesus, 
John Knox. 

If I might write, I would exhort you to 
remember, " that by many tribulations we 
must enter into the kingdom of heaven " 



JOHN KNOX, 



THE SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST. 

IS PREACHING OF HIS HOLY EVANGEL, TO THE BENEVOLENT READER, DESIRETH GRACE AND 
PEACE, WITH THE SPIRIT OF RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT. 



Wonder not, Christian reader, that [with] 
all my study and travail within the scrip- 
tures of God, these twenty years, I have set 
forth nothing- in expounding any portion of 
scripture, except this only rude and indi- 
gested sermon, preached by me in the pub- 
lic audience of the church of Edinburgh, 
the nineteenth day of August, anno 1565.* 
That I did not in writing communicate my 
judgment upon the scriptures, I have ever 
thought myself to have most just reason ; 
for, considering myself rather called of my 
God to instruct the ignorant, comfort the 
sorrowful, confirm the weak, and rebuke 
the proud, by tongue and lively voice, 
in these most corrupt days, than to com- 
pose books for the age to come, seeing that 



* From this and what follows, it appears 
that Knox did not usually write his sermons 
hefore preaching them. Probably he carefully 
pondered his subject with prayer to God for 
the aid of his Spirit, and with no other prepara- 
tion, went to the pulpit, where, from the ful- 
ness of his heart, he found words at will. This 
is what the celebrated Fenelon recommends as 
the best way of attaining true pulpit eloquence. 
This Knox certainly possessed in a high degree. 
He was aware that the talent of oral preaching 
was that which God had given to him, and he 
very wisely and faithfully occupied it to the 
glory of his Master. His pen was otherwise 
employed than writing sermons, and his time 
better occupied than getting them by heart to 
be recited from memory. In a former note I 
called his Admonition to the people of England 
an expository lecture ; but from what he says 
above, he did not himself regard it as such, 
for he calls the following discourse the first 
thing of that kind which he had set forth. And 
J suppose it was the only one published by 
himself; but Dr M'Crie mentions two more, 
which must have been published after his 
death , for the complimentary style of their 
titles could not be the product of his own pen. 
One of them, like the following, was written 
after being preached, and it does not appear 
that the other was preached at all. The former 



so much is written, and by men of most 
singular erudition, and yet so little well 
observed ; I decreed to contain myself 
within the bounds of that vocation, where- 
unto I found myself especially called. I dare 
not deny, lest that in so doing, I should be 
injurious to the giver, but that God hath 
revealed unto me, secrets unknown to the 
world, and also that he hath made my 
tongue a trumpet, to forewarn realms and 
nations, yea, certain great revelations of 
mutations and changes, when no such 
things were feared, nor yet were appearing ; 
a portion whereof cannot the world deny, 
be it never so blind, to be fulfilled,f and 
j the rest, alas ! I fear shall follow with 
greater haste, and in more full perfection 

j " 
■ is entitled, " A Notable and Comfortable expo- 
i sition of Mr John Knox's, upon the fourth of 
Matthew, concerning the temptations of Christ, 
First had in the public church, and aftewards 
1 written for the comfort of certain private 
j friends, and now published in print for the 
! benefit of all that fear God." There is a copy 
j in the advocates' library ; but 1 suppose it was 
never reprinted. The other is, "A Fort for 
the Afflicted. Wherein are ministered many 
notable and excellent remedies against the 
storms of tribulation : written chiefly for the 
comfort of Christ's little flock, which is the 
small number of the faithful, by John Knox, 
John xvi. 23." This, says Dr M'Crie, is an 
exposition of the sixth psalm. 

He was induced, as he tells us, to write and 
publish the following sermon, because it was 
that which gave such offence to the court, that 
they prohibited him from preaching, as related 
in the fourth book of the history. The most 
offensive passage was that in which he com- 
plained of the misery of the country, when 
they had women and children for their rulers; 
and truly these rulers proved themselves to be 
children indeed by the offence which they took. 

This sermon is taken from D. Buchanan's 
edition, Crawford's does not contain it. — Ed. 
f See notes, pp. 42 and 374.— EL 

1 3N 



466 



TO THE READER. 



than my sorrowful heart desireth. Not- 
withstanding these revelations and assur- 
ances, I did ever abstain to commit any 
thing to writing, contented only to have 
obeyed the charge of him, who commanded 
me to cry. If any then will ask to what 
purpose this only sermon is set forth, and 
greater matters omitted ; I answer, to let 
such as Satan hath not altogether blinded 
see upon how small occasions great offence 
is now conceived. This sermon is it, for the 
which, from my bed, I was called before the 
council, and after long reasoning, I was by 
some forbidden to preach in Edinburgh, 
so long as the king and queen were in 
town. This sermon is it that so offendeth 
such as would please court, and will not 
appear to be enemies to the truth, yet they 
dare affirm, that I exceeded the bounds of 
God's messenger. I have, therefore, faith- 
fully committed unto writing whatsoever I 
could remember might have been offen- 
sive in that sermon, to the end, that as 
well the enemies of God's truth, as the 
professors of the same, may either note 
unto me wherein I have offended, or at the 
least cease to condemn me, before they 
have convinced me by God's manifest 
word. If any man think it easy unto me 
to mitigate by my pen, the inconsiderate 
sharpness of my tongue, and so cannot men 
freely judge of that my sermon; I answer, 
that 1 am neither so impudent, that I will 
study to abuse the world in this great 
light, neither yet so void of the fear of my 



God, that I will avow a lie in his own 
presence : and no less do I esteem it to be 
a lie, to deny or conceal that which in his 
name I have once pronounced, than to 
affirm, that God hath spoken, when his 
word assures me not of the same ; for in 
the public place I consult not with flesh 
and blood, what I shall propose to the 
people, but as the Spirit of my God, who 
hath sent me, and unto whom I must an- 
swer, moveth me, so I speak ; and when I 
have once pronounced threatenings in his 
name, how unpleasant soever they are to 
the world, I dare no more deny them, than 
I dare deny that God hath made me his 
messenger, to forewarn the inobedient of 
their assured destruction. At that sermon 
were auditors unto me, not only professors 
of the truth and such as favour me, but 
rank papists, dissembling hypocrites, and 
no small number of covetous clawbacks of 
the new court. Now, I will appeal to the 
conscience of them all, as they will answer 
in the presence of the eternal God, that 
either they bear me record, now writing 
the truth, or else note unto me the sen- 
tences offensive then by me pronounced, 
and now omitted in writing ; for in God's 
presence I protest, that so far as memory 
would serve me, I have written more vehe- 
mently than in the action I spake and pro- 
nounced; but of purpose I have omitted 
persuasions and exhortations which then 
were made. Qucedam hie desunt. 



A SERMON 



PREACHED 

BY JOHN KNOX. 

Isaiah xxvi. 13 — 16, &c. 

O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us ; but by thee only will we 

make mention of thy name. 
They are dead, they shall not live ; they are deceased, they shall not rise ; therefore hast thou 

visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. 
Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation, thou art glorified, thou 

hast removed it far unto the ends of the earth. 
Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon 

them, &c. 



As the canning" mariner, being master, 
having his ship tossed with a vehement 
tempest and contrary winds, is compelled 
oft to traverse, lest that either by too 
much resisting to the violence of the 
waves, his vessel might be overwhelmed ; 
or by too much liberty granted, to be car- 
ried whither the fury of the tempest 
would, his ship should be driven upon the 
shore, and so make shipwreck ; even so 
doth our prophet Isaiah in this text, which 
now you have heard read; for he, fore- 
seeing the great desolation that was de- 
creed in the council of the eternal, against 
Jerusalem and Judah, to wit, that the 
whole people that bare the name of God 
should be dispersed; that the holy city 
should be destroyed ; the temple wherein 
was the ark of the covenant, and where 
God had promised to give his own presence, 
should be burnt with fire ; the king taken ; 
his sons in his own presence murdered ; 
his own eyes immediately after to be put 
out ; the nobility, some cruelly murdered, 
some shamefully led away captives; and 
finally, the whole seed of Abraham rased, 
as it were, from the face of the earth : the 
prophet, I say, fearing these horrible ca- 
lamities, doth, as it were, sometimes suffer 
himself, and the people committed to his 
charge, to be carried away with the vio- 
lence of the tempest, without further resis- 



tance ; then by pouring forth his and their 
dolorous complaints before the Majesty of 
God ; as in the 13th, 17th, and 18th verses 
of this present text we may read. At 
other times he valiantly resisteth the des- 
perate tempest, and pronounceth the fear- 
ful destruction of all such as trouble the 
church of God ; which he pronounceth, 
that God will multiply, even in such time 
as when it appeareth utterly to be exter- 
minate. But because there is no small 
rest to the whole body, till that the head 
return to judgment, he calleth the afflicted 
to patience, and promiseth such a visita- 
tion, as whereby the wickedness of the 
wicked shall be disclosed, and finally re- 
compensed in their own bosoms. 

These are the chief points, of which, 
by the grace of God, we intend more 
largely at this present to speak. 

First, the prophet saith, " O Lord our 
God, other lords besides thee have ruled 
us." 

This, no doubt, is the beginning of the 
dolorous complaint, in the which he com- 
plaineth of the unjust tyranny that the 
poor afflicted Israelites sustained during 
the time of their captivity. True it is, 
that the prophet was gathered to his 
fathers in peace, before that this appre- 
hended the people; for one hundred years 
after his decease was not the people led 



468 



A SERMON. 



away captive : yet he, foreseeing- the assu- 
rance of the calamity, did before-hand in- 
dite and dictate unto them the complaint 
that after they should make. But at the 
first sight it appeareth, that the complaint 
hath but small weight : for what new thing- 
was it, that other lords than God in his 
own person ruled them, seeing- that such 
had been their regimen from the begin- 
ning ? For who knoweth not that Moses, 
Aaron, and Joshua, the judges, Samuel, 
David, and other godly rulers were men, 
and not God; and so other lords than 
God ruled them in their greatest pros- 
perity. 

For the better understanding- of this 
complaint, and of the mind of the prophet, 
we must first observe from whence all au- 
thority floweth ; and secondly, to what end 
powers are appointed by God : the which 
two points being discussed, we shall the 
better understand what lords and what 
authority rule beside God, and who they 
are in whom God and his merciful pre- 
sence rules. 

The first is resolved to us by the 
words of the apostle, saying, " There 
is no power but of God." David bringeth 
in the eternal God, speaking to judges and 
rulers, saying, " I have said, ye are gods 
and sons of the Most High." And Solo- 
mon, in the person of God, affirmeth the 
same, saying-, " By me kings reign, and 
princes discern the things that are just." 
Of which place it is evident, that it is nei- 
ther birth, influence of stars, election of 
people, force of arms, nor, finally, whatso- 
ever can be comprehended under the 
pow r er of nature, that maketh the distinc- 
tion betwixt the superior power and the 
inferior, or that doth establish the royal 
throne of kings ; but it is the only and 
perfect ordinance of God, who willeth his 
terror, power, and majesty in a part, to 
shine in the thrones of kings, and in the 
faces of judges, and that for the profit and 
comfort of man ; so that whosoever would 
study to deface that order of regimen that 
God hath established, and by his holy word 
allowed, and bring- in such a confusion, as 
no difference should be betwixt the upper 
powers and the subjects, doth nothing but 



evert [subvert] and turn upside down the 
very throne of God, which he walls to be 
fixed here upon earth ; as in the end and 
cause of this ordinance more plainly shall 
appear: which is the second point we have 
to observe, for the better understanding of 
the prophet's words and mind. 

The end and cause then, why God print- 
eth in the weak and feeble flesh of maa, 
this image of his own power and majesty, 
is not to puff" up flesh in opinion of itself; 
neither yet that the heart of him that is 
exalted above others, shall be lifted up by 
presumption and pride, and so despise 
others ; but that he shall consider, that he 
is appointed lieutenant to one, whose eyes 
continually watch upon him, to see and 
examine how he behaveth himself in his 
office. St Paul in few words declareth 
the end wherefore the sword is com- 
mitted to the powers, saying, " It is to the 
punishment of the wicked doers, and unto 
the praise of such as do well." 

Of which words, it is evident, that the 
sword of God is not committed to the 
hand of man, to use as it pleaseth him, but 
only to punish vice and maintain virtue, 
that men may live in such society as 
before God is acceptable. And this is the 
very and only cause, why God hath ap- 
pointed powers in this earth. 

For such is the furious rage of man's 
corrupt nature, that unless severe punish- 
ment were appointed, and put in execution 
upon malefactors, better it were that man 
should live among brute and wild beasts, 
than among men. But at this present, I 
dare not enter into the description of this 
common place ; for so should I not satisfy 
the text, which by God's grace I purpose 
to absolve. This only by the way, I w r ould 
that such as are placed in authority should 
consider, whether they reign and rule by 
God, so that God ruleth them ; or if they 
rule without, besides, and against God, of 
whom our prophet here doth complain. 

If any list to take trial of this point, it is 
not hard : for Moses, in the election of 
judges, and of a king, describeth not only 
what persons shall be chosen to that 
honour, but doth also give to him that is 
elected and chosen, the rule by the which 



A SERMON. 



469 



he shall try himself, whether God reign in 1 
him or not, saying " When he shall sit upon 
the throne of his kingdom, he shall write 
to himself an exemplar of this law, in a 
book, by the priests and Levites ; it shall 
be with him, and he shall read therein all 
the days of his life, that he may learn to 
fear the Lord his God, and to keep all the 
words of this law, and these statutes, that 
he may do them, that his heart be not 
lifted up above his brethren, and that he 
turn not from the commandment, to the 
right hand or to the left." 

The same is repeated to Joshua in his 
inauguration to the regimen of the people, 
by God himself, saying, " Let not the book 
of this law depart from thy mouth ,• but 
meditate in it day and night, that thou 
mayest keep it, and do according to all 
that which is written in it : for then shall 
thy way be prosperous, and thou shalt do 
prudently." 

The first thing then that God craveth of 
him that is called to the honour of a king, 
is, The knowledge of his will revealed in 
his word. 

The seeond is, An upright and w-illing 
mind to put in execution such things as 
God commandeth in his law, without de- 
clining to the right or to the left hand. 

Kings, then, have not an absolute power 
to do in their regimen what pleaseth them ; 
but their power is limited by God's word : 
so that if they strike where God hath not 
commanded, they are but murderers ; and 
if they spare where God hath commanded 
to strike, they and their throne are crimi- 
nal and guilty of the wickedness that 
aboundeth upon the face of the earth, for 
lack of punishment. 

O that kings and princes would consider 
what account shall be craved of them, as 
well of their ignorance and miskncwledge 
of God's will, as for the neglecting of their 
office ! But now to return to the words of 
the prophet. In the person of the whole 
people he doth complain unto God, that 
the Babylonians, whom he calleth, " other 
lords besides God," both because of their 
ignorance of God, and by reason of their 
cruelty and inhumanity, had long ruled 
over them in great rigour, without pity or 



compassion had upon the ancient men 
and famous matrons : for they being mon- 
tal enemies to the people" of God, sought 
by all means to aggravate their yoke, yea, 
utterly to have exterminated the memory of 
them and of their religion from the face of 
the earth. 

After the first part of this dolorous com- 
plaint, the prophet declareth the protesta- 
tion of the people, saying, " Nevertheless 
in thee shall we remember thy Name :" 
others read it, " But we will remember 
Thee only, and thy Name :" but in the He- 
brew there is no conjunction copulative in 
that sentence. The mind of the prophet 
is plain, to wit, that, notwithstanding the 
long-sustained affliction, the people of God 
declined not to a false and vain religion, 
but remembered God, that sometime ap- 
peared to them in his merciful presence ; 
which albeit then they saw not, yet would 
they still remember his Name ; that is, they 
would call to mind the doctrine and pro- 
mise which at sometimes they heard, 
albeit in their prosperity they did not 
sufficiently glorify God, who so mercifully 
ruled in the midst of them. The tempta- 
tion, no doubt, of the Israelites was great 
in those days : they were carried captives 
from the land of Canaan, which was to 
them the gauge and pledge of God's favour 
towards them ; for it was the inheritance 
that God promised to Abraham, and to his 
seed for ever. The league and covenant 
of God's protection appeared to have been 
broken ; they lamentably complained, that 
they saw not their accustomed signs of 
God's merciful presence ; the true prophets 
w r ere few, and the abominations used in 
Babylon were exceeding many ; and so it 
might have appeared to them, that in vain 
it was, that they were called the posterity 
of Abraham, or that ever they had received 
the law, or form of right religion from 
God. That we may the better feel it in our- 
selves, the temptation, I say, was even such, 
as if God should utterly destroy all order 
and policy that this day is within his 
church ; that the true preaching of the 
word should be suppressed ; the right use 
of sacraments abolished; idolatry and papis- 
tical abomination erected up again ; and 



470 



A SERMON. 



therewith, that our bodies should be taken 
prisoners by Turks or other manifest ene- 
mies of God and of all godliness. Such, I 
say, was their temptation ; how notable 
then is their confession, that in bondage 
they make, to wit, that they will re- 
member God only, albeit, he hath ap- 
peared to turn his face from them, they 
will remember his Name, and will call to 
mind the deliverance promised. 

Hereof have we to consider, what is our 
duty, if God bring us, — as for our offences 
and unthankfulness justly he may, — to the 
like extremity. This confession is not the 
fair flattering words of hypocrites, lying 
and bathing in their pleasures ; but it is the 
mighty operation of the Spirit of God, who 
leaveth not his own destitute of some com- 
fort in their most desperate calamities. 
This is then our duty, not only to confess 
our God in time of peace and quietness, 
but he chiefly craveth, that we avow 
him in the midst of his and our enemies. 
And this is not in us to do ; but it behoveth, 
that the Spirit of God work in us above 
all power of nature. And thus we ought 
earnestly to meditate before the battle 
rise more vehement, which appeareth not 
to be far off. But now must we enter in 
somewhat more deeply to consider these 
judgments of God. 

This people dealt withal, as we have 
heard, was the only people upon the face 
of the earth to whom God w r as rightly 
known ; among them only were his laws, 
statutes, ordinances, and sacrifices used, 
and put in practice; they only invocated 
his name, and to them alone had he pro- 
mised his protection and assistance. What 
then should be the cause that he should 
give them over unto this great reproach, 
and bring them into such extremity, as his 
own Name in them should be blasphemed? 
The prophet Ezekiel, that saw this hor- 
rible destruction forespoken by Isaiah put 
in just execution, giveth an answer in these 
words : " I gave unto them laws that were 
good, in the which whosoever should 
walk, should live in them ; but they 
would not walk in my ways, but rebelled 
against me ; and therefore, I have given 
unto them laws that are not good, and 



judgments in the which they shall not 
live." The writers of the books of Kings 
and Chronicles declare this in more plain 
words, saying, " The Lord sent unto them 
his prophets, rising early, desiring of them 
to return unto the Lord, and to amend 
their wicked w r ays," — for he would have 
spared his people and his tabernacle, — 
" but they mocked his servants, and would 
not return unto the Lord their God to 
walk in his ways." Yea, Judah itself 
kept not the precepts of the Lord God, 
but walked in the manners and ordinances 
of Israel ; that is, of such as then had de- 
clined to idolatry from the days of Jero- 
boam. And, therefore, the Lord God ab- 
horred the whole seed of Israel, that is, the 
whole body of the people ; he promised 
them, and gave them into the hands of 
those that spoiled them, and so he cast 
them out from his presence. 

Hereof it is evident, that their disobe- 
dience unto God and unto the voices of 
his prophets, was the cause of their des- 
truction. Now have we to take heed how 
we should use the good laws of God, that 
is, his will revealed unto us in his word, 
and that order of justice, that by him, for 
the comfort of man, is established amongst 
men. It is no doubt, but that obedience is 
the most acceptable sacrifice unto God, 
and that which above all things he re- 
quireth ; that when he manifesteth himself 
by his word, that men follow according to 
their vocation and commandment. Now 
so it is, that God, by that great Pastor, our 
Lord Jesus, now manifestly in his word 
calleth us from all impiety, as well of body 
as of mind, to holiness of life, and to his 
spiritual service : and for this purpose he 
hath erected the throne of his mercy 
among us, the true preaching of his word, 
together with the right administration of 
his sacraments : but what is our obedience, 
let every man examine his own conscience, 
and consider what statutes and laws we 
would have to be given unto us. 

Wouldest thou, O Scotland, have a king 
to reign over thee in justice, equity, and 
mercy ? Subject thou thyself to the Lord 
thy God, obey his commandments, atid 
magnify thou that word that calleth unto 



A SERMON. 



471 



thee, " This is the way, walk in it and if 
thou wilt not, natter not thyself— the same 
justice remaineth this day in God to pun- 
ish thee, Scotland, and thee, Edinburgh, 
in especial, that before punished the land 
of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. Every 
realm or nation, saith the prophet Jeremiah, 
that likewise offendeth, shall be likewise 
punished. But if thou shalt see impiety 
placed in the seat of justice above thee, so 
that in the throne of God, as Solomon 
doth complain, reigneth nothing but fraud 
and violence, accuse thy own ingratitude 
and rebellion against God ; for that is the 
only cause why God taketh away, — as the 
same prophet in another place doth speak, 
" The strong man and the man of war, the 
judge and the prophet, the prudent and the 
aged, the captain and the honourable, the 
counsellor and the cunning artificer. And 
I will appoint, saith the Lord, children to be 
their princes, and babes shall rule over 
them. Children are extortioners of my 
people, and women have rule over them." 

If these calamities, I say, apprehend us, so 
that we see nothing but the oppression of 
good men, and of all godliness, and wicked 
men without God to reign above us ; let us 
accuse and condemn ourselves as the only 
cause of our own miseries. For if we had 
heard the voice of the Lord our God, and 
given upright obedience unto the same, 
God should have multiplied our peace, and 
should have rewarded our obedience before 
the eyes of the world. But now let us 
hear what the prophet saith further : 

"The dead shall not live, saith he, 
neither shall the tyrants or the dead arise, 
because thou hast visited and scattered 
them, and destroyed all their memory." 

From this 14th verse unto the end of 
the 19th, it appeareth, that the prophet 
observeth no order ; yea, that he speaketh 
things directly repugning one to another : 
for first he saith, " The dead shall not 
live after he affirmeth, " Thy dead men 
shall live. Secondly, he saith, " Thou hast 
visited and scattered them, and destroyed 
all their memory;" immediately after, he 
saith, " Thou hast increased thy nation, O 
Lord, thou hast increased thy nation. 



I They have visited thee, and have poured 
forth a prayer before thee." 

Who, I say, would not think, that these 
are things not only spoken forth of [con- 
trary to] good order and purpose, but also 
manifestly repugning one to another. For 
to live, and not to live ; to be so destroyed 
that no memorial remaineth, and to be so 
increased, that the coasts of the earth 
shall be replenished, seem to import plain 
contradiction. For removing of this doubt, 
and for better understanding of the pro- 
phet's mind, we must understand that the 
prophet had to do with divers sorts of men ; 
he had to do with the conjured and mani- 
fest enemies of God's people, the Chaldees 
or Babylonians; even so, such as profess 
Christ Jesus have to do with the Turks 
and Saracens. He had to do with the 
seed of Abraham, whereof there were three 
sorts. The ten tribes all degenerate from 
the true worshipping of God, and corrupt- 
ed with idolatry, as this day are our pesti- 
lent papists in all realms and nations, there 
rested only the tribe of Judah at Jerusa- 
lem, where the form of true religion was 
observed, the law taught, and ordinances 
of od outwardly kept. But yet there 
were in that body, — I mean, in the body 
of the visible church, — a great number 
that were hypocrites, as this day yet are 
among us that do profess the Lord Jesus, 
and have refused papistry ; not a few that 
were licentious livers ; some that turned 
their back to God, — that is, had forsaken 
all true religion ; and some that lived a 
most abominable life, as Ezekiel saith in his 
vision ; and yet there were some godly, as 
a few wheat corns oppressed and hid 
among the multitude of chaff : now accord- 
ing to this diversity, the prophet keepeth 
divers purposes, and yet in most perfect 
order. 

And, first, after the first part of the com- 
plaint of the afflicted, as we have heard in 
vehemency of spirit, he bursteth forth 
against all the proud enemies of God's 
people, against all such as trouble them, 
and against all such as mock and forsake 
God : and saith, " The dead shall not live, 
the proud giants shall not rise, thou hast 



472 



A SERMON, 



scattered them, and destroyed their memo- 
rial." In which words he fighteth against 
the present temptation and dolorous state 
of God's people, and against the insolent 
pride of such as oppressed them ; as if the 
prophet should say, O ye troublers of 
God's people, howsoever it appeareth to 
you in this your bloody rage, that God 
regardeth not your cruelty, nor consider- 
ed not what violence you do to his poor 
afflicted, yet shall ye be visited, yea, your 
carcases shall fall and lie as stinking 
carious upon the face of the earth, ye shall 
fall without hope of life or of a blessed 
resurrection ; yea, howsoever ye gather 
your substance, and augment your families, 
ye shall be so scattered that ye shall leave 
no memorial of you to the posterities to 
come, but that which shall be execrable 
and odious. 

Hereof have the tyrants their admoni- 
tion, and the afflicted church inestimable 
comfort. The tyrants that do oppress, shall 
receive the same end that they did which 
have passed before ; that is, they shall die 
and fall with shame, without hope of resur- 
rection, as is foresaid, not, that they shall 
not arise to their own confusion and just 
condemnation, but that they shall not 
recover power to trouble the servants of 
God, neither yet shall the wicked arise, as 
David saith, in the council of the just. 
Now have the wicked their councils, their 
thrones, and finally handling, for the most 
part, of all things that are upon the face of 
the earth ; but the poor servants of God 
are reputed unworthy of men's presence, 
envied, mocked ; yea, they are more vile 
before these proud tyrants, than is the very 
dirt and mire that is trodden under foot : 
but in that glorious resurrection this state 
shall be changed ; for then shall such as 
now, by their abominable living and cruel- 
ty, destroy the earth and molest God's 
children, see him whom they have pierced ; 
they shall see the glory of such as now 
they persecute, to their terror and ever- 
lasting confusion. The remembrance here- 
of ought to make us patient in the days of 
affliction, and so to comfort us, that when 
we see tyrants in their blind rage tread 
under foot the saints of God, that utterly 



we despair not, as if there were neither 
wisdom, justice, nor power above in the 
heavens to repress such tyrants, and to 
redress the dolours of the unjustly afflicted. 
No, brethren, let us be assured that the 
right hand of the Lord will change the 
state of things that are most desperate. In 
our God there is wisdom and power, in a 
moment to change the joy and mirth of 
our enemies into everlasting mourning, and 
our sorrows into joy and gladness that 
shall have no end. 

Let us, therefore, in these apparent ca- 
lamities, — and marvel not that I say cala- 
mities apparent ; for he that seeth not a fire 
begun, that shall burn more than we look 
for, unless God of his mercy quench it, is 
more than blind, — not be discouraged ; but 
with unfeigned repentance, let us return to 
the Lord our God, let us accuse and con- 
demn our former negligence, and stead- 
fastly depend upon his promised deliver- 
ance : so shall our temporal sorrows be con- 
verted into everlasting joy. The doubt 
that might be moved concerning the des- 
truction of those whom God exalteth, 
shall be discussed, if time will suffer, after 
that we have passed throughout the text. 
Now proceedeth the prophet, and saith ; 

" Thou hast increased the nations, O 
Lord, thou hast increased the nations ; thou 
art made glorious, thou hast enlarged all 
the coasts of the earth." 

" Lord in trouble," &c. 

In these words the prophet giveth con- 
solation to the afflicted ; assuring them, 
that how horrible soever that desolation 
should be, yet should the seed of Abra- 
ham be so multiplied, that it should re- 
plenish the coasts of the earth ; yea, that 
God should be more glorified in their 
affliction, than he was during the time of 
their prosperity. This promise, no doubt, 
was incredible when it was made ; for who 
could have been persuaded, that the des- 
truction of Jerusalem should have been 
the means whereby the nation of the Jews 
should have been increased, seeing that 
much rather it appeared, that the over- 
throw of Jerusalem should have been the 
very abolishing of the seed of Abraham. 
But we must consider to what end it was 



A SERMON. 



473 



that God revealed himself to Abraham, 
aud what is contained in the promise of 
the multiplication of his seed, and the 
benediction promised thereto. 

First, God revealed himself to Abraham, 
and that by means of his word ; to let all 
flesh after understand, that God first called 
man, and revealed himself unto him, that 
" flesh can do nothing but rebel against 
God for Abraham, no doubt, was an 
idolater before that God called him from 
Ur of the Chaldees. The promise was 
made, " That the seed of Abraham should 
be multiplied as the stars of heaven, and as 
the sand of the sea ;" which is not simply to 
be understood of his natural seed, although 
it was sometimes greatly increased ; but 
rather of such as should become the spir- 
itual seed of Abraham, as the apostle 
speaketb. Now if we be able to prove, that 
the right knowledge of God's wisdom, j 
justice, mercy, and power, was more amply 
declared in their captivity, than ever it 
was at any time before, then can we not 
deny, but that God, even when to man's j 
judgment he had utterly rased them from i 
the face of the earth, did increase the na- 
tion of the Jews, so that he was glorified j 
in them, and did extend the coasts of the j 
earth for their habitation. And for the ; 
better understanding' hereof, let us shortly 
try the histories from their captivity to 
their deliverance, and after the same, to i 
the coming of the Messiah. 

It is no doubt, but that Satan intended 
by the dispersion of the Jews, so to have 
profaned the whole seed of Abraham, that 
among them should neither have remained 
the true knowledge of God, nor yet the 
spirit of sanctification : but that all should 
have come to a like contempt of God : for, 
I pray you, for what purpose was it, that 
Daniel and his fellows were taken into the 
king's court, were commanded to be fed at 
the king's table, and were put to the 
schools of their divines, soothsayers, and 
astrologians '? It may be thought that it 
proceeded of the king's humanity, and of a 
zeal that he had, that they should be 
brought up in virtue and good learning; 
and I doubt not but it was so understood 
of a great number of the Jews: but the 



secret practice of the devil was understood 
of Daniel, when he refused to defile him- 
self with the king's meat, which was for- 
bidden to the seed of Abraham in the law 
of their God. Well, God beginneth shortly 
after to show himself mindful of his pro- 
mise made by his prophet, and to trouble 
Nebuchadnezzar himself, by showing to 
him a vision in his dream, Avhich did the 
more trouble him, because he could not 
forget the terror of it ; neither yet could 
he remember what the vision and the par- 
cels thereof were : whereupon were called 
all divines, interpreters of dreams, and 
soothsayers; of whom the king demanded, 
if they could let him understand what he 
had dreamed: but while that they answer, 
that such a question should not be de- 
manded of any soothsayer or magician, — for 
the resolution thereof only appertained to 
the gods, whose habitation was not with 
men, — the charge was given, that they all 
should be slain; and amongst the rest Dan- 
iel was sought, whose innocency the devil 
envied, to have suffered the same judg- 
ment. He reclaimeth, and asketh time to 
disclose the secret ; — I only touch the his- 
tory, to let you see by what means God 
increaseth his knowledge; — which being 
granted, the vision is revealed unto him ; 
he showeth the same unto the king, with 
the true interpretation of it ; adding, that 
the knowledge thereof came not from the 
stars, but only from the God of Abraham, 
who only was and is the true God ; which 
thing understood, the king burst forth in 
his confession, saying, " Of a truth your 
God is the most excellent of all gods, and 
he is Lord of kings, and only he that re- 
vealeth the secrets, seeing that thou couid- 
est open this secret." And when Nebu- 
chadnezzar, after that, puffed up in pride 
by the counsel of his wicked nobility, 
would make an image, before the which he 
would that all tongues and nations subject 
to him should make adoration, and that 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, would 
not obey his unjust commandment, and so 
were cast in the flaming furnace of fire ; 
and yet by God's angels w ere so preserved, 
that no smell of fire remained in their per- 
sons or garments: this same king giveth a 
3 O 



474 A SE 

more notable confession, saying-, " The 
Lord God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- 
nego, is to be praised, who hath sent his 
angels, and delivered his worshippers that 
put trust in him, who have done against the 
king's commandment, who have rather given 
their own bodies to torment, than that 
they would worship another god except 
their own God. By me, therefore, is there 
made a decree, that whosoever shall blas- 
pheme the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and 
Abednego, he shall be cut in pieces, and 
Lis house shall be made detestable." 

Thus we see how God began, even almost 
in the beginning of their captivity, to notify 
his name, to multiply his knowledge, and set 
forth as well his power as his wisdom, 
and true worshipping, by those that were 
taken prisoners ; yea, that were despised, 
and of all men contemned, so that the 
name and fear of the God of Abraham, was 
never before notified to so many realms 
and nations. This wondrous work of 
God proceeded from one empire to ano- 
ther : for Daniel, being promoted to great 
honour by Darius, king of the Persians and 
Modes, falleth into a desperate danger ; for 
he was committed to prison among lions, 
because he was deprehended, breaking the 
king's injunction; not that the king de- 
sired the destruction of God's servants, but 
because the corrupt idolaters, that in ha- 
' tred of Daniel had procured that law to be 
made, urged the king against his nature ; 
but God by his angel did stop the lion's 
mouths, and so preserved his servant : 
which considered with the sudden destruc- 
tion of Daniel's enemies by the same lions, 
king Darius, besides his own confession, 
wrote to all people, tongues, and nations 
after this form : " It is decreed by me, that 
in all the dominions of my kingdom, men 
shall fear and reverence the God of Daniel, 
because he is the living God abiding for 
ever, whose kingdom shall not be destroy- 
ed, and his dominion remaineth, who sav- 
eth and delivereth, and showeth signs and 
wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath 
delivered Daniel from the lions." 

This knowledge was yet further in- 
creased in the days of Cyrus, w r ho giving 
freedom to the captives to return to their 



KM ON. 

own native country, giveth this confession : 
" Thus saith Cyrus, the king of the Persians, 
All the kingdoms of the earth hath the 
Lord God of heaven given unto me, and 
hath commanded me, that a house be built 
to him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 
Whosoever therefore of you that are of 
his people, let the Lord his God be with 
him, and let him pass up to Jerusalem, and 
let him build the house of the Lord God of 
Israel ; for he only is God that is in Jeru- 
salem." Time will not suffer me to en- 
treat the points of this confession, neither 
yet did I for that purpose adduce the his- 
tory; but only to let us see how con- 
stantly God kept his promise in increasing 
of his people, and in augmenting of his 
true knowledge, when that both they that 
were the seed of Abraham, and that reli- 
gion which they professed, appeared utter- 
ly to have been extinguished ; above men's 
expectation, I say, he brought freedom out 
of bondage, light out of darkness, and life 
out of death. I am not ignorant that the 
building of the temple and reparation of 
the walls of Jerusalem were long stayed, 
so that the work had many enemies ; but 
so did the hand of God prevail in the end, 
that a decree was made by Darius, — by him 
I suppose that succeeded to Cambyses, — 
not only that all things necessary for the 
building of the temple, and for the sacrifi- 
ces that were to be there brent [burnt], 
should be ministered upon the king's char- 
ges ; but also, that whosoever should hin- 
der that work, or change that decree, that 
a balk should be taken out of his house, 
and that he should be hanged thereupon ; 
yea, that his house should be made a dung- 
hill ; and thereto he addeth a prayer, say- 
ing, " The God of heaven, who hath placed 
his name there, root out every king and 
people,— O that kings and nations should 
understand, — that shall put his hand, either 
to change or to hurt this house of God 
that is in Jerusalem !" And so, in despite 
of Satan, was the temple builded, the walls 
repaired, and the city inhabited ; and in the 
most desperate dangers it was preserved, 
till that the Messiah promised, the glory of 
the second temple, came, manifested him- 
self to the world, suffered and rose again, 



A SERMON. 



475 



according to the scriptures ; and so, by- 
sending- forth, his gospel from Jerusalem, 
did replenish the earth with the true 
knowledge of God; and so did God in 
perfection increase the nation and the 
spiritual seed of Abraham. 

Wherefore, dear brethren, we have no [ 
small consolation, if the state of all things 
be this day rightly considered. We see in ! 
what fury and rage the world, for the j 
most part, is now raised against the poor 
church of Jesus Christ, unto the which he j 
hath proclaimed liberty, after the fearful 
bondage of that spiritual Babylon, in the 
which we have been holden captives longer 
space than Israel was prisoner in Babylon 
itself: for if we shall consider, upon the 
one part, the multitude of those that live 
wholly without Christ, and upon the 
other part, the blind rage of the pestilent 
papists, what shall we think of the small 
number of them that do profess Christ 
Jesus, but that they are as a poor sheep, ! 
already seized in the claws of the lion ? 
yea, that they, and the true religion which 
they profess, shall in a moment utterly be 
consumed ? 

But against this fearful temptation, let 
us be armed with the promise of God, to 
wit, that he will be the protector of his 
church ; yea, that he will multiply it, even ! 
when to man's judgment it appeareth ut- 
terly to be exterminate. This promise 
hath our God performed, in the multipli- 
cation of Abraham's seed, in preservation 
of it when Satan laboured utterly to have 
destroyed it, in deliverance of the same, as j 
we have heard, from Babylon. He hath 
sent his Son Christ Jesus, clad in our flesh, 
who hath tasted of all our infirmities, sin j 
except, who hath promised to be with us 
to the end of the world. He hath further 
kept promise in publication, yea, in the \ 
restitution of his glorious gospel. Shall we j 
then think that he will leave his church | 
destitute in this most dangerous age ? Only 
let us stick to his truth, and study to con- 
form our lives to the same, and he shall 
multiply his knowledge and increase his 
people. But now let us hear what the 
prophet saith more. 

"Lord, in trouble have they visited thee ; 



they poured out a prayer when thy chas- 
tening was upon them." 

The prophet meaneth, that such as in 
the time of quietness did not rightly re- 
gard God nor his judgments, were com- 
pelled by sharp corrections to seek God, 
yea, by cries and dolorous complaints to 
visit him. True it is, that such obedience 
deserveth small praise before men ; for who 
can praise, or accept that in good part, 
which cometh as it were of mere com- 
pulsion ? And yet rare it is that any of 
God's children do give unfeigned obedience 
until the hand of God turn them ; for if 
quietness and prosperity make them not 
utterly to forget their duty, both towards 
God and man, as David for a season, yet 
it maketh them careless, insolent, and in 
many things unmindful of those things that 
God chiefly craveth of them ; which imper- 
fection espied, and the danger that there- 
of might ensue, our heavenly Father visit- 
eth the sins of his children, but in the rod 
of his mercy, by the which they are moved 
to return to their God, to accuse their 
former negligence, and to promise better 
obedience in all times hereafter ; as David 
confesseth, saying, "Before I fell in afflic- 
tion, I went astray ; but now will I keep 
thy statutes." 

But yet, for the better understanding of 
the prophet's mind, we may consider, how 
God doth visit man, and how man dotn 
visit God ; and what difference there is 
betwixt the visitation of God upon the re- 
probate, and his visitation upon the chosen. 

God sometimes visiteth the reprobate in 
his hot displeasure, pouring upon them his 
plagues for their long rebellion; as we 
have heard before that he visited the 
proud and destroyed their memory. Other 
times God is said to visit his people, being 
in affliction, to whom he sendeth comfort 
or promise of deliverance, as he did visit 
the seed of Abraham, being oppressed in 
Egypt : and Zechariah saith, that God had 
visited his people, and sent unto them hope 
of deliverance, when John the Baptist was 
born. But of none of these visitations speak- 
eth our prophet here, but of that only 
which we have already touched, to wit, 
when that God layeth his correction upon 



476 



A SERMON. 



his own children, to call them from 
the venomous breasts of this corrupt 
world, that they suck not in over-great 
abundance the poison thereof ; and doth 
as it were, wean them from their mother's 
paps, that they may learn to receive other 
nourishment. True it is, that this wean- 
ing-, — or spaneing, as we term it, — from 
worldly pleasure, is a thing- strange to the 
flesh, and yet it is a thing- so necessary to 
God's children, that unless they are weaned 
from the pleasures of the world, they can 
never feed upon that delectable milk of 
God's eternal verity ; for the corruption of 
the one doth either hinder the other to be 
received, or else so troubleth the whole 
powers of man, that the soul can never so 
digest the truth of God as that he ought 
to do. 

Albeit this appeareth hard, yet it is 
most evident; for what liquor can we re- 
ceive from the breasts of the world, but 
that which is in the world ? what that is, 
the apostle John teacheth, saying, " What- 
soever is in the world, is either the lusts of 
the eyes, the lusts of the flesh, or the pride 
of life." Now, seeing that these are not of 
the Father, but of the world, how can it be 
that our souls can feed upon chastity, tem- 
perance, and humility, so long as that our 
stomachs are replenished with the corrup- 
tion of these vices ? 

Now so it is, that willingly flesh can 
never refuse these forenamed, but rather 
still delighteth itself in every one of them ; 
yea, in them all, as the examples are but 
too evident. 

It behoveth, therefore, that God himself 
shall violently pull his children from these 
venomous breasts, that when they lack the 
liquor and poison of the one, they may 
visit him, and learn to be nourished of 
him. Oh ! if the eyes of worldly prin- 
ces should be opened, that they might see 
with what humour and liquor their souls 
are fed, while that their whole delight con- 
si steth in pride, ambition, and lusts of the 
stinking flesh. We understand then how 
God doth visit men, as well by his severe 
judgments, as by his merciful visitation of 
deliverance from trouble, or by bringing 
trouble upon his chosen for their humilia- 



tion ; and now it resteth to understand 
how man visiteth God. Man doth visit 
God when he appeareth in his presence, 
be it to the hearing of his word, or to the 
participation of his sacraments ; as the 
people of Israel, besides the observation 
of their Sabbaths and daily oblations, 
were commanded thrice a-year to present 
themselves before the presence of the taber- 
nacle, and as we do, and as often as we 
present ourselves to the hearing of the 
word; for there is the footstool, yea, there 
is the face and throne of God himself, 
wheresoever the gospel of Jesus Christ is 
truly preached, and his sacraments rightly 
ministered. 

But men may, on this sort, visit God hy- 
pocritically ; for they may come for the 
fashion, they may hear with deaf ears, 
yea, they may understand and yet never 
determine with themselves to obey that 
which God requireth : and let such men 
be assured, that He who searcheth the 
secrets of hearts will be avenged of all 
such. For nothing can be to God more 
odious, than to mock him in his own pre- 
sence. Let every man therefore examine 
himself, with what mind and what purpose 
he cometh to hear the word of God ; yea, 
with what ear he heareth it, and what 
testimony his heart giveth unto him, when 
that God commandeth virtue, and forbid- 
deth impiety 

Repinest thou when God requireth 
obedience ? Thou hearest thine own con- 
demnation. Mockest thou at God's threat- 
enings? Thou shalt feel the weight and 
truth of them, albeit too late, when flesh 
and blood cannot deliver thee from his 
hand. But the visitation, whereof our 
prophet speaketh, is only proper to the 
sons of God, who in the time when God 
taketh from them the pleasures of the 
world, or showeth his angry countenance 
unto them, have their recourse unto him, 
and, confessing their former negligence 
with troubled hearts, cry for his mercy. 
This visitation is not proper to all afflicted, 
but appertaineth only to God's children : 
for the reprobates can never have access to 
God's mercy in time of their tribulation ; 
and that because they abuse as well his 



A SERMON. 



477 



long" patience, as the manifold benefits 
they receive from his hands: for as the 
same prophet heretofore saith, " Let the 
wicked obtain mercy, yet shall he never 
learn wisdom, but in the land of righteous- 
ness," that is, where the very knowledge 
of God aboundeth, he will do wickedly, 
which is a crime above all others abomi- 
nable ; for to what end is it that God erect- 
eth his throne among- us, but that we should 
fear him ? Why doth he reveal his holy 
will unto us, but that we should obey it ? 
Why doth he deliver us from trouble, but 
that we should be witnesses unto the 
world, that he is gracious and merciful ? 

Now when that men, hearing their duty, 
and knowing what God requireth of them, 
do malapertly fight against all equity and 
justice, what, I pray you, do they else but 
make manifest war against God ? Yea, 
when they have received from God such 
deliverance that they cannot deny but that 
God himself hath in his great mercy 
visited them, and yet they continue wick- 
ed as before, what deserve they, but 
effectually to be given over unto a repro- 
bate sense, that headlong they may run to 
ruin both of body and soul ? It is almost 
incredible that a man should be so en- 
raged against God, that neither his plagues, 
nor yet his mercy showed, should remove 
them to repentance ; but because the scrip- 
tures bear witness of the one and the 
other, let us cease to marvel, and let us 
firmly believe, that such things as have 
been are even presently before our eyes, 
albeit, many blinded by affection cannot 
see them. 

Ahab, as in the book of the Kings it is 
written, received many notable benefits of 
the hand of God, who did visit him in divers 
sorts ; sometimes by his plagues, sometimes 
by his word, and sometimes by his merciful 
deliverance. He made him king, and for 
the idolatry used by him and his wife, he 
plagued whole Israel by famine. He 
revealed to him his will and true reli- 
gion by the prophet Elijah. He gave unto 
him sundry deliverances; but one most 
special, when proud Benhadad came to 
besiege Samaria, and was not content to 
receive Ahab's gold, silver, sons, daughters, 



and wives, but also required that his ser- 
vants should have at their pleasure what- 
soever was delectable in Samaria. True ft 
is, that his elders and people willed him 
not to hear the proud tyrant. But who 
made unto him the promise of deliverance ? 
and who appointed and put his army in 
order ? Who assured him of victory ? The 
prophet of God only, who assured him, 
that by the servants of the princes of the 
provinces, who in number were only two 
hundred thirty and two, he should defeat 
that great army, in the which there were two 
and thirty king's with all their forces ; and 
as the prophet of God promised, so it came 
to pass; victory was obtained not once only, 
but twice, and that by the merciful visita- 
tion of the Lord. 

But how did Ahab visit God again for his 
great benefit received ? Did he remove his 
idolatry ? Did he correct his idolatrous wife 
Jezebel ? No, we find no such thing ; but the 
one and the other we find to have continued 
and increased in former impiety. But what 
was the end hereof? The last visitation of 
God was, that dogs licked the blood of the 
one, and did eat the flesh of the other. In 
few words, then, we understand what diffe- 
rence there is betwixt the visitation of God 
upon the reprobate, and his visitation upon 
his chosen : the reprobate are visited, but 
never truly humbled nor yet amended ; the 
chosen being visited, they sob and they cry 
unto God for mercy ; which obtained, they 
magnify God's name, and after declare the 
fruits of repentance. Let us, therefore, 
that hear these judgments of our God, call 
for the assistance of his Holy Spirit, that 
howsoever it pleaseth him to visit us, that 
we may stoop under his merciful hands, 
and unfeignedly cry to him when he 
correcteth us; and so shall we know in 
experience, that our cries and complaints 
were not in vain. But let us hear what 
the prophet saith further. 

" Like as a woman," saith he, " with child 
that draweth near the travail, is in sorrow, 
and crieth in her pains, so have we been in 
thy sight, O Lord. We have conceived, we 
have born in vain, as though we should 
have brought forth the wind. 

" Salvations were not made to the earth, 



478 



A SERMON. 



neither did the inhabitants of the earth 
fall." 

This is the second part of the prophet's 
complaint, in the which he, in the person of 
God's people, complaineth, that of their 
great affliction there appeared not end. 
1 This same similitude is used by our Mas- 
ter Jesus Christ ; for when he speaketh of 
the troubles of his church, he compareth 
them to the pains of a woman travailing in 
her child-birth. But it is to another end. 
For there he promiseth exceeding and per- 
manent joy, after a sort, though it appear 
trouble. But here is the trouble long and 
vehement, albeit, the fruit of it was not sud- 
denly espied. He speaketh, no doubt, of that 
long and dolorous time of their captivity, 
in the which they continually travailed for 
deliverance, but obtained it not before the 
complete end of seventy years ; during the 
which time, the earth, that is, the land of 
Judah, which sometimes was sanctified un- 
to God, but was then given to be profaned 
by wicked people, got no help, nor per- 
ceived any deliverance : for the inhabi- 
tants of the world fell not, that is the 
tyrants and oppressors of God's people 
were not taken away, but still remained, 
and continued blasphemers of God and 
his church. But because I perceive the 
hours to pass more swiftly than they have 
done at other times, I mind to contract that 
which resteth of this text into certain points. 

The prophet first fighteth against the 
present despair ; after he introduceth God 
himself calling upon his people; and, last 
of all, he assureth his afflicted, that God 
will come and require account of all the 
blood-thirsty tyrants of the earth. 

First, fighting against the present des- 
pair, he saith, " Thy dead shall live ; even 
my body, — or with my body, — shall they 
arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the 
dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs." 

The prophet here pierceth through all 
impediments that nature could object; and 
by the victory of faith, he overcometh not 
only the common enemies, but the great 
and last enemy of all, to wit, death itself. 
For this would he say, Lord, I see nothing 
to thy chosen, but misery to follow misery, 
and one affliction to succeed another ; yea, 



in the end I see that death shall devour 
thy dearest children. But yet, O Lord, I 
see thy promise to be true, and thy love to 
remain towards thy chosen, even when 
death appeared to have devoured them : 
" For thy dead shall live, yea not only 
shall they live, but my very dead carcase 
shall arise." And so I see honour and 
glory to succeed this temporal shame; I 
see joy permanent to come after trouble, 
order to spring out of this terrible confu- 
sion ; and, finally, I see that life shall de- 
vour death, so that death shall be destroyed 
and so thy servants shall have life. This, 
I say, is the victory of faith, when in the 
midst of death, through the light of God's 
word, the afflicted see life. Hypocrites, in 
the time of quietness and prosperity, can 
generally confess, that God is true in his 
promises ; but bring them to the extremity, 
and there ceaseth the hypocrite further to 
trust in God than he seeth natural means 
whereby God useth to work: but the true 
faithful, when all hope of natural means 
faileth, then fly they to God himself, and 
to the truth of his promise, who is above 
nature, yea, whose works are not so sub- 
ject to the ordinary course of nature, that 
when nature faileth, his power and promise 
fail also therewith. 

Let us further observe, that the prophet 
here speaketh not of all dead in general, 
but saith, " Thy dead, O Lord, shall live j" 
in which words he maketh difference be- 
twixt those that die in the Lord, and those 
that die in their natural corruption and in 
the old Adam. Die in the Lord can none, 
except those that live in him, — I mean 
those that attain to the years of dis- 
cretion, — and none live in him, but those 
that with the apostle can say, " I live, and 
yet not I, but Christ Jesus that dwelleth 
in me ; the life that I now live I have by 
the faith of the Son of God." Not that I 
mean, that the faithful have at all hours 
such sense of the life everlasting that they 
fear not the death and the troubles of this life; 
no, not so : for the faith of God's children 
is weak, yea, and in many things imperfect : 
but I mean, that such as in death and after 
death shall live, must communicate in this 
life with Jesus Christ, and must be regenerate 



A SERMON. 



479 



by the seed of life ; that is, by the word of 
the everliving God, which whosoever de- 
spiseth, refuseth life and joy everlasting-. 

The prophet transferred all the promises 
of God to himself, saying, " Even my dead 
body shall arise;" and immediately after, 
giveth commandment and charge to the 
dwellers in the dust, that is, to the dead 
carcases of those that were departed, — for 
the spirit and soul of man dwelleth not in 
the dust, — that they should awake, that 
they should sing and rejoice; for they 
should arise and spring up from the earth, 
even as the herbs do, after they have re- 
ceived the dew from above. 

Time will not suffer that these particu- 
lars be so largely treated as they ought to 
be, and as I gladly would ; therefore, let us 
consider, that the prophet, in transferring 
the poAver and promise of God to himself, 
doth not vindicate to himself any particular 
prerogative above the people of God, as 
that he alone should live and arise, and not 
they also ; but he doth it to let them under- 
stand that he taught a doctrine whereof he 
was certain, yea, and whereof they should 
have experience after his death : as if he 
should say, my words appear to you now 
to be incredible, but the day shall come 
that I shall he taken from you ; my carcase 
shall be inclosed in the bosom of the earth; 
and therefore shall ye be led away captives 
to Babylon, where ye shall remain many 
days and years, as it were, buried in your 
sepulchres. 

But then call to mind, that I said unto 
you beforehand that my body shall arise ; 
even so shall ye rise from your graves out 
of Babylon, and be restored to your own 
country and city of Jerusalem. This, I 
doubt not, is the true meaning of the pro- 
phet. The charge that he giveth to the 
dwellers in the dust, is to express the power 
of God's word, whereby he not only giveth 
life where death apparently had prevailed, 
but also by it he calleth things that are 
not even as if they were. True it is that 
the prophet Isaiah saw not the destruction 
of Jerusalem, much less could he see the 
restitution of it, with his corporal eyes ; but 
he leaveth this, as it were, in testament 
with them, that when they were in the ex- 



tremity of all bondage, they should call to 
mind what the prophet of 'God had before 
spoken. 

And lest that his doctrine, and this pro- 
mise of God made unto them by his mouth, 
should have been forgotten, — as we are 
ever prone and ready to forget God's pro- 
mises, when we are pressed with any sor- 
row, — God raised up unto them in the 
midst of their calamity, his prophet Eze- 
kiel, unto whom, among many other visions, 
he gave this : " The hand of the Lord first 
led him in a place, which was full of dry 
and dispersed bones." The question was 
demanded of the prophet, if these bones, 
being wondrous dry, should live. The 
prophet answered, the knowledge thereof 
appertained unto God. Charge was given 
unto him, that he should speak unto the 
dry bones, and say, " Thus saith the Lord 
God to these bones, Behold I shall give you 
breath, and you shall live ; I shall give unto 
you sinews, flesh, and skin, and you shall 
live." And while the prophet spake, as he 
was commanded, he heard a voice, and he 
saw every bone join in his marrow; he saw 
them covered with flesh and skin, albeit, 
there was no spirit of life in them. He 
was commanded again, to speak and to say, 
" Thus saith the Lord God, Come, O spirit, 
from the four quarters, and blow in these 
that are slain, that they may live." And 
as he prophesied, the spirit of life came; 
they lived and stood upon their feet. Now 
doth the Lord interpret what this vision 
meant, saying, " O Son of man, these bones 
are the whole house of Israel. Behold, 
they say, our bones are dried, our hope is 
perished, we are plainly cut off ; but Behold, 
saith the Lord, I will open your graves, 
I will bring you forth of them, ye shall 
live, and come unto the land of Israel, and 
ye shall know that I am the Lord." 

This vision, I say, given to the prophet, 
and by the prophet preached to the people, 
when they thought that God had utterly for- 
gotten them, compelled them more diligent- 
ly to advert [to] what the former prophets 
had spoken. It is no doubt, but they car- 
ried with them both the prophecy of Isaiah 
and Jeremiah, so that the prophet Ezekiel 
I is a commentary to these words of Isaiah, 



480 



A SERMON. 



where he saith, "Thy dead, O Lord, shall 
live, with my hody they shall arise." The 
prophet hringeth in this similitude of the 
dew, to answer unto that part of their 
fidelity, which can helieve no further of 
God's promises than they are able to ap- 
prehend by natural judgment; as he would 
say, think ye this impossible, that God 
shall give life unto you, and bring you to 
an estate of a commonwealth again, after 
that ye are dead, and as it were rased from 
the face of the earth ? But why do ye not 
consider what God worketh from year to 
year in the order of nature ? sometimes ye 
see the face of the earth decked and beauti- 
fied with herbs, flowers, grass, and fruits ; 
again, ye see the same utterly taken away 
by storms and vehemency of the winter. 
What doth God to replenish the earth again, 
and to restore the beauty thereof? He 
sendeth down his small and soft dew, the 
drops whereof, in their descending, are 
neither great nor visible, and yet thereby 
are the pores and secret veins of the earth, 
which before, by vehemency of frost and 
cold, were shut up, opened again ; and so 
doth the earth produce again the like herbs, 
flowers, and fruits. Shall ye then think, 
that the dew of God's heavenly grace shall 
not be as effectual in you to whom he hath 
made his promise, as that it is in the herbs 
and fruits that from year to year bud forth 
and decay ? If ye do so, the prophet would 
say, your incredulity is inexcusable, be- 
cause ye do neither rightly weigh the power 
nor the promise of your God. 

The like similitude useth the apostle Paul 
against such as called the resurrection in 
doubt, because that by natural judgment 
they could not apprehend that flesh once 
putrified and resolved, as it were, in other 
substance, should arise again, and return 
again to the same substance and nature. 
"O fool," saith he, "that which thou sow- 
est is not quickened except it die ; and that 
which thou sowest, thou sowest not that 
body that shall be, but bare corn, as it fall- 
eth of wheat or some other : but God giveth 
it a body as it pleaseth him, even to every 
seed his own body." In which words and 
sentence, the apostle sharply rcbuketh the 
gross ignorance of the Corinthians, who 



began to call in doubt the chief article of 
our faith, the resurrection of the flesh after 
that it was once resolved ; because that 
natural judgment, as said he, reclaimed 
thereto. He reproveth, I say, their gross 
ignorance, because they might have seen 
and considered some proof and document 
thereof in the very order of nature : for 
albeit, the wheat, or other corn cast in the 
earth, appeareth to die or putrify, and so to 
be lost, yet we see that it is not perished, 
but that it fructifieth according to God's 
will and ordinance. 

Now, if the power of God be so manifest 
in raising up of the fruits of the earth, unto 
the which no particular promise is made 
by God, what shall be his power and virtue 
in raising up of our bodies, seeing that 
thereto he is bound by the solemn promise 
of Jesus Christ, his eternal wisdom, and the 
verity itself that cannot lie ! Yea, seeing 
that the members must once communicate 
with the glory of the head, how shall our 
bodies, which are flesh of his flesh and bone 
of his bones, lie still for ever in corruption, 
seeing that our head, Jesus Christ, is now 
exalted in his glory ? Neither yet is this 
power and good will of God to be re- 
strained unto the last and general resurrec- 
tion only; but we ought to consider it in 
the marvellous preservation of his church, 
and in the raising up of the same from the 
very bottom of death, when by tyrants it 
hath been oppressed from age to age. 

Now, of the former words of the pro- 
phet we have to gather this comfort, that 
if at any time we see the face of the church 
within this realm so defaced, — as I think it 
shall be, sooner than we look for, — when 
we shall see, I say, virtue to be despised, 
vice to be maintained, the verity of God to 
be impugned, lies and men's inventions 
holden in authority ; and finally, when we 
shall see the true religion of our God, and 
the zealous observers of the same, to be 
trodden under the feet of such as in their 
heart say that there is no God, — let us 
then call to mind, what have been the 
wondrous works of our God from the be- 
ginning, that it is his proper office to bring 
forth light out of darkness, order out of 
confusion, life out of death; and finally, 



A SERMON. 



481 



that it is he that calleth things that are 
not, even as if they were, as hefore we 
have heard: and if in the day of our temp- 
tation,— which in my judgment approach- 
eth fast, — we be thus armed, if our incre- 
dulity cannot utterly be removed, yet shall 
it be so corrected, that damnable despair 
oppress us not. But now let us hear how 
the prophet proceedeth. 

" Come," saith he, "thou my people, enter 
within thy chamber, shut thy door after 
thee, hide thyself a very little while, until 
the indignation pass over." 

Here the prophet bringeth in God ami- 
ably calling upon his people to come to 
himself, and to rest with him, until such 
time as the fury and sharp plagues should 
be executed upon the wicked and inobe- 
dient. It may appear at the first sight, 
that all these words of the prophet in the 
person of God, calling the people unto rest, 
are spoken in vain ; for we neither find 
chambers nor rest more prepared for the 
dearest children of God, — so far as man's 
judgment can discern, — than there were for 
the rebellious and disobedient ; for such as 
fell not in the edge of the sword, or died 
not of pestilence, or by hunger, were either 
carried captives unto Babylon, or else de- 
parted after into Egypt, so that none of 
Abraham's seed had either chamber or 
quiet place to remain within the land of 
Canaan. For the resolution hereof, we 
must understand, that albeit, the chambers 
whereunto God called his chosen are not 
visible, yet notwithstanding they are cer- 
tain, and offer unto God's children quiet 
habitation in spirit, howsoever the flesh be 
travailed and tormented. 

The chambers are then God's sure pro- 
mises, unto the which God's people are 
commanded to resort, yea, within the 
which they are commanded to close them- 
selves in the time of greatest adversity. 
The manner of speaking is borrowed from 
that judgment and foresight which God 
hath printed in this our nature ; for when 
that men espy great tempests appearing to 
come, willingly they will not remain un- 
covered upon the fields, but straightway 
they will draw them to their houses or 
holds, that they may escape the vehemency 



of the same; and if they fear any enemy to 
pursue them, they will shut their doors, to 
the end that suddenly the enemy should 
not have entry. 

After this manner God speaketh to his 
people; as if he should say, the tempest 
that shall come upon this whole nation 
shall be so terrible, that nothing shall ap- 
pear but extermination to come upon the 
whole body: but thou, my people, 1 say, 
that nearest my word, belie vest the same, 
and tremblest at the threatenings of my 
prophets, now when the world doth in- 
solently resist, let such, I say, enter within 
the secret chamber of my promises, let 
them contain themselves quietly there, yea, 
let them shut the door upon them, and suf- 
fer not infidelity, the mortal enemy of my 
truth, and of my people that depend there- 
upon, to have free entry to trouble them, — 
yea, farther to murder, — in my promise ; 
and so shall they perceive that my indigna- 
tion shall pass, and that such as depend 
upon me shall be saved. 

Thus we may perceive the meaning of 
the prophet ; whereof, we have first to ob- 
serve, that God acknowledged them for his 
people that are in greatest affliction ; yea, 
such as are reputed unworthy of men's 
presence are yet admitted within the secret 
chamber of God. Let no man think that 
flesh and blood can suddenly attain to that 
comfort; and therefore most expedient it 
is, that we be frequently exercised in medi- 
tation of the same. Easy it is, I grant, in 
time of prosperity, to say and to think that 
God is our God, and that we are his people ; 
but when he hath given us over into the 
hands of our enemies, and turned, as it 
were, his back unto us, then I say, still to 
reclaim him to be our God, and to have 
this assurance, that we are his people, pro- 
ceedeth wholly from the Holy Spirit of 
God, as is the greatest victory of faith 
which overcometh the world; for increase 
whereof, we ought continually to pray. 

This doctrine we shall not think strange, 
if we shall consider how suddenly our 
spirits are carried away from our God, and 
from believing his promise. So soon as any 
great temptation doth apprehend us, then 
begin we to doubt if ever we believed 



482 



A SERMON. 



God's promises, if God will fulfil them to 
us, if we abide in his favour, if he regardeth 
and looketk upon the violence and injury 
that is done unto us, and a multitude of 
such cogitations which before lurked quietly 
in our corrupted hearts, burst violently forth 
when we are oppressed with any desperate 
calamity. Against the which, this is the 
remedy, once to apprehend and still to re- 
tain God to be our God, and firmly to be- 
lieve that we are his people whom he loveth 
and will defend, not only in affliction, but 
even in the midst of death itself. 

Secondly, let us observe, that the judg- 
ments of our God, never were, nor yet 
shall be so vehement upon the face of the 
earth, but that there hath been and shall 
he some secret habitation prepared in the 
sanctuary of God for some of his chosen, 
where they shall be preserved until the 
indignation pass by; and that God pre- 
pareth a time that they may glorify him 
again before the face of the world, that 
sometimes despise them : and this ought to 
be unto us no small comfort in these ap- 
pearing dangers, to wit, that we be surely 
persuaded, that how vehement soever the 
tempest shall be, that it yet shall pass over, 
and some of us shall be preserved to glori- 
fy the name of our God as is aforesaid. 

Two vices lurk in this our nature: the 
one is, that we cannot tremble at God's 
threatenings before that the plagues appre- 
hend us, albeit, that we see cause most 
just why that his fierce wrath should burn 
as a devouring fire. The other is, that 
when calamities before pronounced fall 
upon us, then begin we to sink down in 
despair, so that we never look for any 
comfortable end of the same. 

To correct this our mortal infirmity in 
time of quietness, we ought to consider 
what is the justice of our God, and how 
odious sin is. And above all other, how 
odious idolatry is in his presence, who hath 
forbidden it, and who hath severely pun- 
ished it in all ages from the beginning ; 
and in the time of our affliction we ought 
to consider what have been the wondrous 
works of our God, in preservation of his 
church when it hath been in uttermost ex- 
tremity : for never shall we find the church 



humbled under the hands of traitors, and 
cruelly tormented by them ; but therewith 
we shall find God's just vengeance to fall 
upon the cruel persecutors, and his merci- 
ful deliverance to be shown to the afflict- 
ed : and in taking of this trial, we should 
not only call to mind the histories of an- 
cient times, but also we should diligently 
mark what notable works God hath 
wrought even in this our age, as well upon 
the one as upon the other. We ought not 
to think that our God beareth less love to 
his church this day, than that he hath 
done from the beginning : for as our God 
in his own nature is immutable, so remain- 
eth his love towards his elect always un- 
changeable; for as in Christ Jesus he hath 
chosen his church before the beginning of 
all ages, so by him will he maintain and 
preserve the same unto the end. Yea, he 
will quiet the storms, and cause the earth 
to open her mouth, and receive those rag- 
ing floods of violent waters cast out by the 
dragon, to drown and carry away the 
woman which is the spouse of Christ 
Jesus, unto whom God for his own name's 
sake will be the perpetual protector. 

This saw that notable servant of Jesus 
Christ, Athanasius, who, — being exiled 
from Alexandria by that blasphemous apos- 
tate Julian, the emperor, — said unto his 
flock, who bitterly wept for his envious 
banishment : " Weep not, but be of good 
comfort," said he, "for this little cloud will 
suddenly vanish." A little cloud he called 
both the emperor himself and his cruel 
tyranny ; and albeit, that small appearance 
there was of any deliverance to the church 

l of God, or yet of any punishment to have 
apprehended the proud tyrants, when the 
man of God pronounced these words, yet 
shortly after, God did give witness that 

j these words did not proceed from flesh and 
blood, but from God's very Spirit. For not 
long after, being in warfare, he received a 
deadly wound, whether by his own hand or 
one of his own soldiers, the writers clearly 
conclude not ; but casting his own blood 
against the heaven, he said, Vicisti tandem 
Galilcee, that is, " At last thou hast over- 
come, thou Galilean ;" so in despite he 

, termed the Lord Jesus, and so pemhed 



A SERMON. 



483 



that tyrant in his own iniquity ; the storm 
ceased, and the church of God received 
now comfort. 

Such shall he the end of all cruel perse- 
cutors, their reign shall be short, their end 
miserable, and their name shall be left in 
execrations to God's people ; and yet shall 
the church of God remain to God's glory 
after all storms. But now shortly, let us 
come to the la&t point. 

"For behold," saith the prophet, "the 
Lord will come out of his place to visit the 
iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth | 
upon them, and the earth shall disclose her j 
blood and shall no more hide her slain ; 
because that the final end of the troubles 
of God's chosen shall not be, before that 
the Lord Jesus shall return to restore all 
things to their full perfection." ' J 

The prophet bringeth forth the eternal j 
God, as it were from his own place and 
habitation, and therewith showeth the 
cause of his coming to be, that he might j 

take account of all such as have wrought i 

i 

wickedly ; for that he meaneth, where he j 
saith, " He will visit the iniquity of the 
inhabitants of the earth upon them." And 
lest that any should think that the wrong- 
doers are so many that they cannot be 
called to an account, he giveth unto the 
earth, as it were, an office and -charge to 
bear witness against all those that have 
wrought wickedly, and chiefly against those 
that have shed innocent blood from the 
beginning; and saith, "That the earth 
shall disclose her blood, and shall no more 
hide her slain men." 

If tyrants of the earth, and such as de- 
light in the shedding of blood, should be 
persuaded that this sentence is true, they 
would not so furiously come to their own 
destruction ; for what man can be so en- 
raged, that he would willingly do even 
before the eyes of God, that which might 
provoke his majesty to anger, yea, pro- 
voke him to become his enemy for ever, 
if that he understood how fearful a thing 
it is to fall into the hands of the living 
God? 

The cause then of this blind fury of the 
world, is the ignorance of God, and that 
men think that God is but an idol, and 



that there is no knowledge above that 
beholdeth their tyranny ; neither yet 
justice that will, nor power that can, re- 
press their impiety ,* but yet the Spirit of 
truth doth witness the contrary, affirming, 
that as the eyes of the Lord are upon the 
just, and as his ears are ready to receive 
their sobbing and prayers, so is his angry 
visage against such as work iniquity. He 
hateth and holdeth in abomination every 
deceitful and blood-thirsty man, whereof 
he hath given sufficient document from 
age to age, in preserving the one, or at 
least in revenging of their cause, and in 
punishing of the other. Where it is said, 
that the Lord will come from his place, 
and that he wili visit the iniquity of the 
inhabitants of the earth upon them, and 
that the earth shall disclose her blood, w r e 
have to consider what most commonly 
hath been, and what shall be the condition 
of the church of God, to wit, that it is not 
only hated, mocked, and despised, but that 
it is exposed, as it were, in a prey, unto the 
fury of the wicked; so that the blood of 
the children of God, is spilt like unto 
water upon the face of the earth. 

The understanding whereof, albeit it be 
unpleasant to the flesh, yet to us it is most 
profitable, lest that we, seeing the cruel 
entreatings of God's servants, begin to 
forsake the spouse of Jesus Christ, because 
that she is not so dealt withal in this un- 
thankful world, as the just and upright 
dealing of God's children do deserve. But 
contrariwise, for mercy they receive cruel- 
ty; for doing good to many, of all the 
reprobate they receive evil. And this is 
decreed in God's eternal council, that the 
members may follow the trace of the head, 
to the end that God in his just judgment 
should finally condemn the wicked; for 
how should he punish the inhabitants of 
the earth, if their iniquity deserved it not ? 
How should the earth disclose our blood, 
if it should not be unjustly spilt? We 
must then commit ourselves into the hands 
of our God, and lay dow r n our necks, yea, 
and patiently suffer our blood to be shed, 
that the righteous judge may require ac- 
count, as most assuredly he shall, of all 
the blood that hath been shed, from the 



484 



A SERMON. 



blood of Abel the just, till the day that 
the earth shall disclose the same ; I say, 
every one that sheddeth, or consenteth to 
shed the blood of God's children, shall be 
guilty of the whole : so that ail the blood 
of God's children shall cry vengeance, not 
only in general, but iilso in particular, 
upon every one that hath shed the blood 
of any that unjustly suffered. 

And if any think it strange, that such as 
live this day can be guilty of the blood 
that was shed in the days of the apostles, 
let them consider, that the verity itself 
pronounced, that all the blood that was 
shed from the days of Abel unto the days 
of Zechariah, should come upon that un- 
thankful generation that heard his doc- 
trine and refused it. 

The reason is evident : for as there are 
two heads and captains that rule over the 
whole world, to wit, Jesus Christ, the 
prince of justice and peace, and Satan, 
called the prince of the world ; so are they 
but two armies that have continued battle 
from the beginning, and shall fight unto 
the end. The quarrel is one w r hich the 
army of Jesus Christ do sustain, and which 
the reprobate do prosecute, to wit, the 
eternal truth of the eternal God, and the 
image of Jesus Christ printed in his elect, 
so that whosoever in any age persecuteth 
any one member of Jesus Christ for his 
truth's sake, subscribeth as it were with 
his hand the persecution of all that have 
passed before him. 

And this ought the tyrants of this age 
deeply to consider ; for they shall be guilty 
not only of the blood shed by themselves, 
but of all, as is said, that hath been shed 
for the cause of Jesus Christ from the be- 
ginning of the world. 

Let the faithful not be discouraged, 
although they be appointed as sheep to the 
slaughter-house; for he for whose sake 
they suffer shall not forget to revenge 
their cause. 1 am not ignorant that flesh 
and blood will think that kind of support 
too late; for we had rather be preserved 
still alive, than to have our blood revenged 
after our death : and truly if our felicity 
stood in this life, or if death temporal 
should bring unto us any damage, our de- 



sire in that behalf were not to be dis- 
allowed or condemned : but seeing that 
death is common to all, and that this tem- 
poral life is nothing but misery, and that 
death doth fully join us with our God, and 
giveth unto us the profession of our inheri- 
tance, w r hy should w r e think it strange to 
leave this world, and go to our head and 
sovereign Captain, Jesus Christ ? 

Lastly, we have to observe this manner 
of speaking, where the prophet saith, that 
"The earth shall disclose her blood:" in 
which w r ords the prophet would accuse 
the cruelty of those that dare so unmerci- 
fully and violently force from the breasts 
of the earth, the dearest children of God, 
and cruelly cut their throats in her bosom, 
who is by God appointed the common 
mother of mankind, so that she unwilling- 
ly is compelled to open her mouth and 
receive their blood. 

If such tyranny were used against any 
natural woman, as violently to pull her 
infant from her breasts, cut the throat of 
it in her own bosom, and compel her to 
receive the blood of her dear child in her 
own mouth, all nations would hold the 
fact so abominable, that the like had never 
been done in the course of nature. No less 
wickedness commit they who shed the 
blood of God's children upon the face of 
their common mother, the earth, as I said 
before. But be of good courage, O little 
and despised flock of Christ Jesus ! for he 
that seeth your grief hath power to re- 
venge it. He will not suffer one tear of 
yours to fall ; but it shall be kept and re- 
served in his bottle, til] the fulness thereof 
be poured down from heaven upon those 
that caused you to weep and mourn. This 
your merciful God, I say, will not suffer — 
your blood for ever to be covered with 
the earth, nay, the flaming fires that have 
licked up the blood of any of our breth- 
ren. The earth that hath been defiled with 
it, I say, — with the blood of God's children ; 
for otherwise, to shed the blood of the 
cruel blood-shedders is to purge the land 
from blood, and as it were to sanctify it ; 
the earth, I say, — shall purge herself of it, 
and show it before the face of God ; yea, 
the beasts, fowls, and other creatures 



A SERMON. 



485 



whatsoever, shall be compelled to render 
that which they have received, be it flesh, 
blood, or bones that appertained to thy 
children, O Lord, which altogether thou 
shalt glorify, according to thy promise 
made to us in our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, thy wellbeloved Son — to whom, 
with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour, 
praise, and glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Let us now humble ourselves in the 
presence of our God ; and from the bottom 
of our hearts, let us desire him to assist us 
with the power of his Holy Spirit, that 
albeit for our former negligences God giv- 
eth us over into the hands of other than 
such as rule in his fear, that yet he letteth 
us not forget his mercy and that glorious 
name that hath been proclaimed amongst 
us; but that we may look through the 
dolorous storm of his present displeasure, 
and see as well what punishment he hath 
appointed for the cruel tyrants, as what 
reward he hath laid in store for such as 
continue in his fear to the end; that it 
would further please him to assist, that 
albeit we see his church so diminished, 
that it appear to be brought, as it were, to 
utter extermination, that we may be as- 
sured that in our God there is great power 
and will to increase the number of his 
chosen, until they be enlarged to the utter- 
most parts of the earth. Give us, O Lord, 



hearts to visit thee in time of affliction; 
and albeit we see no end of our dolours, 
yet our faith and hope may conduct us to 
the assured hope of that joyful resurrec- 
tion, in the which we shall possess the 
fruit of that for which we now labour. In 
the meantime, grant unto us, O Lord, to 
repose ourselves in the sanctuary of thy 
promise, that in thee we may find comfort, 
till that this thy great indignation, begun 
amongst us, may pass over, and thou thyself 
appear to the comfort of thy afflicted, and 
to the terror of thine and our enemies. 
Let us pray with heart and mouth. 

Almighty God and merciful Father, &c. 
Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit, 
for the terrible roaring of guns and the 
noise of armour do so pierce my heart, 
that my soul thirsteth to depart.* 
The last day of August, 1565, at four of 
the clock in the afternoon, written indi- 
gestly, but yet truly so far as memory 
would serve, of those things that in pub- 
lic I spake on Sunday, August 19th, for 
the which I was discharged to preach 
for a time. 

Be merciful to thy flock, O Lord, and at 
thy good pleasure put end to my misery. 

John Kjnox. 



* The castle of Edinburgh was shooting 
against the exiled for Christ Jesus' sake. 



BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 

[From a compendium of the laws of the church of Scotland, published 1830.] 



Previously to the legal establishment of 
the Protestant religion in 1560, the Book 
of Common Order used by the English 
church at Geneva was generally followed 
as the rule of worship and discipline by the 
Scots Reformers ,* but that being judged 
inadequate to the regulation of a church 
consisting of numerous congregations, a 
Book of Discipline, adapted to the state of 
the church, was soon after that event urged 
upon the parliament as a necessary accom- 
paniment to the legal institution of the 
National Church. Parliament, however, 
was dissolved without any thing being 
done on this subject. But the reformed 
clergy persevered, and the privy council 
were induced to grant a commission to 
five ministers to frame such a standard of 
ecclesiastical government When they had 
completed their task on 29th May, 1560, 
the " Book of Policy," or " First Book of 
Discipline," was submitted to the General 



Assembly, by whom it was approved ; and, 
though not formally ratified by the coun- 
cil, it was subscribed by a great portion of 
the members. Many of them, however, 
were opposed to it; and by some it was 
stagmatized as a "devout imagination." 
The First Book of Discipline, therefore, 
though thus sanctioned by the church, was 
never formally and fully approved by the 
civil authorities. 

After many commissions and confe- 
rences, with a view to the settlement of 
the discipline of the church, it was finally 
agreed on by the General Assembly, in 
1581, and registered in the acts of the 
kirk. The Confession of Faith, which 
had received the sanction of the civil 
government, was also declared to be the 
Confession of the Professors of the Re- 
formed Doctrines of the Church of Scot- 
land. 



THE 

FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE^* 

OR THE 

POLICY AND DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH; 

DRAWN UP BY 

MR JOHN WINRAM, MR JOHN SFOTTISWOOD, JOHN WILLOCK, MR JOHN DOUGLASS, 
MR JOHN ROW, AND JOHN KNOX, 

And presented to the Nobility, anno 1560, and afterwards subscribed by the Kirk and Lords. 



Exod. xxv. 9. — " According to all that I show thee, both after the fashion of the tabernacle, 
and after the fashion of all the ornaments thereof, even so shall ye make it." 



TO THE GREAT COUNCIL OF SCOTLAND NOW ADMITTED TO THE REGIMEN, BY THE PROVIDENCE 
OF GOD, AND BY THE COMMON CONSENT OF THE ESTATES THEREOF, YOUR HONOURS' HUMBLE 
SERVITORS AND MINISTERS OF CHRIST JESUS WITHIN THE SAME, WISH GRACE, MERCY, AND 
PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WITH THE PERPETUAL 
INCREASE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



From your honours we received a charge, 
dated at Edinburgh, the 29th of April, in 
the year of our Lord 1560, requiring and 
commanding us, in the name of the eter- 
nal God, as we will answer in his presence, 
to eommit to writing, and in a book de- 
liver to your wisdoms our judgments 
touching the reformation of religion, which 
heretofore in this realm, as in others, hath 
been utterly corrupted ; upon the receipt 
whereof, so many of us as were in this 
town, did convene, and in unity of mind 
do offer unto your wisdoms these subse- 
quents for common order and uniformity, 
to he observed in this realm concerning 
doctrine, administration of sacraments, elec- 
tion of ministers, provision for their sus- 
tentation, ecclesiastical discipline, and po- 

* This edition of the First Book of Discip- 
line is comformable to the edition printed anno 
1621; the typographical errors are corrected ; 
some words," which probably have been umitted 



licy of the church ; most humbly requiring 
your honours, that as you look for partici- 
pation with Christ Jesus, that neither ye 
admit any thing which God's plain word 
shall not approve, neither yet that ye shall 
reject such ordinances as equity, justice, 
and God's word do specify : for as we will 
not bind your wisdoms to our judgments, 
further than we are able to prove by God's 
plain scriptures; so must we most humbly 
crave of you, even as ye will answer in 
God's presence, before whom both you and 
we must appear to render accounts of all 
our facts, that ye repudiate nothing for 
pleasure and affection of men, which ye are 
not able to improve by God's written and 
revealed word. 



by the printer, are supplied from other copies, 
but they are printed within brackets ; and a few 
various readings are printed on the foot mar- 
gin. 



488 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE 



CHAP. I. 

THE FIRST HEAD OF DOCTRINE. 

Seeing- that Christ Jesus is he whom 
God the Father hath commanded only to 
be heard and followed of his sheep, we 
judge it necessary, that his gospel be truly 
and openly preached in every church and 
assembly of this realm ; and that all doc- 
trine repugnant to the same be utterly re- 
pressed, as damnable to man's salvation. 

The Explication of the First Head. 

1. Lest that upon this generality un- 
godly men take occasion to cavil, this we 
add for explication. By preaching of the 
gospel, we understand not only the scrip- 
tures of the New Testament, but also of 
the Old, to wit, the law, prophets, and his- 
tories, in which Christ Jesus is no less 
contained in figure, than we have him 
now expressed in verity: and, therefore, 
with the apostle we affirm, that " All scrip- 
ture inspired of God is profitable to in- 
struct, to reprove and to exhort." In 
which books of Old and New r Testaments 
we affirm, that all things necessary for the 
instruction of the church, and to make the 
roan of God perfect, is contained and suffi- 
ciently expressed. 

2. By the contrary doctrine we under- 
stand whatsoever men by laws, councils, or 
constitutions, have imposed upon the con- 
sciences of men, without the express com- 
mandment of God's w r ord, such as are the 
vow r s of chastity, forswearing of marriage, 
binding of men and women to several and 
disguised apparels, to the superstitious ob- 
servation of fasting days, difference of meat 
for conscience' sake, prayer for the dead ; 
and keeping of holy days of certain saints 
commanded by man, such as are all those 
that the papists have invented, as the feasts, 
— as they term them, — of the apostles, mar- 
tyrs, virgins, of Christmas, circumcision, 
epiphany, purification, and other fond 
feasts of our lady : which things, because 
in God's scriptures they neither have com- 
mandment nor assurance, we judge them 
utterly to be abolished from this realm ; 
affirming farther, that the obstinate main- 
tained and teachers of such abominations 



ought not to escape the punishment oi the 
civil magistrate. 

CHAP. II. 

THE SECOND HEAD, OF THE SACRAMENTS. 

1. To Christ Jesus his holy gospel truly 
preached, of necessity it is, that his holy 
sacraments be annexed, and truly minis- 
tered, as seals and visible confirmations of 
the spiritual promises contained in the 
word : and they are two, to wit, baptism, 
and the holy supper of the Lord Jesus : 
which are then rightly ministered, when 
by a lawful minister the people before the 
administration of the same are plainly in- 
structed and put in mind of God's free 
grace and mercy, offered unto the penitent 
in Christ Jesus ; when God's promises are 
rehearsed, the end and use of [the] sacra- 
ments preached and declared, and that in 
such a tongue as the people do understand ; 
when farther to them is nothing added, 
from them nothing diminished, and in 
their * practice nothing changed besides 
the institution of the Lord Jesus, and prac- 
tice of his holy apostles. 

2. And albeit the order of Geneva, 
which now is used in some of our churches, 
is sufficient to instruct the diligent reader, 
how that both these sacraments may be 
rightly ministered ; yet for an uniformity 
to be kept, we have thought good to add 
this as superabundant. 

3. In baptism we acknowledge nothing 
to be used except the element of water 
only, — that the word and declaration of the 
promises ought to precede we have said 
before ; — wherefore, whosoever presumeth 
in baptism to use oil, salt, wax, spittle, 
conjuration, and crossing, accuseth the 
perfect institution of Christ Jesus of im- 
perfection ; for it was void of all such in- 
ventions devised by men. And such as 
would presume to alter Christ's perfect 
ordinance you ought severely to punish. 

4. The table of the Lord is then most 
rightly ministered, when it approacheth 
most near to Christ's own action; but 



* Administration. 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



489 



plain it is, that at that supper Christ Jesus 
sat with his disciples, and therefore do we 
judge that sitting at a table is most conve- 
nient to that holy action ; that bread and 
wine ought to be there, that thanks ought 
to be given, distribution of the same made, 
and commandment given that the bread 
should be taken and eaten, and that all 
should likewise drink of the cup of wine, 
with declaration what both the one and 
the other is, we suppose no godly man 
will doubt. For as touching the damnable 
error of the papists, who dare defraud the 
common people of the one part of that 
holy sacrament, to wit, of the cup of the 
Lord's blood, we suppose their errar to be 
so manifest, that it needeth no confutation ; 
neither yet intend we to confute any thing 
in this our simple confession, but to offer 
public disputation to all that list oppugn 
any thing affirmed by us. 

5. That the minister break the bread, 
and distribute the same to those that are 
next unto him, commanding the rest, every 
one with reverence and sobriety, to break 
with other, we think it nearest to Christ's 
action, and to the perfect practice [of the 
apostles], as we read in St Paul. During 
the which action we think it necessary, 
that some comfortable places of the scrip- 
ture be read, which may bring in mind the 
death of Christ Jesus, and the benefit of 
the same ; for seeing that in that action we 
ought chiefly to remember the Lord's 
death, we judge the scriptures making 
mention of the same, most apt to stir up 
our dull minds then, and at all times. Let 
the discretion of the ministers appoint the 
places to be read as they think good. What 
times we think most convenient for the 
administration of the one and of the other 
of these sacraments, shall be declared in 
the Policy of the Kirk* 

CHAP. nr. 

THE THIRD HEAD, TOUCHING THE ABOLISHING 
OF IDOLATRY. 

1. As we require Christ Jesus to be 
truly preached, and his holy sacraments 



* See chap. xi. of this book, sect. 5. 



rightly ministered ; so [we] cannot cease 
to require idolatry, with all monuments 
and places of the same, as abbeys, monke- 
ries, frieries, nunneries, chapels, chanteries, 
cathedral churches, canonries, colleges, 
others than presently are parish churches 
or schools, to be utterly suppressed in all 
bounds and places of this realm, except 
only palaces, mansions, and dwelling places 
adjacent thereto, with orchards and yards 
of the same. As also [we desire] that ido- 
latry may be removed from the presence 
of all persons, of what estate or condition 
that ever they are, within this realm. 

2. For let your honours assuredly be 
persuaded, that where idolatry is main- 
tained or permitted, where it may be sup- 
pressed, that there shall God's wrath reign, 
not only upon the blind and obstinate 
idolaters, but also the negligent sufferers 
[of the same] ; especially if God has armed 
their hands with power to suppress such 
abomination. 

3. By idolatry we understand, the mass, 
invocation of saints, adoration of images, 
and the keeping and retaining of the same : 
and finally all honouring of God, not con- 
tained in his holy word. 

CHAP. IV. 

THE FOURTH HEAD, CONCERNING MTNISTERS 
AND THEIR LAWFUL ELECTION. 

1. In a church reformed or tending to 
reformation, none ought to presume either 
to preach, or yet to minister the sacra- 
ments, till that orderly they be called to 
the same. Ordinary vocation consisteth 
in election, examination, and admission. 
And because that election of ministers in 
this cursed papistry hath altogether been 
abused, we think expedient to entreat it 
more largely. 

2. It appertaineth to the people, and to 
every several congregation, to elect their 
minister. And in case that they be found 
negligent therein the space of forty days, 
the best reformed church, to wit, the 
church of the superintendent with his 
council, may present unto them a man 
whom they judge apt to feed the flock 
of Christ Jesus, who must be examinated 

3 Q 



490 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



as well in life and manners, as in doctrine 
and in knowledge. 

3. And that this may be done with more 
exact diligence, the persons that are to be 
examinated must be commanded to appear 
before men of soundest judgment, remain- 
ing in some principal town next adjacent 
unto them, as they that be in Fife, Angus, 
Mearns, or Strathearn, to present them- 
selves in St Andrews ; those that be in 
Lothian, Merse, or Teviotdale, in Edin- 
burgh ; and likewise those that be in other 
countries must resort to the best reformed 
city and town, that is, to the town of the 
superintendent, where first in the schools, 
or failing thereof in open assembly, and 
before the congregation, they must give 
declaration of their gifts, utterance, and 
knowledge, by interpreting some place of 
scripture to be appointed by the ministry; 
which being ended, the person that is pre- 
sented, or that offereth himself to the ad- 
ministration * of the church, must be ex- 
amined by the ministers and elders of the 
church, and that openly and before all that 
list to hear, in all the chief points that 
noAv are in controversy betwixt us and the 
papists, anabaptists, Arians, or other such 
enemies to the Christian religion. In 
which if he be found sound, able to per- 
suade by wholesome doctrine, and to con- 
vince the gainsayer, then must he be di- 
rected to the church and congregation 
where he should serve, that there, in open 
audience of his flock, in divers public ser- 
mons, he may give confession of his faith 
in the article of justification, of the office 
of Christ Jesus, and of the number, effect, 
and use of the sacraments ; and, finally, in 
the whole religion, which heretofore hath 
been corrupted by the papists. 

4. If his doctrine be found wholesome, 
and able to instruct the simple, and if the 
church justly can reprehend nothing in 
his life, doctrine, nor utterance, then we 
judge the church, which before was desti- 
titute, unreasonable if they refuse him 
whom the church did offer; and [that] 
they should be compelled, by the censure 



* Service. 



of the council and church, to receive the 
person appointed and approved by the 
judgment of the godly and learned; unless 
that the same church have presented a 
man better or as well qualified to the ex- 
amination, before that this foresaid trial 
was taken of the person presented by the 
council of the whole church. As, for ex- 
ample, the council of the church presents 
to any church a man to be their minister, 
not knowing that they are otherwise pro- 
vided ; in the meantime, the church is 
provided of another, sufficient in their 
judgment for that charge, whom they pre- 
sent to the learned ministers and next re- 
formed church to be examined. In this 
case the presentation of the people, to 
whom he should be appointed pastor, must 
be preferred to the presentation of the 
council or greater church, unless the per- 
son presented by the inferior church be 
judged unable of the regimen by the learn- 
ed. For altogether this is to be avoided, 
that any man be violently intruded or 
thrust in upon any congregation ; but this 
liberty with all care must be reserved to 
every several church, to have their votes 
and suffrages in election of their ministers. 
But violent intrusion we call not, when 
the council of the church in the fear of 
God, and for the salvation of the people, 
offereth unto them a sufficient man to in- 
struct them, whom they shall not be forced 
to admit before just examination, as before 
is said. 

II. What may unable any person, that 
he may not be admitted to the Ministry oj 
the Church. 

5. It is to be observed that no person, 
noted with public infamy, or being unable 
to edify the church by wholesome doctrine, 
or being known of corrupt judgment, be 
either promoted to the regimen of the 
church, or yet retained in ecclesiastical ad- 
ministration. 

EXPLICATION. 

6. By public infamy we understand, not 
the common sins and offences which any 
hath committed in time of blindness, by 
fragility ; if of the same, by a better and 
more sober conversation, he hath declared 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



491 



himself verily penitent ; but such capital 
crimes as the civil sword ought and may 
punish with death by the word of God. 
For besides that the apostle requireth the 
life of ministers to be so irreprehensible, 
that they have a good testimony from 
those that be without; we judge it a thing- 
unseemly and dangerous, that he shall 
have public authority to preach to others 
life everlasting, from whom the civil ma- 
gistrate may take the life temporal for a 
crime publicly committed ; and if any ob- 
ject that the prince hath pardoned his 
offence, and that he hath publicly repented 
[the same], and so not only his life is in 
assurance, but also that he may be received 
to the ministry of the church ; we answer, 
that repentance doth not take away the 
temporal punishment of the law, neither 
doth the pardon of the prince remove his 
infamy before man. 

7. That the life and conversation of the 
person presented, or to be elected, may be 
the more clearly known, public edicts 
should be directed to all parts of this realm, 
or at the least to those parts where the per- 
son hath been most conversant : as where he 
was nourished in letters, or where he con- 
tinued since the years of infancy and child- 
hood were passed. Strait command- 
ment would be given, that if any capital 
crimes were committed by him, that they 
should be notified, as if he had committed 
wilful murder [or] adultery ; [or] if he 
were a common fornicator, a thief, a drunk- 
ard, a fighter, brawler, or contentious per- 
son. These edicts ought to be notified in 
the chief cities, with the like charge and 
commandment, with declaration that such 
as concealed their sins known, did deceive 
and betray, so far as in them lay, the 
church which is the spouse of Christ Jesus, 
and did communicate with the sins of 
that wicked man. 

III. Admission of Ministers. 

8. The admission of ministers to their 
offices, must consist in [the] consent of the 
people and church whereto they shall be 
appointed, and approbation of the learned 
ministers appointed for their examination. 

9. We judge it expedient that the ad- 
mission of ministers be in open audience, 



[and] that some special minister make a 
sermon touching the duty and office of 
ministers, touching their manners, conver- 
sation, and life ; as also touching the obe- 
dience which the church oweth to their 
ministers. Commandment should be given 
as well to the minister as to the people, 
both being present, to wit, that he with all 
careful diligence attend upon the flock of 
Christ Jesus, over the which he is ap- 
pointed pastor : that he will walk in the 
presence of God so sincerely, that the 
graces of the Holy Spirit may be multi- 
plied in him ; and in the presence of men 
so soberly and uprightly, that his life may 
confirm, in the eyes of men, that which by 
tongue and word he persuaded unto others. 
The people should be exhorted to reverence 
and honour their ministers chosen, as the 
servants and ambassadors of the Lord 
Jesus, obeying the commandments which 
they pronounce from God's word, even as 
they would obey God himself : for who- 
soever heareth Christ's ministers, heareth 
himself; and whosoever rejecteth and des- 
piseth their ministry and exhortation, re- 
jecteth and despiseth Christ Jesus. 

10. Other ceremony than the public 
approbation of the people, and declaration 
of the chief minister, that the person there 
presented is appointed to serve the *church, 
we cannot approve ; for albeit the apostles 
used imposition of hands, yet seeing the 
miracle is ceased, the using of the cere- 
mony we judge not necessary .f 

11. The minister elected or presented, 
examined, and, as said is, publicly ad- 
mitted, may neither leave the flock at his 
pleasure, to which he hath promised his 
fidelity and labours ; neither yet may the 
flock reject or change him at their appe- 
tite, unless they be able to convict him of 
such crimes as deserve deposition, whereof 
we shall after speak. We mean not but 
that the whole church, or the most part 
thereof, for just considerations, may trans- 
fer a minister from one church to another; 
neither yet mean we, that men who now 



* That church. 

•f See the Second Book of Discipline, chap, 
iii. sect. 6. 



FIRST BOOK O 

serve as it were of benevolence, may not 
be appointed and elected to serve in other 
places; but once being- solemnly elected 
and admitted, we cannot approve that they 
should change at their own pleasure. 

12. We are not ignorant that the rarity 
of godly and learned men, will seem to 
some a just reason why that so strait 
and sharp examination should not be taken 
universally; for so it would appear, that 
the most part of the kirks shall have no 
minister at all: but let these men under- 
stand, that the lack of able men shall not 
excuse us before God, if by our consent 
unable men be placed over the flock of 
Christ Jesus; as also that amongst the 
Gentiles, godly and learned men were as 
rare as they are now, amongst us, w r hen the 
apostle gave the same rule to try and ex- 
amine ministers, which we now follow : 
and lastly, let them understand that it is 
alike to have no minister at all, and to 
have an idol in the place of a true minis- 
ter, yea, and in some case it is worse ; for 
those that be utterly destitute of ministers 
will be diligent to search for them, but 
those that have a vain shadow, do com- 
monly without further care content them- 
selves with the same, and so remain they 
continually deceived, thinking that they 
have a minister, when in very deed they 
have none; for we cannot judge him a dis- 
pensator of God's mysteries, that in no- 
wise can break the bread of life to the 
fainting and hungry souls; neither judge 
we that the sacraments can be rightly min- 
istered by him, in whose mouth God hath 
put no sermon of exhortation. 

13. The chiefest remedy left to your 
honours and to us, in all this rarity of true 
ministers, is fervent prayer unto God, that 
it will please his mercy to thrust forth 
faithful workmen into this his harvest. 
And next, that your honours, with con- 
sent of the church, are bound by your 
authority to compel such men as have 
gifts and graces able to edify the church of 
God, that they bestow them where great- 
est necessity shall be known ; for no man 
may be permitted to live idle, or as them- 
selves list, but must be appointed to travel 
where your wisdoms and the church shall 



F DISCIPLINE. 

think expedient. We cannot prescribe 
unto your honours certain rules how that 
ye shall distribute the ministers and learn- 
ed men, whom God hath already sent unto 
you ; but hereof we are assured, that it 
greatly hindereth the progress of Christ's 
gospel within this poor realm, that some 
altogether abstract their labours from the 
church, and others remain altogether in 
one place, the most part of them being idle. 
And therefore of your honours we require 
in God's name, that by your authority 
which ye have of God, ye compel all men 
to whom God hath given any talent to 
persuade, by wholesome doctrine, to bestow 
the same, if they be called by the church 
to the advancement of Christ's glory, and 
the comfort of his troubled flock ; and that 
ye, with the consent of the church, assign 
unto the chiefest workmen, not only towns 
to remain in, but also provinces, that by 
their faithful labours churches may be 
erected, and order established, where none 
are now. And if on this manner ye shall 
use your power and authority, chiefly 
seeking God's glory, and the comfort of 
your brethren, we doubt not but God shall 
bless you and your enterprises. 
IV. For Readers. 

14-. To the churches where no ministers 
can be had presently, must be appointed 
the most apt men that distinctly can read 
the common prayers* and the scriptures, 
to exercise both themselves and the church, 
till they grow to greater perfection ; and in 
process of time he that is but a reader may 
attain to a farther degree, and by consent 
of the church and discreet ministers, may 
be permitted to minister the sacraments ; 
but not before that he be able somewhat 
to persuade by wholesome doctrine, be- 
side his reading, and be admitted to the 
ministry, as before is said. Some we 
know that of long time have professed 
Christ Jesus, whose honest conversation 
deserveth praise of all godly men, and 
whose knowledge also might greatly help 
the simple [and ignorant people,] and yet 
they only content themselves with reading ; 



* That is, the prayers that were printed with 
the Book of Common Order and Psilm IVok. 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



493 



these must be animated, and by gentle ad- 
monition encouraged, by some exhortation 
to comfort their brethren, and so they 
may be admitted to administration of the 
sacraments ; but such readers as neither 
have had exercise nor continuance in 
Christ's true religion, must abstain from 
ministration of the sacraments, till they 
give declaration and witnessing of their 
honesty and further knowledge, that none 
be admitted to preach but they that are 
qualified therefore, but rather be retained 
readers ; and such as are preachers already, 
not found qualified therefore by the super- 
intendent, [are] to be placed readers. 

CHAP. V. 

THE FIFTH HEAD, CONCERNING THE PROVISION 
FOR THE MINISTERS, AND FOR THE DISTRI- 
BUTION OF THE RENTS AND POSSESSIONS 
JUSTLY APPERTAINING TO THE CHURCH. 

L Seeing that of our Master Christ 
Jesus, and his apostle Paul, we have, " That 
the workman is worthy of his reward," 
and that " The mouth of the labouring ox 
ought not be muzzled of necessity it is, 
that honest provision be made for the 
ministers, which we require to be such, 
that they have neither occasion of solici- 
tude, neither yet of insolency and wanton- 
ness. And this provision must be made 
not only for their own sustentation, during 
their lives, but also for their wives and 
children after them. For we judge it a 
thing most contrarious to reason, godliness, 
and equity, that the widow and the chil- 
dren of him who in his life did faithfully 
serve in the kirk of God, and for that 
cause did not carefully make provision for 
his family, should after his death be left 
comfortless of all provision ; which pro- 
vision for the wives of the ministers after 
their decease, is to be remitted to the dis- 
cretion of the kirk. 

2. Difficile [difficult] it is to appoint a seve- 
ral stipend to every minister, by reason that 
the charge and necessity of all will not be 
alike : for some will be continuers in one 
place, some will be compelled to travel, 
and oft to change their dwelling place, if 
they shall have charge of divers kirks 



among these some will be burdened with 
wife and children, and one with more than 
others, and some perhaps will be single 
men ; if equal stipends should be appointed 
to these that in charge should be so une- 
qual, either should the one suffer penury, 
or else should the other have superfluity 
and too much. We judge therefore that 
every minister have sufficient whereupon 
to keep a house, and be sustained honestly 
in all things necessary, as books, clothes, 
flesh, fish, fuel, and other things necessary, 
[forth] of the rents and treasury of the 
kirk [where he serveth,] at the discretion 
of the congregation, conform to the quality 
of the person and necessity of the time. 
Wherein it is thought good that every 
minister shall have at least forty bolls 
meal, twenty-six bolls malt,* to find his 
house bread and drink ; and more, so much 
as the discretion of the church finds ne- 
cessary ; besides money for buying of 
other provisions to his house and other 
necessaries, the modification whereof is 
referred to the judgment of the kirk, to be 
made every year at the choosing of the 
elders and deacons of the kirk. Providing 
always, that there be advanced to every 
minister sufficient provision for a quarter 
of a year before hand of all things. 

3. But to him that travels from place to 
place, whom we call superintendent, who 
remains as it were a month or less in one 
place for establishing of the kirk, and for 
the same purpose changing to another, 
must [further] consideration be had. And, 
therefore, to such we think six chalders 
beer, nine chalders meal, three chalders 
oats,f six hundred merks money, to be 
eiked [added] and paired at the discretion of 
the prince and council of the realm, to be 
paid to him in manner foresaid. 

4. The children of the ministers must 
have the liberties of the cities next adja- 
cent, where their fathers laboured, freely 
granted. Thay must have the privileges 
in schools, and bursaries in colleges, that 
is, that they shall be sustained at learning, 



* Some copies have only twenty bolls malt, 
f Some copies add, for provender to kis horse, 
and have only 500 merks of money. 



494 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



if they be found apt thereto ; and failing 
thereof they [must] be put to some handi- 
craft, or exercised in some virtuous indus- 
try, whereby they may be profitable mem- 
bers of the commonwealth ; and the same 
we require of their daughters, to wit, that 
they be virtuously brought up, and honest- 
ly doted when they come to maturity of 
years, at the discretion of the kirk. And 
this, in God's presence, we witness, we re- 
quire not so much for ourselves, or for any 
that appertain to us, as that we do it for 
the increase of virtue and learning, and for 
the profit of the posterity to come; [for] it 
is not to be supposed that any man will 
dedicate himself and his children so to 
God arid to his kirk, that they look for no 
worldly commodity; but this cankered na- 
ture which we bear, is provoked to follow 
virtue when it seeth profit and honour 
thereto annexed; and, contrarily, then is 
virtue by many despised, when virtuous 
and godly men are without honour; and 
sorry would we be that poverty should 
discourage men from study, and following 
of the way of virtue, by which they might 
edify the kirk and flock of Christ Jesus. 

5. Nothing have we spoken of the sti- 
pend of readers, because if they can do 
nothing but read, they neither can be called 
nor judged true ministers, and yet regard 
must be had to their labours ; but so that 
they may be spurred forward to virtue, 
and not by any stipend appointed for their 
reading to be retained in that estate. To a 
reader therefore that is newly entered, 
forty merks, or more or less, as parishioners 
and readers can agree, is sufficient : pro- 
vided that he teach the children of the 
parish, which he must do, besides the 
reading of the common prayers,* and books 
of the Old and New Testament. If from 
reading he begin to exhort and explain the 
scriptures, then ought his stipend to be 
augmented, till finally he come to the 
honour of a minister : but if he be found un- 
able after two years, then must he be re- 
moved from that office, and discharged of 



• That is, the prayers which were printed 
with the Psalm Book. 



all stipend, that another may be proved as 
long ; for this always is to be avoided, that 
none who is judged unable to come at any 
time to some reasonable knowledge, where- 
by he may edify the kirk, shall be per- 
petually sustained upon the charge of the 
kirk. Farther it must be avoided, that no 
child, nor person within age, that is, with- 
in twenty-one years of age, be admitted to 
the office of a reader ; but readers ought to 
be endued with gravity and discretion, lest 
by their lightness the prayers or scriptures 
read be of less price or estimation. It is 
to be noted that the reader be put in the 
kirk by the admission of the superinten- 
dent. The other sort of readers, who have 
long continued in [the course of] godliness, 
and have some gift of exhortation, who are 
of hope to attain to the degree of a minis- 
ter, and [who] teach the children; we 
think a hundred merks, or more or less 
at the discretion of the kirk, may be ap- 
pointed ; so that difference be made, as 
said is, betwixt them and the ministers that 
openly preach the word and minister 
the sacraments. 

6. Rest yet two sorts of people to be 
provided for, upon that which is called the 
patrimony of the kirk, to wit, the poor, 
and teachers of the youthhead. Every 
several kirk must provide for the poor 
within itself ; for fearful and horrible it is, 
that the poor, whom not only God the 
Father in his law, but Christ Jesus in his 
evangel, and the Holy Spirit speaking by 
St Paul, hath so earnestly commended to 
our care, are universally so contemned and 
despised. We are not patrons for stubborn 
and idle beggars, who, running from place 
to place, make a craft of their begging, 
whom the civil magistrate ought to [com- 
pel to work, or then] punish : but for the 
widow and fatherless, the aged, impotent, or 
lamed, who neither can nor may travel for 
their sustentation, we say, that God com- 
mands his people to be careful : and there- 
fore, for such, as also for persons of hones- 
ty fallen into decay and poverty, ought 
such provision to be made, that of our 
abundance their indigence may be relieved. 
How this most conveniently and most 
easily may be done in every city, and other 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



495 



parts of this realm, God will show you 
wisdom and the means, so that your minds 
be godly inclined thereto. All must not 
be suffered to beg- that gladly would so do, 
neither yet must beggars remain where 
they would, but the stout and strong beg- 
g-ars must be compelled to work ; and 
every person that may not work, must be 
compelled to repair to the place where 
he or she was born, unless of long con- 
tinuance they have remained in one place ; 
and their reasonable provision must be 
made for [their] sustentation, as the kirk 
shall appoint. The order nor sums, in our 
judgments, cannot particularly be appoint- 
ed, until such times as the poor of every 
city, town, and parish, be compelled to re- 
pair to the places where they were born, I 
or of their residence, where their names ! 
and number must be taken and put in roll, j 
and then may the wisdom of the kirk J 
appoint stipends accordingly. 

CHAP. VI. 

THE HEAD OF THE SUPERINTENDENTS. 

1. Because we have appointed a larger 
stipend to them that shall be superin- 
tendents than to the rest of the minis- 
ters, we have thought good to signify to 
your honours, such reasons as moved us to 
make difference betwixt preachers at this 
time ; as also how many superintendents 
we think necessary, with their bounds, 
office, [the manner of their] election, and 
[the] causes that may deserve deposition 
from that charge. 

2. We consider that if the ministers 
whom God hath endowed with his singu- 
lar graces amongst us, should be appointed 
to several places, there to make their con- 
tinual residence, that then the gpreatest 
part of the realm should be destitute of all 
doctrine ; which should not only be the 
occasion of great murmur, but also be dan- 
gerous to the salvation of many. And, 
therefore, we have thought it a thing most 
expedient at this time, that from the whole 
number of godly and learned men, now 
presently in this realm, be selected ten or 
twelve, — for in so many provinces we have 



divided the whole, — to whom charge and 
commandment should be given to plant and 
erect kirks, to set, order, and appoint minis- 
ters as the former order prescribes, to the 
countries that shall be appointed to their 
care where none are now; and by their 
means, your love and common care over 
all [the] inhabitants of this realm, to 
whom you are equally debtors, shall evi- 
dently appear; as also the simple and igno- 
rant, who perchance have never heard 
Jesus Christ truly preached, shall come to 
some knowledge, by the which many that 
are dead in superstition and ig-norance shall 
attain to some feeling of godliness, by the 
which they may be provoked to search 
and seek farther knowledge of God, and 
his true religion and worshipping; where- 
as by the contrary, if they shall be ne- 
glected, then shall they not only grudge, 
but also seek the means whereby they may 
continue in their blindness, or return to 
their accustomed idolatry. And, therefore, 
nothing- we desire more earnestly, than that 
Christ Jesus be universally once preached 
throughout this realm, which shall not 
suddenly be, unless that by you, men be 
appointed and compelled faithfully to 
travel in such provinces as to them shall 
be assigned. 

II. The names of the places of residence, 
and several Dioceses of the Superinten- 
dents. 

1. Imprimis, the superintendent of Ork- 
ney, whose diocese shall comprehend the 
isles of [Orkney and] Shetland, with Caith- 
ness and Strathnaver, his residence to be in 
Kirkwall. 

2. The superintendent of Ross, whose 
diocese shall comprehend Ross, Suther- 
land, Murray, with the north isles of Skye 
and Lewes, with the adjacents, his resi- 
dence to be in the cannonry of Ross. 

3. The superintendent of Argyle, whose 
diocese shall comprehend Argyle, Kin- 
tyre, Lorn, the South Isles, Arran, and 
Bute, w ith their adjacents, with [the coun- 
try of] Locbaber, his residence to be in 
Argyle. 

4. The superintendent of Aberdeen, 
whose diocese is betwixt Dee and Spey, 



496 FIRST BOOK O 

containing the sheriffdoms of Aberdeen and 
of Banff, whose residence shall be in Old 
Aberdeen. 

5. The superintendent of Brechin, whose 
diocese shall be the whole sheriffdoms of 
the Mearns and Angus, and the Brae of 
Mar to Dee, his residence to be in Bre- 
chin. 

6. The superintendent of Fife, [whose 
diocese shall be Fife,] and Fotheringham 
to Stirling, and the whole sheriffdom of 
Perth, his residence to be in St Andrews. 

7. The superintendent of Edinburgh, 
whose diocese shall comprehend the whole 
sheriffdoms of Lothian, and Stirling on 
the south side of the water of Forth, his 
residence to be in Edinburgh. 

8. The superintendent of Jedburgh, 
whose diocese shall comprehend the whole 
Teviotdale, Tweeddale, Liddesdale, and 
thereto is added, by consent of the 
whole kirk,* the Merse, Lauderdale, and 
Wed dale, with the forest of Ettrick, his 
residence to be in Jedburgh. 

9. The superintendent of Glasgow, 
whose diocese shall comprehend Clydes- 
dale, Renfrew, Monteith, Lennox, Kyle, 
and Cunningham, his residence to be in 
Glasgow. 

10. The superintendent of Dumfries, 
whose diocese shall comprehend Galloway, 
Carrick, Nithsdale, Annandale, with the 
rest of the dales in the west, his residence 
to be in Dumfries. 

4. Those men must not be suffered to 
live as your idle bishops have done hereto- 
fore, neither must they remain where 
gladly they would ; but they must be 
preachers themselves, and such as may not 
make long residence in any place till their 
kirks be planted and provided of ministers, 
or at the least of readers. Charge must be 
given to them that they remain in no place 
above twenty days in their visitation, till 
they have passed through their whole 
bounds. They must thrice every week 
preach at the least, and even when the}' 



* This seemp to have been done after the first 
division. For in some copies the Merse, Lau- 
derdale, and Stow of Tweeddale are in the 
diocese of Edinburgh. 



F DISCIPLINE. 

return to their principal town and resi- 
dence, they must be likewise exercised 
in preaching and edification of the kirk ; 
and yet they must not be suffered to con- 
tinue there so long, that they may seem 
to neglect their other kirks : but after they 
have remained in their chief town three or 
four months at most, they shall be com- 
pelled, unless by sickness they he retained, 
to re-enter in visitation, in which they 
shall not only preach, but also examine the 
life, diligence, and behaviour of the minis- 
ters ; as also the order of the kirks, [and] 
the manners of the people. They must 
further consider how the poor are provided, 
how the youth are instructed : they must 
admonish where admonition needeth, and 
dress such things as by good counsel they 
are able to appease. And, finally, they 
must note such crimes as are heinous, 
that by the censure of the kirk the same 
may be corrected. 

5. If the superintendent be found ne- 
gligent in any of the chief points of his 
office, and specially if he be noted negli- 
gent in preaching of the word, and visita- 
tion of the kirks ; or if he be convict of 
such crimes which in common ministers 
are damned [condemned], he must be deposed 
without respect of his person or office. 

III. The election of Superintendents^ Sfc. 

6. In this present necessity, the nomina- 
tion, examination, and admission of the 
superintendent, cannot be so strait as 
we require, and as afterwards it must be. 
For this present, therefore, we think it ex- 
pedient, that either your honours, by your- 
selves, nominate so many as may serve the 
fore-written provinces ; or that ye give 
commission to such men as ye suppose the 
fear of God to be in, to do the same : and 
the same men being called in your pre- 
sence shall be by you, and such as your 
honours please call unto you for consulta- 
tion in that case, appointed to their pro- 
vinces. We think it expedient and neces- 
sary, that as well the gentlemen, as bur- 
gesses of every diocese, be made privy at 
this time to the election of the superin- 
tendent, as well to bring the kirk in some 
practice of her liberty, as that the pastor 
may be the better favoured of the flock 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



497 



whom themselves have chosen. If your 
honours cannot find for this present so 
many able [men] as necessity requireth, 
then, in our judgments, more profitable it is 
those provinces wait till God provide bet- 
ter for them, than that men unable to edify 
and govern the kirk, so suddenly be placed 
in that charge ; for experience hath taught 
us what pestilence hath been engendered 
in the kirk by men unable to discharge 
their offices. When, therefore, after three 
years, any superintendent shall depart, or 
chance to be deposed, the chief town with- 
in the province, to wit, the ministers, 
elders, and deacons, with the magistrate 
and council of the same town, shall nomi- 
nate, and by public edicts proclaim, as well 
to the superintendents, as to two or three 
provinces, next adjacent, two or three of 
the most learned and godly ministers witb> 
in the whole realm, that from amongst 
them one with public consent may be 
elected and appointed to the office then 
vacant : and this the chief town shall be 
bound to do within the space of twenty 
days ; which being expired and no man 
presented, then shall three of the next 
adjacent provinces, with consent of their 
superintendents, ministers, and elders, enter 
in the right and privilege of the town, and 
shall present every one of them one or two, 
if they list, to the chief town, to be ex- 
amined as the order requires ; as also it 
shall be lawful for all the kirks of the 
diocese, to nominate within the same time 
such persons as they think worthy to 
stand in election, who all must be put in an 
edict. 

7. After [the] nomination is made, pub- 
lic edicts must be sent forth, warning all 
men that have any exception against the 
persons nominate, or against any of them, 
to be present in the chief town at the day 
affixed, and place, to object what they can 
against the election of any of them. Thirty 
days we think sufficient to be assigned 
thereto. Thirty days, we mean, after the 
nomination be made. 

8. Which day of the election being 
come, the whole ministers of the province, 
with three or four superintendents next 
adjacent or that shall be thereto nominat- 



ed, shall examine, not only the learning, 
but also the manners, prudence, and ability 
to govern the kirk, of all those that are 
nominated; that he who shall be found 
most worthy, may be burdened with the 
charge. If the ministers of the whole pro- 
vince should bring with them the votes of 
them that were committed to their care, 
the election should be the more free ; but 
always the votes of them that convene 
should be required. The examination 
must be publicly made, [and] they that 
stand in election must publicly preach ; and 
men must be charged in the name of God, 
to vote according to conscience, and not 
after affection : if any thing be objected 
against him that standeth in election, the 
superintendents and ministers must con- 
sider whether the objection be made of 
conscience or malice, and they must answer 
accordingly. Other ceremonies than sharp 
examination, approbation of the ministers 
and superintendents, with the public con- 
sent of the elders and people, we cannot 
allow. 

9. The superintendent being elected, 
and appointed to his charge, must be sub- 
ject to the censure and correction of min- 
isters and elders, not of his chief town 
only, but also of the whole province over 
the which he is appointed overseer. 

10. If his offence be known, and the 
ministers and elders of the town and pro- 
vince be negligent in correcting of him, 
then the next one or two superintendents, 
with their ministers and elders, may con- 
vene him, and the ministers and elders of 
his chief town, providing the same be 
within his own province or chief town, 
and accuse or correct as well the superin- 
tendent in these things that are worthy of 
correction, as the ministers and elders of 
their negligence and ungodly tolerance of 
his offence. 

11. Whatsoever crime deserves deposi- 
tion or correction of any other minister, 
deserveth the same in the superintendent, 
without exception of persons. 

12. After that the kirk is established, 
and three years are passed, we require that 
no man be called to the office of a superin- 
tendent, who hath not at the least two 

3 R 



498 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



years given declaration of his faithful 
labours in the ministry of some kirk. 

13. No superintendent may be trans- 
ferred at the pleasure or request of any 
one province, no, not without the consent 
of the whole council of the kirk, and that 
for grave causes and considerations. . 

14. Of one thing in the end we must 
admonish your honours, to wit, that in the 
appointing of the superintendents for this 
present, ye disappoint not your chief 
towns, and where learning is exercised, of 
such ministers as may more profit by resi- 
dence in one place, than by continual tra- 
vel from place to place ; for if ye so do, the 
youth in these places shall lack the pro- 
found interpretation of scripture, and so 
shall it be long before your garden send 
forth many plants ; whereby the contrary, 
if one or two towns be continually exer- 
cised as they may, the commonwealth shall 
shortly feast of their fruit, to the comfort 
of the godly. 

CHAP. VII. 

OF SCHOOLS [AND UNIVERSITIES.] 

Seeing that the office and duty of the 
godly magistrate is not only to purge 
the church of God from all superstition, 
and to set it at liberty from tyranny and 
bondage ; but also to provide at the ut- 
most of his power how it may abide in 
some purity in the posterity following ; 
we can [not] but freely communicate our 
judgments with your honours in this 
behalf. 

I. The necessity of Schools. 

1. Seeing that God hath determined that 
his kirk here in earth, shall be tauoht not 
by angels but by men, and seeing that men 
are born ignorant of God and of all godli- 
ness, and seeing also he ceases to illumi- 
nate men miraculously, suddenly changing 
them as he did the apostles and others in 
the primitive kirk : of necessity it is that 
your honours be most careful for the vir- 
tuous education, and godly up-bringing of 
the youth of this realm, if either ye now 
thirst unfeignedly for the advancement of 
Christ's glory, or yet desire the continu- 
ance of his benefits to the generation fol- 



lowing ; for as the youth must succeed to 
us, so we ought to be careful that they 
have knowledge and erudition, to profit 
and comfort that which ought to be most 
dear to us, to wit, the kirk and spouse of 
our Lord Jesus. 

2. Of necessity therefore we judge it, 
that every several kirk have one school- 
master appointed, such a one at least as is 
able to teach grammar and the Latin 
tongue, if the town be of any reputation : 
if it be upaland * where the people con- 
vene to the doctrine but once in the week, 
then must either the reader or the minis- 
ter there appointed, take care of the chil- 
dren and youth of the parish, to instruct 
them in the first rudiments, especially in 
the Catechism,! as we have it now transla- 
ted in the Book of the Common Order, 
called the Order of Geneva. And further, 
we think it expedient, that in every nota- 
ble town, and specially in the town of the 
superintendent, there be erected a college, 
in which the arts, at least logic and rhe- 
toric, together with the tongues, be read 
by sufficient masters, for whom honest 
stipends must be appointed : as also [that] 
provision [be made] for those that are poor, 
and not able by themselves nor by their 
friends to be sustained at letters, and in 
special those that come from landward. 

3. The fruit and commodity hereof shall 
suddenly appear. For, first, the youth- 
head and tender children shall be nourish- 
ed and brought up in virtue, in presence of 
their friends, by whose good attendance 
many inconveniences may be avoided in 
which the youth commonly fall, either by 
overmuch liberty which they have in 
strange and unknown places, while they 
cannot rule themselves ; or else for lack of 
good attendance, and [of] such necessaries 
as their tender age requires. Secondly, 
the exercise of children in every kirk, 
shall be great instruction to the aged [and 
unlearned]. Last, the great schools called 
the universities, shall be replenished with 
with those that shall be apt to learning ; 
for this must be carefully provide^ that no 



* That is, in the country, 
vin's Catechism. 



f That is, Cal- 



FIRST BOOK O 

father, of what estate or condition that ever 
he be, use his children at his own fantasy, 
especially in their youth-head ; but all 
must be compelled to bring up their chil- 
dren in learning and virtue. 

4. The rich and potent may not be per- 
mitted to suffer their children to spend 
their youth in vain idleness, as heretofore 
they have done. But they must be ex- 
horted, and by the censure of the kirk 
compelled to dedicate their sons, by [train- 
ing them up in] good exercises, to the pro- 
fit of the kirk and commonwealth, and 
that they must do of their own expenses, 
because they are able. The children of 
the poor must be supported and sustained 
on the charge of the kirk, trial being taken 
whether the spirit of docility be in them 
found or not. If they be found apt to 
learning and letters, then may they not, — 
we mean, neither the sons of the rich, nor 
yet of the poor, — be permitted to reject 
learning, but must be charged to continue 
their study, so that the commonwealth 
may have some comfort by them : and for 
this purpose must discreet, grave, and 
learned men be appointed to visit schools 
for the trial of their exercise, profit, and 
continuance; to wit, the minister and el- 
ders, with the best learned men in every 
town, shall in every quarter make exami- 
nation how the youth have profited. 

5. A certain time must be appointed to 
reading and learning of the Catechism, and 
[a] certain [time] to the grammar and to 
the Latin tongue, and a certain [time] to 
the arts of philosophy, and the [other] 
tongues, and [a] certain [time] to that study 
in the which they intend chiefly to travail 
for the profit of the commonwealth ; which 
time being expired, — we mean in every 
course, — the children should either proceed 
to farther knowledge, or else they must be 
set to some handicraft, or to some other 
profitable exercise ; providing always, that 
first they have further knowledge of Chris- 
tian religion, to wit, the knowledge of 
God's law and commandments, the use and 
office of the same, the chief articles of the 
belief, the right form to pray unto God, 
the number, use, and effect of the sacra- 
ments, the true knowledge of Christ Jesus, 



F DISCIPLINE. 499 

of his offices and natures, and such other 
[points,] without the knowledge whereof 
neither any man deserves 'to be called a 
Christian, neither ought any to be admitted 
to the participation of the Lord's table ; 
and, therefore, these principles ought and 
must be learned in the youthhead. 

II. The Time appointed to every Course. 

6. Two years we think more than suffi- 
cient to learn to read perfectly, to answer 
to the Catechism, and to have some entries 
in the first rudiments of grammar ; to the 
full accomplishment whereof, — we mean of 
the grammar, — we think other three years, 
or four at most, sufficient to the arts, to 
wit, logic, to rhetoric, and to the Greek 
tongue, [we allow other] four years ; and 
the rest till the age of 24 years to be spent 
in the study wherein the learner would 
profit the church or commonwealth, be it 
in the laws, physic, or divinity, which time 
of 24 years being spent in the schools, the 
learner must be removed to serve the 
church or commonwealth, unless he be 
found a necessary reader in this same col- 
lege or university. If God shall move 
your hearts to establish and execute this 
order, and put these things in practice, 
your whole realm, we doubt not, within 
few years, will serve itself of true preach- 
ers, and of other officers necessary for the 
commonwealth. 

III. Of the Erection of Universities. 

7. The grammar school being erected, 
and of the tongues as we have said ; next 
we think it necessary there be three uni- 
versities in this whole realm, established in 
the three towns accustomed.* The first in 
St Andrews, the second in Glasgow, and the 
third in Aberdeen. And in the first and 
principal university, viz. St Andrews, that 
there be throe colleges : and in the first 
college, which is the entry of the universi- 
ty, there be four classes or sieges, the first 
to the new supposts, shall be only [of] dia- 
lectic, next only mathematics, the third of 
physics only, the fourth of medicine ; and 
in the second college two classes or sieges, 



» The university of Edinburgh was not found- 
ed till the year 1582 ; and that in the town of 
Aberdeen not till sometime after. 



500 



FIRST BOOK OF, DISCIPLINE. 



the first of moral philosophy, the second of 
the laws : and in the third college, two 
classes or sieges, the first of the tongues, 
to wit, Greek and Hebrew, the second of 
divinity. 

IV. Of Headers, of the Degrees, and 
time of Study, [and of Principals and Rec- 
tor, and of Bursars.} 

8. Imprimis, In the first college and first 
class shall be a reader of dialectic, who 
shall accomplish his course thereof in 
a year. In mathematics, which is the 
second class, shall be a reader who shall 
complete his course of arithmetic, geo- I 
metry, cosmography, and astrology in one | 
year. In the third class shall be a reader 
of natural philosophy, who shall complete 
his course in one year. And who after 
these three years, by trial and examination, i 
shall be found sufficiently instructed in the 
foresaid sciences, shall be laureate and gra- 
duate in philosophy. In the fourth class, 
shall be a reader of medicine, who shall j 
complete his course in five years ; after the 
study of the which time, being by exami- 
nation found sufficient, they shall be gra- 
duate in medicine. 

9. Item, In the second college, in the 
first class, one reader only in the ethics, 
economics, and politics, who shall com- 
plete his course in the space of one year. 
In the second class shall be two readers in 
the municipal and Roman laws, who shall 
complete their course in four years ; after 
which time, being by examination found 
sufficient, they shall be graduate in the 
laws. 

10. Item, In the third college, in the first 
class, one reader of the Hebrew, and ano- 
ther of the Greek tongue, who shall com- 
plete the grammar thereof in three months, 
and the remanent of the year, the reader 
of the Hebrew shall interpret one book of 
Moses, [or of] the prophets, or the Psalms, 
so that this course and class shall continue 
one year : the reader of the Greek shall 
interpret some book of Plato, together 
with some places of the New Testament 
[and shall complete his course the same 
[year]. In the second class shall be two 
readers in divinity, the one in the New 
Testament the other in the Old, who shall 



complete their course in five years; after 
which time, who shall be found by exami- 
nation sufficient, they shall be graduate in 
divinity. 

11. Item, We think expedient that none 
be admitted to the first college, and be 
[made] supposts of the university, unless 
he have from the master of the school, and 
minister of the town where he was in- 
structed in the tongues and testimony of 
his learning, docility, age, and parentage ; 
and likewise trial be taken by certain ex- 
aminators, depute by the rector and princi- 
pals of the same. And if he hath been 
taught [the] dialectic, and be found suffi- 
ciently instructed therein, he shall incon- 
tinent the same year be promoted to the 
class of mathematics. 

12. Item, That none be admitted to the 
class of medicine, but he that shall have his 
testimonial of his time well spent in dia- 
lectic, mathematics, and physics, and of his 
docility in the last. 

13. Item, That none be admitted unto 
the class of the laws, but he that shall have 
sufficient testimonials of his time well 
spent in dialectics, mathematics, physics, 
ethics, economics, and politics, and of his 
docility in the last. 

14. Item, That none be admitted into 
the class and siege of divinity, but he that 
shall have sufficient testimonials of his 
time well spent in dialectic, mathematics, 
physics, ethics, economics, and politics, 
and the Hebrew tongue, and of his docility 
in the moral philosophy and the Hebrew 
tongue. But neither shall such as apply 
them [selves] to hear the laws, be compelled 
to hear medicine; neither such as apply 
them[selves] to hear divinity, be compelled 
to hear either medicine or yet the laws. 

15. Item, In the second university, which 
is Glasgow, shall be two colleges only : in 
the first shall be a class of dialectic, another 
of mathematics, the third of physics, order- 
ed in all sorts as St Andrews. 

16. Item, In the second [college shall be] 
four classes, the first of moral philosophy, 
ethics, economics, and politics ; the second 
of the municipal and Roman laws ; the 
third of the Hebrew tongue ; the fourth of 
divinity: which shall be ordered in all 



! 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



501 



sorts [according] to that we have written 
in the order of the university of St An- 
drews.* 

17. The third university of Aberdeen 
shall be conform to this university of Glas- 
gow in all sorts. 

18. Item, We think needful that there 
be chosen [forth] of the body of the uni- 
versity to every college, a principal, [who 
must be a] man of learning, discretion, and 
diligence. He shall receive the whole 
rents of the college, and distribute the 
same according to the election of the col- 
lege, and shall daily hearken the diet 
counts; adjoining to him [self] weekly one 
of the readers or regents, above whom he 
shall take attendance upon their diligence, 
as well in their reading a& exercising of the 
youth in the matter taught ; [he shall over- 
see] the policy, and f uphold of the place : 
and for punishment of crimes shall hold a 
weekly convention with the whole mem- 
bers of the college. He shall be countable 
yearly to the superintendent, rector, and 
the [rest of the] principals convened, 
about the first of November. His election 
shall be in this sort, there shall be three 
of the most sufficient men of the university, 
— not principals already, — nominate by the 
members of the college, whose principal is 
departed, [and who are] sworn to follow 
their consciences, [then these three shall 
be] publicly proponed through the whole 
university : eight days after the which 
time, the superintendent himself or his 
special procurator, with the rector and the 
rest of the principals, as a chapter conve- 
ned, shall confirm one of the three they 
think most sufficient ; being before sworn 
to do the same with a single eye but 
[without] respect to fead or favour. 

19. Item, In every college we think 
needful at least a steward, a cook, a gard- 
ener, and porter, who shall be subject to 
[the] discipline of the principal, as [are] 
the rest. 



* There is here no mention made of medicine 
or Greek ; but it is probable that a professor of 
Greek was designed both for Glasgow and 
Aberdeen, for the reason given in the remark 
on the 25th section of this chapter. 

f Some copies have buildings. 



20. Item, That every university have a 
beadle subject to serve at all times through- 
out the whole university,' as the rector 
and principal shall command. 

21. Item, That every university have a 
rector chosen from year to year, as shall 
follow. The principals being convened 
with the whole regents chapterly, shall be 
sworn, that every man [speaking] in his 
[own] room, shall nominate such a one as 
his conscience shall testify to be most 
sufficient to bear such charge and dignity ; 
and three of them that shall be oftest nomi- 
nated, shall be put in edict publicly fifteen 
days before Michaelmas ; and then shall 
on Michaelmas even convene the whole 
principals, regents, and supposts that are 
graduate, or at the least [have] studied 
their time in ethics, economics, and poli- 
tics, and no others younger; and every 
one [having] first protested in God's pre- 
sence to follow the sincere [en]ditement of 
their conscience, shall nominate [one] of 
the three, and he that hath most votes 
shall be confirmed by the superintendent 
and principals, and his duty with an ex- 
hortation proponed unto him, and this to 
be the 28th day of September; and there- 
after [an oath] shall be taken [of] him for 
his just and godly government, and of the 
rest [for their] lawful submission and obe- 
dience : he shall be propined by the uni- 
versity at his entry with a new garment,* 
bearing insignia magistratus. [And] he 
shall be holden monthly to visit every 
college, and with his presence decore and 
examine the lections and exercises thereof. 
His assessors shall be a lawyer and a th ec- 
logue, with whose advice he shall decide 
all questions civil betwixt the members of 
the university. If any without the uni- 
versity pursue a member thereof, or he be 
pursued by a member of the same, he shall 
assist the provost and bailies in these cases, 
or other judges competent, to see justice 
be ministered. In likewise if any of the 
university be criminally pursued, he shall 



* Some copies have, insignia magistratus being 
j borne before him, he shall visit every college 
monthly, &c. 



502 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



assist the judges competent, and see that 
justice be ministered. 

22. Item, We think [it] expedient that 
in every college in every university, there 
be 24 bursars, divided equally in all the 
classes and sieges as is above expremit ; 
that is, in St Andrews 72 bursars, in Glas- 
gow 48 bursars, in Aberdeen 48, to be sus- 
tained only in meat upon the charges of 
the college ; and to be admitted at the ex- 
amination to the ministry [of the town] 
and chapter of principals in the university, 
as well in the docility of the persons offer- 
ed, as of the ability of their parents to sus- 
tain themselves, and not to burden the 
commonwealth with them. 

V. Of the Stipends and Expenses ne- 
cessary. 

23. We think expedient that the uni- 
versities be doted with temporal lands, 
with rents and revenues of the bishoprics 
temporality, and of the kirks collegiate, so 
far as their ordinary charges shall require ; 
and therefore, that it would please your 
honours, by advice of your honourable 
council and vote of parliament, to do the 
same. And to the effect the same may be 
shortly expedited, we have recollected the 
sums we think necessary for the same. 

24. Imprimis, For the ordinary stipend 
of the dialectician reader, the mathema- 
tician, physician, and moral philosopher, 
we think sufficient a hundred pounds for 
every one of them. 

Item, For the stipend of every reader, 
in medicine and laws, a hundred thirty- 
three pounds six shillings and eight pen- 
nies. 

Item, To every reader in Hebrew, Greek, 
and divinity, 200 pounds. 

Item, To every principal of a college, 
200 pounds. 

Item, To every steward [for his fee] 16 
pounds. 

Item, To every gardener, to every cook, 
and porter, to each one of them ten merks. 

Item, To the board of every bursar with- 
out the class of theology, 20 pounds. 

Item, [To every bursar] in the classes of 
theology, which will be only 12 persons in 
St Andrews, 24 pounds. 

25. [The] sum of [the] yearly and ordi- 



nary expenses in the university of St An- 
drews, extendeth to 3,796 pounds. 

[The] sum of [the] yearly and ordinary 
expenses of Glasgow [extends to] 2,922 
pounds. [The sum of] Aberdeen to 2,922 
pounds.* 

[The] sum of the ordinary charges of the 
whole is 9.640 pounds. 

26. Item, The beadle's stipend shall be of 
every entrant and suppost of the universi- 
ty two shillings, of every one graduate in 
philosophy three shillings, of every one 
graduate in medicine or laws four shillings, 
in theology five shillings; all bursars being 
excepted. 

27. Item, We have thought good for 
building and upholding of the places,f a 
general collect be made; and that every 
earl's son, at his entry to the university, 
shall give 40 shillings, and likewise at 
every graduation 40 shillings. Item, each 
lord's son, likewise, at such times, SO shil- 
lings, each freeholding baron's son 20 shil- 
lings, every feuar and substantious gentle- 
man's son 1 merk. Item, every substan- 
tious husband and burgess' son at each 
time 10 shillings. Item, every one of the 
rest, not excepting the bursars, 5 shillings, 
at each time. And that this be gathered 
in a common box, put in keeping to the 
principal of the theologians, every princi- 
pal having a key thereof, to be [opened, 
and the money] counted each year once, 
with the interest of principals to be laid in 
the same, upon the loth day of Novem- 
ber, in presence of the superintendent, rec- 
tor, and whole principals ; and with their 
whole consent, or at least the most part of 
them reserved or employed only upon the 
building and upholding of the places, and 
repairing of the same, as necessity shall 
require. And therefore, the rector with 
his assistant shall be holden to visit the 
places each year once incontinent after he 
be promoted upon the last of October, or 
thereby. 

* The ordinary expenses of Glasgow or Aber- 
deen extend only to 2,722 pounds and one merk, 
so that probably it was designed that these two 
universities should have had each of them a pro- 
fessor of Greek, whose salary was to have been 
200 pounds. 

f Fabric. 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



503 



VI. Of the Privileges of the University. 

28. Seeing we desire that innocency 
should defend us rather than privilege, we 
think that each person of the university 
should answer before the provost and 
bailiffs of the town where the university 
is, for all crimes whereof they are accused, 
only that the rector be assessor to the 
[magistrates] in the said actions. In civil 
matters if the question be betwixt mem- 
bers of the university on each side, making 
their residence and exercise therein for the 
time, in that case the party called shall not 
be hold en to answer but only before the rec- 
tor and his assessors heretofore exprimed : 
in all other cases of civil pursuit, the gene- 
ral rule of the law [is] to be observed, 
actor seguatur forum rei. 

29. The rector and all inferior mem- 
bers of the university must be exempted 
from all taxations, impost, [and] charges of 
war; or any other charge that may one- 
rate or abstract him or them from the care 
of his office, such as tutory, curatory, or 
any such like that are established, or here- 
after shall be established in our common- 
wealth ; to the effect, that without trouble, 
they may wait on the upbringing of the 
youth in learning, and bestow their time 
only in that most necessary exercise. 

30. All other things touching the books 
to be read in each class, and all such like 
particular affairs, we refer to the discretion 
of the masters, principals, and regents, with 
their well-advised counsel; not doubting 
but if God shall grant quietness, and give 
your wisdoms grace to set forward letters 
in the sort prescribed, ye shall leave wis- 
dom and learning to your posterity, a trea- 
sure more to be esteemed than any earthly 
treasure ye are able to amass for them, 
which without wisdom are more able to 
oe their ruin and confusion, than [their] 
help and comfort. And as this is most 
true, so we leave it with the rest of the 
commodities to be weighed by your hon- 
ours' wisdom, and set forwards by your 
authority to the most high advancement 
of this commonwealth committed to your 
charge. 



CHAP. VIII. 

THE SIXTH HEAD, OF THE RENTS AND PATRI- 
MONY OF THE CHURCH. 

1 These two sorts of men, that is to say, 
ministers [of the word] and the poor to- 
gether with the schools, when order shall 
be taken thereanent, must be sustained 
upon the * charges of the kirk ; and there- 
fore, provision must be made how, and by 
whom such sums must be lifted. But 
; before we enter in this head, we must 
crave of your honours, in the name of the 
Eternal God and of his Son Christ Jesus, 
that ye have respect to your poor breth- 
ren, the labourers and manurers of the 
ground, who by their cruel beasts the pa- 
pists have before been opprest, that their 
life to them hath been dolorous and bitter : 
if ye will have God author and approver 
of this reformation, ye must not follow 
their footsteps, but ye must have compas- 
sion of your brethren, appointing them to 
pay reasonable tiends, that they may find 
some benefit of Christ Jesus now preached 
unto them. 

2. With the grief of our hearts we hear, 
that some gentlemen are now as cruel over 
their tenants as ever were the papists, re- 
quiring of them [the tiends and] whatsoever 
they before paid to the kirk, so that the 
papistical tyranny shall only be changed 
into the tyranny of the lord and laird. We 
dare not flatter your honours, neither yet 
is it profitable for you that we so do : [for 
neither shall we,] if we permit cruelty to 
be used, neither shall ye, who by your 
authority ought to gainstand such oppres- 
sion, nor yet they that use the same, escape 
God's heavy and fearful judgments. The 
gentlemen, barons, earls, lords, and others, 
must be content to live upon their just 
rents, and suffer the kirk to be restored to 
her [right and] liberty ; that by her resti- 
tution, the poor, who heretofore, by the 
cruel papists have been spoiled and op- 
pressed, may now receive some comfort 
and relaxation, that their tiends and other 



* Rents. 



304 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



exactions be clean discharged, and no more 
taken in times coming. The uppermost 
cloth, corpse-present, clerk-mail, the pasche- 
offering, tiend-ale, and all handlings upa- 
land,* can neither be required nor received 
of good conscience. 

3. Neither do we judge it to proceed of 
justice, that any man should possess the 
tiends of another, but we think it a most 
reasonable thing that every man have the 
use of his own tiends, provided that he 
answer to the deacons and treasurers of 
the kirk, of that which [of ] justice shall be 
appointed to him. We require the dea- 
cons and treasurers rather to receive the 
rents, than the ministers themselves ; be- 
cause that of the tiends must not only 
the minister be sustained, but also the poor 
and schools. And, therefore, we think it 
expedient that common treasurers, viz. the 
deacons, be appointed from year to year, 
to receive the whole rents appertaining 
to the kirk, and that commandment be 
given that none be permitted either to 
receive or yet to intromit with any thing 
appertaining to the sustentation of the 
persons foresaid, but such as by common 
consent of the kirk are thereto appointed. 

4. If any think this prejudicial to the 
tacks and assedations of them that now 
possess the tiends, let them understand 
that their unjust possession is no posses- 
sion before God ; for they of whom they 
reeeived their title, and presupposed right 
or warrant, were thieves and murderers, 
and had no power so to alienate the patri- 
mony and common good of the kirk. And 
yet we are not so extreme but that we 
wish just recompense to be made to such 
as have disbursed sums of money to the 
unjust possessors, so that it hath not been 
done of late days in prejudice of the kirk ; 
but such as are found and known to be 
done of plain collusion, in no ways ought 
to be maintained by you : and for that pur- 
pose we think it most expedient, that who- 
soever have assedation of tiends [of] any 
kirk [in part or in whole], be openly warn- 
ed to produce their assedation and assur- 



* Exactions in the country. 



ance, that cognition being taken, the just 
tacksmen may have the just and reason- 
able recompense for the years that are to 
run, the profit of the years past being con- 
sidered and deduced; and the unjust and 
surmised may be served accordingly, so 
that the kirk in the end may receive her 
liberty and freedom, and that only for the 
relief of the poor. 

5. Your honours may easily understand 
that we speak not now for ourselves, but 
in favour of the labourers defrauded and 
oppressed by the priests, and by their con- 
federate pensioners; for while that the 
priest's pensioner his idle belly is delicately 
fed, the poor, to whom the portion of that 
appertains, was pined with hunger, and 
moreover the true labourer was compelled 
to pay that which he ought not: for the 
labourer is neither debtor to the dumb dog 
called the bishop, neither yet to his hired 
pensioner, but is debtor only to the kirk ; 
and the kirk is bound to sustain and nour- 
ish of her charges, the persons before men- 
tioned, to wit, the ministers of the word, 
the poor, and the teachers of the youth. 

6. But now to return to the former 
head. The sums able to sustain the fore- 
named persons, and to furnish all things 
appertaining to the preservation of good 
order and policy within the kirk, must 
be lifted of the tenths, to wit, the tenth 
sheaf [of all sorts of corn], hay, hemp, [and] 
lint ; [tenth] fish, tenth calf, tenth lamb, 
tenth wool, tenth foal, tenth cheese. And 
because that we know that the tenth rea- 
sonably taken, as is before expressed, will 
not suffice to discharge the former neces- 
sity; we think that all things doted to hos- 
pitality, and annual rents both in burgh 
and land pertaining to the priests, chanter- 
ies, colleges, chapellanries, and the friaries 
of all orders, to the sisters of the seenes, 
and such others [of that sort], be retained 
still in the use of the kirk or kirks within 
the towns and parishes where they were 
doted. Furthermore to the upholding of 
the universities, and sustentation of the 
superintendents, the whole revenue of the 
temporality of the bishops, deans, and arch- 
deans' lands, and of all rents of lands per- 
taining to the cathedral kirks whatsoever. 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



505 



And further [we think that] merchants 
and rich craftsmen in free burghs, having 
nothing to do with the manuring of the 
ground, must make some provision in their 
cities, towns, and dwelling places, for to 
support the need of the kirk. 

7. To the ministers, and failing thereof 
the readers, must be restored their manses 
and glebes ; for else they cannot serve [nor 
attend] their flocks at all times, as their 
duty is. If any glebe exceed six acres of 
ground, the rest shall remain in the hands 
of the possessors, till [further] order be 
taken therein. 

8. The receivers and collectors of these 
rents and duties, must be deacons or trea- 
surers appointed from year to year in every 
kirk, and by the common consent and free 
election of the kirk, the deacons must dis- 
tribute no part of that which is collected, 
but by command of the ministers and 
elders ; and they may command nothing to 
be delivered, but as the kirk hath before 
determined, to wit, the deacons shall of the 
first part pay the sums, either quarterly, or 
from half year to half year, to the minis- 
ters which the kirk hath appointed. The 
same they shall do to the schoolmasters, 
readers, and hospital if any be, receiv- 
ing always an acquittance for their dis- 
charge. 

9. If any extraordinary sums are to be 
delivered, then must the ministers, elders, 
and deacons, consult whether the delive- 
rance of such sums doth stand with the 
common utility of the kirk or not, and if 
they do universally condescend and agree 
upon the affirmative or negative, then be- 
cause they be in credit and office for the 
year, they may do as best seems: but if 
there be any controversy amongst them- 
selves, the whole kirk must be made privy, 
and after that the matter be proponed, and 
the reasons [heard], the judgment of the 
kirk with the minister's consent shall pre- 
vail. 

10. The deacons shall be compelled and 
bound to make accounts to the ministers 
and elders of that which they received, as 
often as the policy shall appoint ; and the 
elders when they are changed, which 
must be every year, must clear their count 



before such auditors as the kirk shall 
appoint ; and both the deacons and elders 
being changed, shall deliver* to them that 
shall be new elected all sums of money, 
corns, and other profits, resting in their 
hands : the tickets whereof must be de- 
livered to the superintendents in their visi- 
tation, and by them to the great council of 
the kirk, that as well the abundance as the 
indigence of every kirk may be evidently 
known, that a reasonable equality may be 
had throughout this whole realm. If this 
order be perfectly kept, corruption cannot 
suddenly enter. For the free and yearly 
election of deacons and elders,* shall suffer 
none to usurp a perpetual domination over 
the kirk; the knowledge of the rental shall 
suffer them to receive no more than where- 
of they shall be bound to make accounts ; 
the deliverance of money to the new 
officers shall not suffer private men [to] use 
in their private business, that which apper- 
tains to the public affairs of the kirk. 

CHAP. IX. 

THE SEVENTH HEAD, OF ECCLESIASTICAL. 
DISCIPLINE. 

1. As that no commonwealth can flour- 
ish or long endure without good laws and 
sharp execution of the same ; so neither 
can the kirk of God be brought to purity, 
neither yet be retained in the same with- 
out the order of ecclesiastical discipline, 
which stands in reproving and correcting 
of the faults, which the civil sword either 
doth neglect, or [may] not punish : blas- 
phemy, adultery, murder, perjury, and 
other crimes capital, worthy of death, 
ought not properly to fall under [the] cen- 
sure of the kirk ; because all such open 
transgressors of God's laws ought to be 
taken away by the civil sword. But 
drunkenness, excess, be it in apparel or be 
it in eating and drinking, fornication, op- 
pressing of the poor by exactions, deceit in 
buying and selling by wrong mete and mea- 
sure, wanton words and licentious living- 
tending to slander, do properly appertain 



* See the Second Book of Discipline, chap, 
vi. sect. 2. and chap. viii. sect. 2. 

3 S 



506 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



to the kirk of God to punish them as 
God's word commands. 

2. But because this accursed papistry 
hath brought in such confusion into the 
world, that neither was virtue rightly 
praised, neither yet vice severely punished ; 
the kirk of God is compelled to draw the 
sword which of God she hath received, 
against such open and manifest contemners, 
cursing and excommunicating all such, as 
well those whom the civil sword ought to 
punish as the other, from all participation 
with her in prayers and sacraments, till 
open repentance appear manifestly in them. 
As the order and proceeding to excom- 
munication ought to be slow and grave, so 
being once pronounced against any person, 
of what estate or condition that ever they 
be, it must be kept with all severity ; for 
laws made and not kept engender contempt 
of virtue, and bring in confusion and liber- 
ty to sin : and therefore, this order we 
think expedient to be observed before, and 
after excommunication. 

3. First, if the offence be secret or 
known to few men, and rather stands in 
suspicion than in manifest probation, the 
offender ought to be privately admonished 
to abstain from all appearance of evil, 
which if he promise to do, and declare 
himself sober, honest, and one that fears 
God and fears to offend his brethren, then 
may the secret admonition suffice for his 
correction. But if he either contemn the 
admonition or after promise made to show 
himself no more circumspect than he was 
before, then must the minister admonish 
him, to whom if he be found inobedient, 
they must proceed according to the rule of 
Christ, as after shall be declared. 

4. If the crime be public, and such as is 
heinous, as fornication, drunkenness, fight- 
ing, common swearing, or execration, then 
ought the offender to be called in presence 
of the minister, elders, and deacons, where 
his sin and trespass ought to be declared 
and aggreged, so that his conscience may 
feel how far he hath offended God, and 
what slander he hath raised in the kirk ; if 
signs of unfeigned repentance appear in 
him, and if he require to be admitted to 
public repentance, the minister may ap- 



point unto him a day when the whole 
kirk convenes together, that in presence of 
all he may testify his repentance which 
before he professed : which if he accept, 
and with reverence confess his sin, ear- 
nestly desiring the congregation to pray to 
God with him for mercy, and to accept 
him in their society, notwithstanding the 
former offence : then the kirk may and 
ought to receive him as a penitent, for the 
kirk ought to be no more severe than God 
declares himself to be, who witnesses, that 
" In whatsoever hour a sinner unfeignedly 
repents, and turns from his wicked way, 
that he will not remember one of his ini- 
quities ;" and therefore ought the kirk 
diligently to advert that it excommuni- 
cate not those whom God absolves.' 

5. If the offender called before the min- 
istry be found stubborn, hard-hearted, or in 
whom no sign of repentance appears, then 
must he be demitted with an exhortation 
to consider the dangerous estate in which 
he stands ; assuring him that if they find 
in him no other tokens of amendment of 
life, that they will be compelled to seek 
a further remedy : if he within a certain 
space show his repentance to the ministry, 
they may present him to the kirk, as be- 
fore is said. 

6. If he continue not in his repentance, 
then must the kirk be advertised that such 
crimes are committed amongst them, which 
by the ministry hath been reprehended, 
and the persons provoked to repent ; where- 
of because no signs appear unto them, 
they could not but signify unto the kirk 
the crimes, but not the person, requiring 
them earnestly to call to God to move and 
touch the heart of the offender, so that 
suddenly and earnestly he may repent. 

7. If the person malign, the next day of 
public assembly, the crime and the person 
must be both notified unto the kirk, and 
their judgments must be required, if that 
such crimes ought to be suffered unpun- 
ished among them : request also should be 
made to the most discreet and nearest 
friend of the offender to travail with him 
to bring him to [the] knowledge of him- 
self, and of his dangerous estate; with a 
commandment given to all men to call to 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



507 



God for the conversion of the unpenitent. 
If a solemn and special prayer were drawn 
for that purpose, the thing would be more 
gravely done.* 

8. The third Sunday, the minister ought 
to require, if the unpenitent have declared 
any signs of repentance to one of the min- 
istry; and if he have, then may the minis- 
ter appoint him to be examined by the 
whole ministry; either then instantly, or 
another day affixed to the consistory : and 
if repentance appear, as well for his crime, 
as for his long contempt, then he may be 
presented to the kirk, and make his con- 
fession to be accepted as before is said : 
but if no man signify his repentance, then 
ought he to be excommunicated, and by 
the mouth of the minister, and consent of 
the ministry, and commandment of the 
kirk, must such a contemner be pronounc- 
ed excommunicate from God, and from all 
society of the kirk. 

9. After which sentence may no person, 
— his wife and family only excepted, — have 
any kind of conversation with him, be it in 
eating and drinking, buying and selling, yea, 
in saluting or talking with him ; except 
that it be at commandment or license of 
the ministry for his conversion : that he, 
by such means confounded, seeing him- 
self abhorred of the godly and faithful, 
may have occasion to repent, and so be 
saved. The sentence of excommunication 
must be published universally throughout 
the realm, lest that any man should pre- 
tend ignorance. 

10. His children begotten and born after 
that sentence and before his repentance, 
may not be admitted to baptism till either 
they be of age to require the same, or else 
that the mother or some of his special 
friends, members of the kirk, offer and pre- 
sent the child, abhorring and condemning 
the iniquity and obstinate contempt of the 
impenitent. If any man should think it 
severe that the child should be punished 
for the iniquity of the father; let him un- 
derstand that the sacraments appertain to 
the faithful and their seed ; but such as 



* See the Order of Excommunication, and of 
Public Repentance, chap, ii. 



stubbornly contemn all godly admonition, 
and obstinately remain in their iniquity, 
cannot be accounted amongst the faithful. 

11. The Order for Public Offenders. 
We have spoken nothing of them that 

commit horrible crimes, as murderers, 
manslayers, adulterers ; for such as we 
have said, the civil sword ought to punish 
to dead: but in case they be permitted to 
live, then must the kirk, as is before said, 
draw the sword which of God she hath 
received, holding them as accursed, even in 
their very fact. The offender being first 
called, and [the] order of the kirk used 
against him, in the same manner as the 
persons for their obstinate impenitency are 
publicly excommunicate. So that the ob- 
stinate impenitent after the sentence of 
excommunication, and the murderer or 
adulterer stand in one case, as concerning 
the judgment of the kirk; that is, neither 
of both may be received in the fellowship 
of the kirk to prayers or sacraments, — but 
to hearing the word they may, — till first 
they offer themselves to the ministry, hum- 
bly requiring the ministers and elders to 
pray to God for them, and also to be inter- 
cessors to the kirk, that they may be ad- 
mitted to public repentance, and to the 
fruition of the benefits of Christ Jesus, 
distributed to the members of his body. 

12. If this request be humbly made, 
then may not the ministers refuse to sig- 
nify the same unto the kirk, the next day of 
public preaching the minister giving ex- 
hortation to the kirk to pray to God to 
perform the work which he appears to 
have begun, working in the heart of the 
offender, unfeigned repentance of his grie- 
vous crime and offence, [with a sense] and 
feeling of his great mercy, by the operation 
of the Holy Spirit. Thereafter one day 
ought publicly to be assigned unto him to 
give open profession of his offence and con- 
tempt, and so to make public satisfaction 
to the kirk of God : which day the offen- 
der must appear in presence of the whole 
kirk, with his own mouth condemning his 
own impiety, publicly confessing the same ; 
desiring of God his mercy and grace, and 
[of] his congregation that it would please 
them to receive him in their society, as 



508 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



before is said. The minister must ex- 
amine him diligently whether he finds a 
hatred and displeasure of his sin, as well of 
his contempt as of his crime : which if he 
confess, he must travail with him, to see 
what hope he hath of God's mercies. 

13. If he find him [humbly disposed, 
and] reasonably instructed in the know- 
ledge of Christ Jesus, and the virtue of 
his death ; then may the minister comfort 
him with God's infallible promises, and 
demand of the kirk if they be content to 
receive that creature of God, whom Satan 
before had drawn in his nets, into the 
society of their body, seeing- that he [hath] 
declared himself penitent: which if the 
kirk grant, as they cannot justly deny the 
same, then ought the minister in public 
prayer commend him to God, [and] confess 
the sin of that offender before the whole 
kirk, desiring mercy and grace for Christ 
Jesus' sake. Which prayer being- ended, 
the minister ought to exhort the kirk to 
receive that penitent brother into their 
favours, as they require God to receive 
themselves when they offend ; and in sig-n 
of their consent, the elders and chief men 
of the kirk shall take the penitent by the 
hand, and one or two in the name of the 
rest shall kiss and embrace him with reve- 
rence and gravity as a member of Christ 
Jesus. 

14. Which being- done, the minister shall 
exhort the received, that he take diligent 
heed in times coming, that Satan trap him 
not in such crimes, admonishing him that 
he * will not cease to tempt and try by 
all means possible to bring him from that 
obedience which he hath given to God and 
to the ordinance of Jesus Christ. The 
exhortation being ended, the minister 
ought to give public thanks unto God for 
the conversion of their brother, and for all 
benefits which we receive of Christ Jesus, 
praying for the increase and continuance 
of the same. 

15. If the penitent, after he hath offered 
himself unto the ministry, or to the kirk, 
be found ignorant of the principal points 



* How that enemy will not, &e. 



of our religion, and chiefly in the articles 
of justification and of the offices of Christ 
Jesus, then ought he to be exactly in- 
structed before he be received. For a 
mocking of God it is to receive them to 
repentance, who know not wherein stand- 
eth their remedy, when they repent their 
sin. 

III. Persons subject to Discipline. 

16. To discipline must all the estates 
within this realm be subject, as well the 
rulers as they that are ruled; yea, and the 
preachers themselves, as well as the poor- 
est within the kirk : and because the eye 
and mouth of the kirk ought to be most 
single and irreprehensible, the life and 
conversation of the minister ought to be 
diligently tried, whereof we shall speak 
after that we have spoken of the election 
of elders and deacons, who must assist the 
minister in all public affairs of the kirk. 

CHAP. X. 

the eighth head, touching the election 
[and office] of elders and deacons ; 
[and the censure of ministers, elders, 
and deacons]. 

1. Men of best knowledge in God's 
word, and cleanest life, men faithful and of 
most honest conversation that can be found 
in the kirk, must be nominate to be in elec- 
tion, and their names must be publicly 
read to the whole kirk by the minister, 
giving them advertisement, that from 
amongst them must be chosen elders and 
deacons ; if any of these nominate be noted 
with public infamy, he ought to be re- 
pelled ; for it is not seemly that the servant 
of corruption should have authority to 
judge in the kirk of God. If any man 
know others of better qualities within the 
kirk than these that be nominate, let them 
be put in election [with them], that the 
kirk may have the choice. 

2. If the kirk be of smaller number than 
that seniors and deacons can be chosen 
from amongst them, then may they well 
be joined to the next adjacent kirks. For 
the plurality of kirks without ministers 
and order, shall rather hurt than edify. 

3. The election of elders and deacons 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



509 



ought to be made every year once, which 
we judge to be most convenient on the first 
day of August ; lest of long continuance of 
such officers, men presume upon the liber- 
ty of the kirk: [and yet] it hurteth not 
that one be received in office more years 
than one, so that he be appointed yearly 
[thereto] by common and free election ;* 
provided always that the deacons and trea- 
surers be not compelled to receive the 
[same] office again for the space of three 
years. How the votes and suffrages may 
be best received, so that every man may 
give his vote freely, every several kirk 
may take such order as best seems [to] 
them. 

4. The elders being elected, must be 
admonished of their office, which is to 
assist the ministers in all public affairs of 
the kirk ; to wit, in determining and 
judging causes, in giving admonition to 
the licentious liver, in having respect to 
the manners and conversation of all men 
within their charge. For by the gravity 
of the seniors, the light and unbridled life 
of the licentious, must be corrected and 
bridled. 

5. Yea, the seniors ought [also] to take 
heed to the life, manners, diligence, and 
study of their ministers. If he be worthy 
of admonition, they must admonish him ; 
of correction, they must correct him ; and 
if he be worthy of deposition, they with 
consent of the kirk and superintendent 
may depose him, so that his crime deserve 
so. If a minister be light of conversation, 
by his elders and deacons he ought to be 
admonished : if he be negligent in study, 
or one that vaikes f not upon his charge 
or flock, or one that propones not faithful 
doctrine, he deserves sharper admonition 
and correction ; to the which if he be 
found stubborn and inobedient, then may 
the seniors of the kirk complain to the 
ministry of the two next adjacent kirks, 
where men of greater gravity are, to 
whose admonition if he be found inobe- 
dient, he ought to be discharged of his 



ministry, till his repentance appear, and a 
place be vacant for him. 

6. If any minister be deprehended in any 
notable crime, as whoredom, adultery, 
[murder], manslaughter, perjury, teaching 
of heresy, or any other deserving death, or 
that may be a note of perpetual infamy, 
he ought to be deposed for ever. By he- 
resy we mean pernicious doctrine plainly 
taught, and * openly defended, against the 
foundations and principles of our faith ; 
and such a crime we judge to deserve perpe- 
tual deposition from the ministry : for most 
dangerous we know it to be to commit 
the flock to a man infected with the pesti- 
lence of heresy. 

7. Some crimes deserve deposition for a 
time, and while the person give declara- 
tion of greater gravity and honesty: as if a 
minister be deprehended drinking, brawl- 
ing, or fighting; an open slanderer or in- 
famer of his neighbours, factious, and a 
sower of discord, he must be commanded 
to cease from his ministry, till he declare 
some sign of repentance, upon the which 
the kirk shall abide him the space of twen- 
ty days or further, as the kirk shall think 
expedient, before they proceed to a new 
election. 

8. Every inferior kirk shall by one of 
their seniors and one of their deacons, 
once in the year, notify unto the ministers 
of the superintendent's kirk, the life, man- 
ners, study, and diligence of their minis- 
ters, to the end the discretion of some may 
correct the levity of others. 

9. Not only must the life and manners 
of ministers come under censure and judg- 
ment of the kirk, but also of their wives, 
children, and family: judgment must be 
taken that he neither live riotously, nei- 
ther yet avariciously ; yea, respect must be 
had how they spend the stipend appointed 
to their living : if a reasonable stipend be 
appointed and they live avariciously, they 
must be admonished to live as they receive ; 
for as excess and superfluity is not tole- 
rable in a minister, so is avarice and the 
careful solicitude of money utterly to be 



* See the Second Book of Discipline, chap 
vi. sect. 2. and chap. viii. sect. 2. 
f Waiteth. 



* Obstinately. 



510 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



condemned in Christ's servants, and espe- 
cially in them that are fed upon the charge 
of the kirk : we judge it unseemly and in- 
tolerable, that ministers should he hoarded 
in common ale-houses or in taverns. 

10. ^Neither must a minister he per- 
mitted to frequent and commonly haunt 
the court, unless it he for a time, when he 
is either sent hy the kirk, or called for by 
the authority for his counsel and judgment 
in civil affairs.* Neither yet must he be 
one of the council,-}- he he judged never so 
apt for the purpose ; hut either must he 
cease from the ministry, — which at his 
own pleasure he may not do, — or else from 
bearing charge in civil affairs, unless it be 
to assist the parliament if he be called. 

11. The office of deacons, as before is 
said, is to receive the rents, and gather the 
alms of the kirk, to keep and distribute 
the same, as by the ministers and kirk 
shall be appointed ; they may also assist in 
judgment with the minister and elders, 
and may be admitted to read in assembly 
if they be required, and be able thereto. 

12. The elders and deacons with their 
wives and household, should be under the 
same censure that is prescribed for the 
ministers : for they must be careful over 
their office, and seeing they are judges 
over others' manners, their own conversa- 
tion ought to be irreprehensible : they must 
be sober, lovers and maintain ers of con- 
cord and peace [amongst their neighbours" ; 
and finally they ought to be examples of 
godliness to others. And if the contrary 
thereof appear, they must be admonished 
thereof by the ministers, or some of their 
brethren of the ministry, if the fault be 
secret : and if the fault be open and know n, 
they must be rebuked before the ministry, 
and the same order kept against the senior 
and deacon, that before is described against 
the minister. 

13. We think it not necessary that any 
jublic stipend shall be appointed, either to the 
elders, or yet to the deacons, because their 
travail continues but for a year ; and also be- 
cause that they are not so occupied with 



* Id any matter, 
f Of the council in civil affairs. 



the affairs of the kirk, but that reasonably 
they may attend upon their domestical 

business. 

CHAP. XI. 

THE NINTH HEAD, CONCERNING THE POLICY 
OF THE KIRK. 

1. Policy we call an exercise of the 
kirk in such things as may bring the rude 
and ignorant to knowledge, or else in- 
flame the learned to greater fervency, or 
to retain the kirk in good order; and 
thereof there are two sorts, the one utterly 
necessary, as that the word be truly 
preached, the sacraments rightly minister- 
ed, common prayers publicly made, that 
the children and rude persons be instructed 
in the chief points of religion ; and that 
offences be corrected and punished ; these 
things are so necessary, that without the 
same there is no face of a visible kirk. 
The other is profitable but not merely 
necessary, [as] that psalms should be sung, 
that certain places of the scriptures be 
read when there is no sermon ; that this 
day or that, or how many [days] in the 
week the kirk should assemble ; of these 
and such others we cannot see how a cer- 
tain order can be established: for in some 
kirks the psalms may conveniently be 
sung, in others perchance they cannot ; 

I some kirks [may] convene every day, some 
twice, some thrice in the week [and] some 
perchance but once : in this and such like 
must every particular kirk by their con- 
sent appoint their own policy. 

2. [Yet] in great towns we think ex- 
pedient that every day there be either 
sermon or common prayers, with some 
exercise of reading of scriptures. What 
day the public sermon is,' we can neither 
require nor greatly approve that the com- 
mon prayers be publicly used : lest that we 
should either foster the people in super- 
stition, who come to the prayers as they 
come to the massj or else give them occa- 
sion, that they think them no prayers, 
which he made before and after sermons. 

3. In every notable town, we require 
that one day beside the Sunday, be ap- 
pointed to the sermon, which during the 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE, 



511 



time of sermon and prayers must be kept 
free from all exercise of labour, as well of 
the master as of the servant ; in smaller 
towns as we have said, the common con- 
sent of the kirk must put order : but the 
Sunday must straitly be kept both before 
aud afternoon in all towns. Before noon 
must the word be preached, and sacraments 
ministered, as also marriage solemnized if 
occasion offer: afternoon must the young- 
children be publicly examined in their 
catechism in the audience of the people, 
[in doing-] whereof the minister must take 
great diligence, as w r ell to cause the people 
understand the questions proponed as [the] 
answers, and the doctrine that may be col- 
lected thereof; the order [to be kept in 
teaching the catechism], and how much [of 
it] is appointed for every Sunday, is al- 
ready distinguished in [the catechism prin- 
ted with] the Book of our Common Order, 
which catechism is the most perfect that 
ever yet was used in the kirk. And after- 
noon may baptism be ministered, when 
occasion is offered of great travail before 
noon : it is also to be observed, that prayers 
be afternoon upon Sunday, where there is 
neither preaching nor catechism. 

4. It appertains to the policy of the 
kirk to appoint the times when the sacra- 
ments shall be ministered. Baptism may 
be ministered whensoever the word is 
preached; but we think it more expedient, 
that it be ministered upon Sunday, or upon 
the day of prayers, only after the sermon : 
partly to remove this gross error by the 
which many are deceived, thinking that 
children be damned if they die without 
baptism ; and partly to make the people 
have greater reverence to the administration 
of the sacraments than they have, for we 
see the people begin already to wax weary 
by reason of the frequent repetition of 
those promises. 

5. Four times in the year we think suffi- 
cient to the administration of the Lord's 
table, which we desire to be distincted, 
that the superstitions of time* may be 
avoided so far as may be : for your honours 



• Superstitious observation of times. 



are not ignorant how superstitiously the 
people run to that action al; pasche, even 
as if the time gave virtue to the sacrament ; 
and how the rest of the whole year they 
are careless and negligent, as if it apper- 
tained not unto them, but at that time 
only. We think therefore most expedient, 
that the first Sunday of March be ap- 
pointed for one time [to that service] ; the 
first Sunday of June for another ; the first 
Sunday of September for the third; the 
first Sunday of December for the fourth. 
We do not deny but any several kirk for 
reasonable causes may change the time, 
and may minister oftener, but we study to 
repress superstition. All ministers must 
be admonished to be more careful to in- 
struct the ignorant than ready to serve 
their appetite, and to use sharp examina- 
tion rather than indulgence, in admitting 
to these great mysteries such as are igno- 
rant of the use and virtue of the same : 
and therefore we think that the adminis- 
tration of the table ought never to be 
without examination passing before, and 
specially of them whose knowledge is sus- 
pect ; we think that none are to be ad- 
mitted to this mystery who cannot for- 
mally say the Lord's prayer, the articles of 
the belief, nor declare the sum of the law, 
[and understandeth not the use and virtue 
of this holy sacrament]. 

6. Further we think it a thing most 
expedient and necessary, that every kirk 
have the Bible in English, and that the 
people be commanded to convene and 
hear the plain reading and interpretation 
of the scripture, as the kirk shall appoint; 
[for] by frequent reading, this gross igno- 
rance, which in this cursed papistry hath 
overflowed all, may partly be removed. 
We think it most expedient that the scrip- 
ture be read in order, that is, that some 
one book of the Old or New Testament be 
begun and orderly read to the end ; and 
the same we judge of preaching, where the 
minister for the most part remains in one 
place : for this skipping and divagation 
from place to place of scripture, be it in 
reading, or be it in preaching, we judge 
not so profitable to edify the kirk, as the 
continual following of one text. 



512 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



7. Every master of household must be 
commanded either to instruct, or cause to 
be instructed, his children, servants, and 
family, in the principles of the Christian 
religion, without the knowledge whereof 
ought none to be admitted to the table of 
the Lord Jesus : for such as are so dull and 
so ignorant, that they can neither try 
themselves, nor yet know the dignity and 
mystery of that action, cannot eat and 
drink of that table worthily. And there- 
fore, of necessity we judge, that every 
year at the least, public examination be 
had by the ministers and elders of the 
knowledge of every person within the kirk,» 
to wit, that every master and mistress of 
household come themselves and their fami- 
ly, so many as are come to maturity before 
the minister and the elders, and give con- 
fession of their faith : if they understand 
not, or cannot rehearse the commandments 
of God's law, know not how to pray, 
neither wherein their righteousness stands 
or consists, they ought not to be admitted 
to the Lord's table : and if they stubbornly 
contemn, and suffer their children and 
servants to continue in wilful ignorance, 
the discipline of the kirk must proceed 
against them to excommunication, and 
then must that matter be referred to the 
civil magistrate; for seeing that the just 
lives by his own faith, and Christ Jesus 
justifies by knowledge of himself, insuffer 
able we judge it that men be permitted to 
live as members of the kirk [of God], and 
yet [to] continue in ignorance. 

8. Moreover, men, women, [and] chil- 
dren, would be exhorted to exercise them- 
selves in psalms, that when the kirk doth 
convene, and sing, they may be the more 
able together with common hearts and 
voices to praise God. 

9. In private houses we think expedient, 
that the most grave and discreet person 
use the common prayers at morn and at 
night, for the comfort and instruction of 
others: for seeing that we behold and see 
the hand of God now presently striking 
us with divers plagues, we think it a con- 
tempt of his judgments, or provocation of 
his anger more to be kindled against us, 
if we be not moved to repentance of our 



former unthankfulness, and to earnest in- 
vocation of his name, whose only power 
may, and great mercy will, if we unfeign- 
edly convert unto him, remove from us 
those terrible plagues which now for our 
iniquities hang over our heads. " Con- 
vert us, O Lord, and we shall be con- 
verted." 

CHAP. XII. 

FOR PROPHESYING, OR INTERPRETING OF 
THE SCRIPTURES, 

1. To the end that the kirk of God may 
have a trial of men's knowledge, judg- 
ments, graces, and utterances ; as also, such 
that have somewhat profited in God's 
word, may from time to time grow in 
more full perfection to serve the kirk, as 
necessity shall require : it is most expe- 
dient that in every town, where schools 
and repair of learned men are, there be [a 
time] in one certain day every week ap- 
pointed to that exercise which St Paul calls 
prophesying ; the order whereof is ex- 
pressed by him in these words, " Let the 
prophets speak two or three, and let the 
other judge j but if any thing be revealed 
to another that sitteth by, let the former 
keep silence : [tor] ye may one by one all 
prophesy, that all may learn, and all may 
receive consolation. And the spirits," 
that is, the judgments, "of the prophets, 
are subject to the prophets."* By which 
words of the apostle, it is evident that in 
the church of Corinth, when they did 
assemble for that purpose, some place of 
scripture was read, upon the which, one 
first gave his judgment to the instruction 
and consolation of the auditors ; after whom 
did another either confirm what the for- 
mer had said, or added what he had omit- 
ted, or did gently correct or explain more 
properly where the whole verity was not 
revealed to the former ; and in case things 
were hid from the one and from the other, 
liberty was given for a third to speak his 
judgment to the edification of the church ; 
above which number of three, as appears 
they passed not, for avoiding of confusion. 



1 Cor. xiv, 29—32. 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



513 



2. This exercise is a thing most neces- 
sary for the kirk of God this day in Scot- 
land ; for thereby, as said is, shall the kirk 
have judgment and knowledge of the graces, 
gifts, and utterances of every man within 
their body; the simple, and such as have 
somewhat profited, shall be encouraged 
daily to study and to proceed in know- 
ledge, [and] the [whole] kirk shall be edi- 
fied ; for this exercise must be patent to 
such as list to hear and learn, and every 
man shall have liberty to utter and declare 
his mind and knowledge to the comfort 
and consolation of the kirk. 

3. But lest of this profitable exercise 
there arise debate and strife, curious, pere- 
grine, and unprofitable questions are to be 
avoided. All interpretation disagreeing 
from the principles of our faith, repugning 
to charity, or that stands in plain contra- 
diction with any other manifest place of 
scripture, is to be rejected. The interpre- 
ter in this exercise, may not take to himself 
the liberty of a public preacher, — yea, 
although he be a minister appointed, — but 
he must bind himself to his text, that he 
enter not in digression or in explaining 
common-places : he may use no invective 
in that exercise, unless it be of sobriety in 
confuting heresies : in exhortations or ad- 
monitions he must be short, that the time 
may be spent in opening the mind of the 
Holy Ghost in that place ; following the 
sequel and dependence of the text, and ob- 
serving such notes as may instruct and 
edify the auditor : for avoiding of conten- 
tion, neither may the interpreter, nor any 
in the assembly, move any question in open 
audience, whereto himself is not able [pre- 
sently] to give resolution without reason- 
ing with another, but every man ought to 
speak his own judgment to the edification 
of the kirk. 

4. If any be noted with curiosity or 
bringing in of strange doctrines, he must 
be admonished by the moderator, minis- 
ters, and elders, immediately after the in- 
terpretation is ended. The whole minis- 
ters, [with] a number of them that are of 
the assembly, ought to convene together, 
where examination should be had, how 
the persons that did interpret, did handle 



and convey* the matter; they themselves 
being removed till every 'man hath given 
his censure : after the which the persons 
being called [in], the faults, if any notable 
be found, are noted, and the persons gen- 
tly admonished. In that assembly are all 
questions and doubts, if any arise, resolved 
without contention. 

5. The ministers of the parish kirks in 
land wart, adjacent to every chief tow r n, and 
the readers, if they have any gift of inter- 
pretation, within six miles, must concur 
and assist those that prophesy [teach] within 
the towns; to the end that they themselves 
may either learn, or others may learn by 
them. And, moreover, men in whom are 
supposed to be any gifts which might edify 
the church if they were well employed, 
must be charged by the ministers and 
elders to join themselves with the session 
and company of interpreters, to the end 
that the kirk may judge whether they are 
able to serve to God's glory, and to the 
profit of the kirk in the vocation of [the] 
ministry or not : and if any are found disu- 
bedient, and not willing to communicate 
the gifts and special graces of God with 
their brethren, after sufficient admonition, 
discipline must proceed against them, pro- 
vided that the civil magistrate concur with 
the judgment and election of the kirk; 
for no man may be permitted as best 
pleaseth him to live within the kirk of 
God, but every man must be constrained 
by fraternal admonition and correction, 
to bestow his labours, when of the kirk he 
is required, to the edification of others. 

6. What day in the week is most con- 
venient for that exercise, what books of 
scripture shall be most profitable to read, 
we refer to the judgment of every particu- 
lar kirk, we mean, to the wisdom of the 
ministers and elders. 

CHAP. XIII. 

OF MARRIAGE. 

Because that marriage, the blessed ordi- 
nance of God, in this cursed papistry hath 
partly been contemned; and partly hath 



* Entreat. 

3 T 



514 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



been so infirmed, that the parties conjoined 
could never be assured in conscience, if the 
bishops and prelates list to dissolve the same ; 
we have thought good to show our judg- 
ments how such confusion in times coming 
may be avoided. 

2. And first public inhibition must be 
made, that no person under the power or 
obedience of others ; such as sons and 
daughters, and those that be under cura- 
tors, neither men nor women, contract mar- 
riage privately and without [the] know- 
ledge of their parents, tutors, or curators, 
under whose power they are for the time : 
which if they do, the censure and dis- 
cipline of the kirk [ought] to proceed 
against them. If any son or daughter, or 
other [under subjection], have their hearts 
touched with the desire of marriage, they 
are bound to give honour to their parents 
that they open unto them their affection, 
asking their counsel and assistance, how 
that motion, which they judge to be of 
God, may be performed. If the father, 
[nearest] friend, or master,* gain stand their 
request, and have no other causa than the 
common sort of men have ; to wit, lack of 
goods, and because they are not so high- 
born as they require ; yet must not the 
parties whose hearts are touched make any 
covenant till further declaration be made 
unto the kirk of God [or civil magistrate] : 
and, therefore, after that they have opened 
their minds to their parents or such others 
as have charge over them, they must de- 
clare it to the ministry also, or to the civil 
magistrate, requiring them to travail with 
their parents for their consent, which to 
do they are bound. And if they, to wit, 
the ministry or magistrate, find no cause 
that is just, why the marriage required 
may not be fulfilled, then after sufficient 
admonition to the father, friend, master, or 
superior, that none of them resist the 
work of God, the ministry or magistrate 
may enter in the place of parents, and by 
consenting to their just requests may ad- 
mit them to marriage : for the work of 
God ought not to be hindered by the cor- 



* Or curator. 



rupt affections of wordly men ; the work of 
God we call, when two hearts, without 
tilthiness before committed, are so joined, 
and both require and are content to live 
together in that holy band of matrimony. 

3. If any commit fornication with that 
woman he requires in marriage, they do 
both lose this foresaid benefit as well of 
the kirk as of the magistrate ; for neither 
of both ought to be intercessors or advo- 
cates for filthy fornicators. But the father, 
or nearest friend, whose daughter being a 
virgin is deflowered, hath power by the 
law of God to compel the man that did 

j that injury to marry his daughter : and if 
the father will not accept him by reason of 
his offence, then may he require the dowry 
of his daughter; which if the offender be 
not able to pay, then ought the civil magis- 
trate to punish his body by some other pun- 
ishment. And because whoredom, fornica- 
tion, [and] adultery, are sins most common 
in this realm; we require of your honours, 
in the name of the eternal God, that se- 
vere punishment, according as God hath 
commanded, be executed against such 
wicked contemners : for we doubt not but 
such enormities and crimes openly com- 
mitted, provoke the wrath of God, as the 
apostle speaketh, not only upon the offen- 
ders, but upon such places where without 
punishment they are committed. 

4. But to return to our former purpose : 
marriage ought not to be contracted 
amongst persons that have no election for 
lack of understanding ; and, therefore, we 
affirm that bairns and infants cannot law- 
fully be married in their minor age, to wit, 
the man within fourteen years, and the 
woman twelve years at least ; which if it 
have been, and they have kept themselves 
always separate, we cannot judge them to 
[be bound to] adhere as man and w r ife, by 
reason of that promise, which in God's 
presence was no promise at all ; but if in 
years f of judgment they have embraced 
the one the other, then by reason J of that 
last consent, they have ratified that which 
others have promitted for them in their 



f After years. $ Virtue; 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



515 



youthhead [and are to be held as married 
persons]. 

5. In a reformed kirk, marriage ought 
not to be secretly used, but in open face 
and public audience of the kirk ; and for 
avoiding- of dangers, expedient it is that 
the banns be publicly proclaimed three 
[several] Sundays, unless the persons are 
so known that no suspicion of danger may 
arise, and then may the time be shortened 
at the discretion of the ministry ; but no 
ways can we admit marriage to be used 
secretly, how honourable soever the per- 
sons be, [and therefore] the Sunday before 
noon we think most expedient for mar- 
riage, and [that it ought to] be used no day 
else without the consent of the whole 
ministry. 

6. Marriage once lawfully contracted, 
may not be dissolved at man's pleasure, as 
our master Christ Jesus doth witness, un- 
less adultery be committed ; which being 
sufficiently proved in presence of the civil 
magistrate, the innocent, if they so require, 
ought to be pronounced free, and the 
offender ought to suffer death as God hath 
commanded. If the civil sword foolishly 
spare the life of the offender, yet may not 
the kirk be negligent in their office, which 
is to excommunicate the wicked, and to 
repute them as dead members, and to pro- 
nounce the innocent party to be at free- 
dom, be they never so honourable before 
the world : [nottheless] if the life be spared, 
as it ought not to be to the offenders, and 
if fruits of repentance of long time appear 
in them, and if they earnestly desire to be 
reconciled with the kirk, we judge they 
may be received to the participation of the 
sacraments, and other benefits of the kirk, 
for we would not that the kirk should hold 
them excommunicate whom God absolved, 
that is, the penitent. 

7. If any demand, whether that the 
offender, after reconciliation with the kirk, 
may not marry again ? we answer, that if 
they cannot live continently, and if the 
necessity be such as that they fear further 
offence of God, we cannot forbid them to 
use the remedy ordained of God. If the 
party offended, may be reconciled to the 



offender, then we judge that on noways 
it shall be lawful to the offender to marry 
any other, except the party that before 
hath been offended ; and the solemnization 
of the latter marriage must be in the open 
face of the kirk likeas the former, but 
without proclamation of banns. This we 
do offer as the best counsel that God 
giveth unto us in so doubtsome a case ; but 
the most perfect reformation were, if your 
honours would give to God his honour 
and glory, that ye would prefer his express 
commandment to your own corrupt judg- 
ments, especially in punishing of these 
crimes, which he commandeth to be pun- 
ished with death : for so should ye declare 
yourselves God's true obedient officers, 
and your commonwealth should be rid of 
innumerable troubles. We mean not, that 
sins committed in our former blindness, 
which are almost buried in oblivion, shall 
be called again to examination and judg- 
ment ; but we require that the law may be 
now and hereafter so established and exe- 
cute, that this ungodly impunity of sin 
have no place within this realm : for in the 
fear of God we signify unto your honours, 
that whosoever persuades you, that ye 
may pardon where God commandeth death, 
deceives your souls, and provokes you to 
offend God's majesty. 

CHAR XIV. 

OF BURIAL. 

1. Burial in all ages hath been holden 
in estimation, to signify that the same 
body which was committed to the earth 
should not utterly perish, but should rise 
again [in the last day] ; and the same we 
would have kept within this realm, pro- 
vided that superstition, idolatry, and what- 
soever hath proceeded of a false opinion 
and for advantage sake * may be avoided, 
[such] as singing of mass, placebo, and 
dirge, and all other prayers over or for 
the dead, which are not only superstitious 



*Advantage and gain. 



516 FIRST BOOK O 

and vain, but also are idolatry, and do 
repugn to the plain scriptures of God. 
For plain it is, that every one that dieth, 
departeth either in the faith of Christ 
Jesus, or departeth in incredulity : plain it 
is, that they that depart in the true faith of 
Christ Jesus, rest from their labours, and 
from death do go to life everlasting-, as by 
our Master and his apostles we are taught ; 
but whosoever departeth in unbelief or in- 
credulity, shall never see life, but the 
wrath of God abides upon him : and so we 
say that prayers for the dead are not only 
superstitious and vain, but do expressly 
repugn to the manifest scriptures and 
verity thereof, 

2. For avoiding of all inconveniences 
we judge it best, that neither singing nor 
reading be at [the] burial : for albeit things 
sung and read may admonish some of the 
living to prepare themselves for death, yet 
shall some superstitious think that singing 
and reading of the living may profit the 
dead. And, therefore, we think it most 
expedient, that the dead be conveyed to 
the place of burial with some honest com- 
pany of the kirk, without either singing or 
reading ; yea, without all kind of cere- 
mony heretofore used, other than that the 
dead be committed to the grave, with such 
gravity and sobriety, as those that are pre- 
sent may seem to fear the judgments of 
God, and to hate sin, which is the cause of 
death. 

3. We are not ignorant that some re- 
quire a sermon at the burial, or else some 
place of scripture to be read, to put the 
living in mind that they are mortal, and 
that likewise they must die: but let these 
men understand, that the sermons which 
are daily made, serve for that use, which 
if men despise, the funeral sermons shall 
rather nourish superstition and a false 
opinion, as before is said, than that they 
shall bring such persons to a godly con- 
sideration of their own estate. Attour, 
either shall the ministers for the most part 
be occupied in funeral sermons, or else 
they shall have respect of persons preach- 
ing at the burials of the rich and honour- 
able, but keeping silence when the poor 
and despised departeth ; and this with safe 



F DISCIPLINE. 

conscience cannot the minister do: for 
seeing that before God there is no respect 
of persons, and that their ministry apper- 
taineth to all alike, whatsoever they do to 
the rich, in respect of their ministry, the 
same they are bound to do to the poorest 
under their charge. 

-k In respect of divers inconveniences, 
we think it not seemly that the kirk ap- 
pointed for preaching and ministration of 
the sacraments shall be made a place of 
burial, but that some other secret and con- 
venient place, lying in the most free air, 
be appointed for that use, which place 
ought to be walled and fenced about, and 
kept for that use only. 

CHAP. XV. 

FOR REPARATION OF THE KIRKS. 

1. Lest that the word of God, and mi- 
nistration of the sacraments, by unseemliness 
of the place, come in contempt, of neces- 
sity it is, that the kirk and place where the 
people ought publicly to convene, be with 
expedition repaired with doors, windows, 
thatch, and with such preparation within, 
as appertaineth as well to the majesty of 
[the word of] God, as unto the ease and 
commodity of the people. And because 
we know the slothfulness of men in this 
behalf, and in all other [affairs], which 
may not redound to their private com- 
modity ; strait charge and commandment 
must be given, that within a certain day 
the reparation must be begun, and within 
another day to be affixed by your honours, 
that it may be finished : penalties and sums 
of money must be enjoined, and without 
pardon taken from the contemners. 

2. The reparation would be according to 
the ability and number of kirks. Every 
kirk must have doors, close windows of 
glass, thatch [or slate] able to withhold rain, 
a bell to convocate the people together, a 
pulpit, a basin for baptizing, and tables * 
for ministration of the Lord's supper. In 
greater kirks, and Avhere the congregation 
is great in number, must reparation be 



*A table. 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



517 



made within the kirk, for the quiet and 
commodious receiving of the people. The 
expenses are to be lifted partly of the 
people, and partly of the tiends, at the con- 
sideration of the ministry. 

CHAP. XVI. 

FOR PUNISHMENT OF THOSE THAT PROFANE 
THE SACRAMENTS, AND CONTEMN THE WORD 
OF GOD, AND DARE PRESUME TO MINISTER 
THEM, NOT BEING THERETO LAWFULLY 
CALLED. 

1. As Satan hath never ceased from the 
beginning to draw mankind into one of 
two extremities, to wit, that men should 
either be so ravished with gazing upon the 
visible creatures, that forgetting the cause 
wherefore they are ordained, they attri- 
bute unto them a virtue and power which 
God hath not granted unto them ; or else 
that men should so contemn and despise 
God's blessed ordinances and holy institu- 
tions, as if that neither in the right use of 
them there were any profit, neither yet in 
their profanation there were any danger: 
as this way, we sa}% Satan hath blinded 
the most part of mankind from the be- 
ginning ; so doubt we not, but that he will 
strive to continue in his malice even to 
the end. Our eyes have seen, and pre- 
sently do see the experience of the one 
and of the other, what was the opinion of 
the most part of men, of the sacrament of 
Christ's body and blood, during the dark- 
ness of superstition, is not unknown, how 
it w r as gazed upon, kneeled unto, borne in 
procession, and finally worshipped and 
honoured as Christ Jesus himself; and so 
long as Satan might then retain men in 
that damnable idolatry, he was quiet as 
one that possessed his kingdom of darkness 
peaceably. But since that it hath pleased 
the mercy of God to reveal unto the un- 
thankful world the light of his word, the 
right use and administration of his sacra- 
ments, he assays man upon the contrary 
part : for where not long ago men stood in 
such admiration of that idol the mass, that 
none durst have presumed to have said the 
mass, but the shaven sort, the beast's 
marked-men ; some dare now be so bold 



as without all vocation, to minister, as 
they suppose, the true sacraments in open 
assemblies; and some idiots, — yet more 
wickedly and impudently,— -dare counterfeit 
in their house that which the true minis- 
ters do in the open congregations, they 
presume, we say, to do it in houses without 
reverence, without word preached, and 
without minister. This contempt proceeds, 
no doubt, from the malice and craft of that 
serpent who first deceived man, cf pur- 
pose to deface the glory of Christ's evan- 
gel, and to bring his blessed sacraments in 
a perpetual contempt: and further, your 
honours may clearly see how stubbornly 
and proudly the most part despise the 
evangel of Christ Jesus offered unto you, 
whom unless that sharply and stoutly ye 
resist, we mean as well the manifest des- 
piser, as the profaner of the sacraments, ye 
shall find them pernicious enemies ere it 
be long; and therefore, in the name of the 
eternal God, and of his Son Christ Jesus, 
we require of your honours that without 
delay, strait laws be made against the one 
and the other. 

2. We dare not prescribe unto you what 
penalties shall be required of such, but this 
we fear not to affirm, that the one and the 
other deserve death : for he who doth 
falsify the seal, subscription, or coin of a 
king is judged worthy of death ; what shall 
we think of him who plainly doth falsify 
the seals of Christ Jesus, [who is the] 
prince of the kings of the earth ? If Da- 
rius pronounced that a balk should be 
taken from the house of that man, and he 
himself hanged upon it, that durst attempt 
to hinder the re-edifying of the material 
temple [in Jerusalem] ; what shall we say 
of those, that contemptuously blaspheme 
God, and manifestly hinder the [spiritual] 
temple of God, which is the souls and 
bodies of the elect, to be purged by the 
true preaching of Christ Jesus [and right 
administration of the sacraments,] from the 
superstition and damnable idolatry in 
which they have been long plunged and 
holden captive ? If ye, as God forbid, 
declare yourselves careless over the true 
religion, God will not suffer your negli- 
gence unpunished : and therefore, more 



518 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



earnestly we require that strait laws may 
be made against the stubborn contemners 
of Christ Jesus, and against such as dare 
presume to minister his sacraments, not 
orderly called to that office, lest while 
that there be none found to gainstand 
impiety, the wrath of God be kindled 
against the whole. 

3. The papistical priests have neither 
power nor authority to minister the sacra- 
ments of Christ Jesus, because that in their 
mouth is not the sermon of exhortation : 
and therefore, to them must strait inhi- 
bition be made, notwithstanding any usur- 
pation they have made in the time of 
blindness, [not to presume upon the like 
hereafter, as likewise to all others who 
are not lawfully called to the holy minis- 
try], it is neither the clipping of their 
crowns, the greasing * of their lingers, nor 
the blowing of the dumb dogs called the 
bishops, neither the laying on of their 
hands, that make [true] ministers of 
Christ Jesus. But the Spirit of God 
inwardly first moving the heart to seek 
[to enter in the holy calling for] Christ's 
glory and the profit of his kirk, and there- 
after the nomination of the people, the ex- 
amination of the learned, and public ad- 
mission as before is said, make men lawful 
ministers of the word and sacraments. We 
speak of the ordinary vocation [in kirks 
reformed] ; and not of that which is ex- 
traordinary, when God by himself and by 
his only power, raiseth up to the ministry 
such as best pleaseth his wisdom. 

THE CONCLUSION. 

1. Thus have we in these few heads 
offered unto your honours our judgments, 
according as we were commanded, touch- 
ing the reformation of things which here- 
tofore have altogether been abused in this 
cursed papistry. We doubt not but some 
of our petitions shall appear strange unto 
you at the first sight : but if your wisdoms 
deeply consider, that we must answer not 
only unto man, but also before the throne 
of the eternal God, and of his Son Christ 
Jesus, fcr the counsel which we give in 

* Crossing. I 



this so grave a matter ; your honours 
shall easily consider, that more assured it 
is to us to fall in the displeasure of all men 
in the earth, than to offend the majesty of 
God, whose justice cannot suffer flatterers 
and deceitful counsellors unpunished. 

2. That we require the kirk to be set at 
such liberty, that she neither be compelled 
to feed idle bellies, neither yet to sustain 
the tyranny which heretofore hath been 
by violence maintained, we know we shall 
offend many : but if we should keep silence 
hereof, we are most assured to offend the 
just and righteous God, who by the mouth 
of his apostle hath pronounced this sen- 
tence, " He that laboureth not, let him not 
eat." If we in this behalf, or in any other, 
require or ask any other thing, than by 
God's express commandment, [or] by equity 
and good conscience ye are bound to grant, 
let it be noted and after repudiate : but if 
we require nothing which God requireth 
not also, let your honours take heed, how 
ye gainstand the charge of him whose hand 
and punishment ye cannot escape. 

3. If blind affection rather lead you to 
have respect to the sustentation of those 
your carnal friends, who tyrannously have 
ernpired above the flock of Christ Jesus, 
than that the zeal of Christ Jesus his glory 
provoke and move you to set his oppressed 
kirk at freedom and liberty; we fear your 
sharp and sudden punishments, and that 
the glory and honour of this enterprise 
[shall] be reserved unto others : and yet 
shall this our judgment abide to the gene- 
rations following for a monument and wit- 
ness, how lovingly God called you and this 
nation to repentance, what counsellors 
God sent unto you, and how ye have used 
the same. If obediently ye hear God now 
calling, we doubt not but he shall hear 
you in your greatest necessity : but if, fol- 
lowing your own corrupt judgments, ye 
contemn his voice and vocation, we are 
assured that your former iniquity, and pre- 
sent ingratitude, shall together crave great 
punishment from God, who cannot long 
delay to execute his most just judgments, 
when, after many offences and long blind- 
ness, grace and mercy offered is con- 
temptuously refused. 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



519 



4. God the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by the power of his Holy Spirit, so 
illuminate your hearts, that ye may clearly 
see what is pleasing and acceptable in his 
presence, and so bow the same to his obe- 
dience, that ye may prefer his revealed 
will to your own affections : and so 
strengthen you by the spirit of fortitude, 
thai boldly ye may punish vice and main- 
tain virtue within this realm, to the praise 
and glory of his Holy Name, to the comfort 
and assurance of your own consciences, 
and to the consolation and the good ex- 
ample of the posterity following. Amen. 

From Edinburgh, the 20tb of May, 15G0, 
by your honours' most humble servi- 
tors. 



ACT OF SECRET COUNSEL, 17th OF JANUARY, 
ANNO 1580.* 

We who have subscribed these presents, 
having advised with the articles herein 
specified, as is above-mentioned from the 
beginning of this book, think the same 
good and conform to God's word in all 
points ; conform to the notes and additions 
hereto eiked ; and promise to set the 
same forward, to the uttermost of our 
powers. Providing that the bishops, ab- 
bots, priors, and other prelates and bene- 
ficed men, who else have adjoined them- 
selves to us, brook the revenues of their 
benefices during their lifetimes; the sus- 
taining and upholding the ministry and 
ministers, as herein is specified, for the 
preaching of the word, and ministering of 
the sacraments. 

James, duke of Chatelherault, ancestor to 

the duke of Hamilton. 
James Hamilton, earl of Arran, eldest son 

to the duke of Chatelherault. 
Archibald Argyle, ancestor to the duke of 

Argyle. 

James Stewart, lord James Stewart, then 
prior of St Andrews, afterwards earl of 
Murray, known by the title of the Good 
Regent. 

Rothes, Andrew earl of Rothes. 



Marshall, the earl of Marshall. 

John of Monteith, earl of Monteith. 

Morton, James Douglas earl of Morton. 

Glencairn, the earl of Glencairn. 

Boyd, lord Boyd, ancestor to the earl of 

Kilmarnock. 
William lord Hay, lord Yester, ancestor to 

the marquis of Tweeddale. 
Alexander Campbell. 

M. Alexander Gordon, bishop of Gallowaj'. 
Ochiltree, Stewart lord Ochiltree, now ex- 
tinct. 

Sanquhar, lord Sanquhar, ancestor to the 

earl of Dumfries. 
St Johns, Sir James Sandylands of Calder, 

lord St Johns, ancestor to the lord Tor- 

phichen. 
William of Culross. 

Drumlanrig, ancestor to the duke of 

Queensberry. 
Lord Lindsay, John lord Lindsay, ancestor 

to the earl of Crawford. 
Master of Lindsay, Patrick, eldest son to 

the lord Lindsay. 
Bargannie younger, Kennedy laird of Bar- 

gannie. 

Lochinvar, ancestor to the viscount of 
Kenmuir. 

Garleiss, ancestor to the earl of Galloway. 

Cunninghamhead. 

James Haliburton. 

John Lockhart of Bar. 

John Shaw of Haly. 

Scott of Haning. 

James Maxwell, master of Maxwell, ances- 
tor to the earl of Nithsdide. 
George Fenton of that Ilk. 
Andrew Ker of Fadownside. 
Andrew Hamilton of Lethane. 
Dean of Murray. This is probably the 
same with Alexander Campbell above. 
The duke of Chatelherault, the earls of 
Marshall, Monteith, and Morton, the lord 
Lindsay, and the laird of Garleiss, are not 
in the edition printed 1621. But Knox, 
Spottisvvood, and Calderwood, number 
them amongst the subscribers to this Book 
of Discipline. The master of Lindsay is 
added from Knox and Calderwood. 



* 1561. The year did not begin at that time 
till the 25th of March. 



520 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



A SHORT SUM OF THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE 
FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF MINISTERS AND 
READERS IN THEIR OFFICE. 

I. Doctrine. — The word of God only, 
which is the New and Old Testament, shall 
be taught in every kirk within this realm, 
and all contrary doctrine to the same shall 
be impugned and utterly suppressed. 

We affirm that to be contrarious doc- 
trine to the word, that man has invented 
and imposed upon the consciences of men 
by laws, counsels, and constitutions, with- 
out the express command of God's word. 

Of this kind are vows of chastity, dis- 
guised apparel, superstitious observation of 
fasting- days, difference of meat for con- 
science' sake, prayer for the dead, calling 
upon saints, with such other inventions of 
men. In this rank are holidays invented 
by men, such as Christmas, circumcision, 
epiphany, purification, and other fond feasts 
of our lady : with the feasts of the apostles, 
martyrs, and virgins, with others which 
we judge utterly to be abolished forth of 
this realm, because they have no assurance 
in God's word. All maintainers of such 
abominations should be punished with the 
civil sword. 

The word is sufficient for our salvation, 
and therefore all things needful for us are 
contained in it. The scriptures shall be 
read in private houses for removing 1 of this 
gross ignorance. > 

II. Sacraments. — The sacraments of ne- 
cessity are joined with the word, which 
are two only, baptism and the table of the 
Lord. The preaching of the word must 
precede the ministration of the sacraments. 
In the due administration of the sacra- 
ments all things should be done according 
to the word, nothing being added, nor 
yet diminished. The sacraments should 
be ministered after the order of the church 
of Geneva. All ceremonies and rites in- 
vented by men should be abolished, and 
the simple word followed in all points. 

The ministration of the sacraments in no 
ways should be given him in whose mouth 
God has not put the word of exhortation. 
In the ministration of the table some com- 
fortable places may be read of the scriptures. 



III. Idolatry. — All kind of idolatry and 
monuments of idolatry, should be abolish- 
ed, such as places dedicate to idolatry and 
relics. Idolatry is all kind of worshipping 
of God not contained in the word, as the 
mass, invocation of saints, adoration of 
images, and all other such things invented 
by man. 

IV. The Ministry. — No man should en- 
ter in the ministry without a lawful voca- 
tion. The lawful vocation standeth in the 
election of the people, examination of the 
ministry, and admission by them both. 
The extraordinary vocation has another 
consideration, seeing it is wrought only by 
God inwardly in men's hearts. 

No minister should be intruded upon 
any particular kirk without their consent ; 
but if any kirk be negligent to elect, then 
the superintendent with his counsel should 
provide a qualified man within forty days. 

Neither for rarity of men, necessity of 
teaching, nor for any corruption of time, 
should unable persons be admitted to the 
ministry. Better it is to have the room 
vacant, than to have unqualified persons, 
to the slander of the ministry and the hurt 
of the kirk. In the rarity of qualified men, 
we should call unto the Lord, that he of 
his goodness would send forth true labour- 
ers to his harvest : the kirk and faithful 
magistrate should compel such as have 
the gifts, to take the office of teaching 
upon them. 

We should consider first, whether God 
has given the gifts to him whom we would 
choose : for God calls no man to the min- 
istry, whom he arms not with necessary 
gifts. 

Persons noted with infamy, or unable to 
edify the kirk by wholesome doctrine, or 
of a corrupt judgment, should not be ad- 
mitted nor yet retained in the ministry ; the 
prince's pardon or reconciliation with the 
kirk takes not away the infamy before 
men : therefore public edicts should be set 
forth in all places where the person is 
known, and strait charge given to all men 
to reveal if they know any capital crime 
committed by him, or if he be slanderous 
in his life. 

Persons proponed by the kirk shall be 



FIRST BOOK O 

examinated publicly by the superintendent 
and brethren, in the principal kirk of the 
diocese or province. They shall give pub- 
lic declaration of their gifts, by the inter- 
pretation of some places of scripture. 
They shall be examinated openly in all 
the principal points that now are in con- 
troversy. When they are approven by the 
judgment of the brethren, they should 
make sundry sermons before their congre- 
gations before they are admitted. 

In their admission, the office and duty of 
ministers and people should be declared by 
some godly and learned minister. And so 
publicly before the people should they be 
placed in their kirk, and joined to their 
flock at the desire of the same : other cere- 
monies except fasting with prayer, such as 
laying on of hands, we judge not necessary 
in the institution of ministry. 

Ministers so placed, may not for their 
own pleasure leave their own kirks ; nor 
yet their kirks refuse them, without some 
weighty causes tried and known : but the 
General Assembly for good causes may re- 
move ministers from place to place with- 
out the consent of the particular kirks. 

Such as are preachers already placed and 
not found qualified after this form of trial, 
shall be made readers ; and as for no sort of 
men shall this rigour of examination be 
omitted. 

V. Headers. — Readers are but for a 
time, till, through reading of the scriptures, 
they may come to further knowledge and 
exercise of the kirk in exhorting and ex- 
plaining of the scriptures. No reader shall 
be admitted within twenty-one years of 
age, and unless there be a hope that by 
reading he shall shortly come to exhorting. 
Readers found unable, after two years' 
exercise, for the ministry, should be re- 
moved, and others as long put in their 
room. 

No reader shall attempt to minister the 
sacraments, until he be able to exhort and 
persuade by wholesome doctrine. Readers 
a land wart shall teach the youth of the 
parishes. 

Ministers and readers shall begin over 
some book of the Old or New Testament, 
and continue upon it unto the end; and 



F DISCIPLINE. 521 

not to hip from place to place as the papists 
did. 

VI. Provision for Ministers. — The min- 
ister's stipend should be moderated, that 
neither they have occasion to be careful 
for the world, nor yet wanton or insolent 
anywise. Their wives and children should 
be sustained not only in their time, but 
also after their death. 

VII. Elders and Deacons. — Men of the 
best knowledge, judgment, and conversa- 
tion, should be chosen for elders and 
deacons. Their election shall be yearly, 
where it may be conveniently observed. 
How the votes and suffrages may be best 
received with every man's freedom in 
voting, we leave to the judgment of every 
particular kirk They shall he publicly 
admitted, and admonished of their office, 
and also the people of their duty to them, 
at their first admission. 

Their office is to assist the ministers 
in their execution of discipline in all great 
and weighty matters. The elders shall 
watch upon all men's manners, religion, 
and conversation, that are within their 
charge ; correct all licentious livers, or else 
accuse them before the session. 

They should take heed to the doctrine, 
diligence, and behaviour of their minister 
and his household ; and, if need be, admo- 
nish and correct them accordingly. 

It is indecent for ministers to be board- 
ed in an ale-house or tavern, or to haunt 
much the court, or to be occupied in 
counsel of civil affairs. 

The office of deacons is to gather and 
distribute the alms of the poor according to 
the direction of session. The deacons 
should assist the assembly in judgment, 
and may read publicly if need requires. 

Elders and deacons being judges of other 
men's manners, must with their house- 
hold live godly, and be subject to the cen- 
sure of the kirk. 

It is not necessary to appoint a public 
stipend for elders and deacons, seeing they 
are changed yearly, and may wait upon 
their own vocation with the charge of the 
kirk. 

VIII. Superintendents. — The necessity, 
nomination, examination, and institution 

3 U 



522 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



of superintendents are at large contained 
in the Book of Discipline : and in many 
things do agree with the examination and 
admission of ministers. Principal towns 
shall not be spoiled of their ministers to 
be appointed superintendents. Superin- 
tendents once admitted shall not be changed 
without great causes and considerations. 

Superintendents shall have their own 
special kirks beside the common charge of 
others. They shall not remain in one 
place until their kirks be provided of 
ministers or readers. They shall not re- 
main above twenty days in one place in 
their visitation till they pass through their 
bounds. They shall preach themselves 
thrice in the week at the least. When 
they come home again to their own kirk, 
they must be occupied in preaching and 
edifying of the kirk : they shall not remain 
at their chief kirk above three or four 
months, but shall pass again to their visita- 
tion. 

In their visitation they shall not only 
preach ; but also examine the doctrine, life, 
diligence, and behaviour of the ministers, 
readers, elders, and deacons. They shall 
consider the order of the kirk, the manners 
of the people, how the poor are provided, 
how the youth are instructed, how the dis- 
cipline and policy of the kirk are kept, 
how heinous and horrible crimes are cor- 
rected. They shall admonish, and dress 
things out of order, with their counsel as 
they may best. 

Superintendents are subject to the cen- 
sure and correction not only of the synodal 
convention, but also of their own kirk and 
other within their jurisdiction. Whatso- 
ever crime deserves correction or depo- 
sition in any other minister, the same de- 
serves the like in the superintendent. 

Their stipend would be considered and 
augmented above other ministers, by rea- 
son of their great charges and travel. 

IX. Discipline. — As no commonwealth 
can be governed without execution of 
good laws, no more can the kirk be re- 
tained in purity without discipline. Dis- 
cipline standeth in the correction of these 
things that are contrary to God's law, for 
the edifying of the kirk. All estates with- 



in the realm are subject to the discipline of 
the kirk, as well rulers and preachers as 
the common people. 

In secret and private faults the order 
prescribed by our Master should be ob- 
served, whereof we need not to write at 
length, seeing it is largely declared in the 
Book of Excommunication.* 

Before the sentence proceed, labour 
should be taken with the guilty by his 
friends, and public prayer made for his 
conversion unto God. When all is done, the 
minister should ask if any man will assure 
the kirk of his obedience, and if any man 
promise, then the sentence shall stay for 
that time. If after public proclaiming of 
their names they promise obedience, that 
should be declared to the kirk who heard 
their former rebellion. 

The sentence being once pronounced, no 
member of the kirk should have company 
with them under pain of excommunication, 
except such persons as are exempted by 
the law. Their children should not be 
received to baptism in their name, but by 
some member of the kirk who shall pro- 
mise for the children, and detest the pa- 
rents' impiety. 

Committers of horrible crimes worthy of 
death, if the civil sword spare them they 
should be holden as dead to us, and cursed 
in their facts. 

If God move their hearts to repentance, 
the kirk cannot deny them conciliation, 
their repentance being tried and found true. 
Some of the elders should receive such 
persons publicly in the kirk in token of 
reconciliation. 

X. Marriage. — Persons under care of 
others shall not marry without their con- 
sent lawfully required. When the parents 
and others are hard and stubborn, then the 
kirk and magistrates should enter into the 
parents' room, and discern upon the equity 
of the cause without affection : the kirk 
and magistrate shall not suit for them that 
commit fornication before they suit the 
kirk. 



* The Book of Excommunication was writ- 
ten in the 1567: so this Summary was not 
written till some time after. 



FIRST BOOK O 

Promises of children within age are null, 
except they be ratified after they come to 
age. 

Bond of marriage should be proclaimed 
upon three several Sundays, to take away 
all excuse of impediment. 

Committers of adultery should not be 
overseen by the kirk, albeit the civil 
sword oversee them, but should be es- 
teemed as dead and excommunicate in their 
wicked fact. If such offenders desire ear- 
nestly to be reconciled to the kirk, we 
dare not refuse them, nor excommunicate 
them whom God has brought to repen- 
tance. 

The party that is proven to be innocent 
should be admitted to marriage again. As 
for the party offending, all doubt of mar- 
riage would be removed if tbe civil sword 
would strike according to God's word. 

XI. Policy. — Policy is an exercise of 
the kirk serving for instruction of the 
ignorant, inflaming of the learned to greater 
service, and for retaining of the kirk of 
God in good order. 

Of the parts of policy some are neces- 
sary, and some not necessary absolutely. 
Xecessary is the true preaching of the 
word, the right ministration of the sacra- 
ments, the common-prayers, the instruc- 
tion of the youth, the support of the poor, 
and the punishment of vice : but singing of 
psalms, certain days of the conventions in 
the week, thrice or twice preaching on 
week days, certain places of scripture to 
be read when there is no sermon, with 
with such things, are not necessary. 

In towns we require every day either 
sermon or public prayers with some read- 
ing of scriptures. Public prayers are not 
needful in the days of preaching, lest there- 
by we should nourish the people in super- 
stition, causing them understand that the 
public prayers succeed to the papistical 
mass. In every notable town we require 
that at the least once in the week, beside 
the Sunday, the whole people convene to 
the preaching. 

The Sunday must be kept straitly in all 
towns, both before noon and after for hearing 
of the word. At afternoon upon the Sunday, 
the Catechism shall be taught, the children 



F DISCIPLINE. 523 

examinated, and the baptism ministered. 
Public prayers sball be used upon the Sun- 
day as well afternoon as before, when ser- 
mons cannot be had. 

It appertains to the policy of every par- 
ticular kirk to appoint the time when the 
sacraments shall be ministered. 

XII. Baptism. — Baptism may be minis- 
tered whensoever the word is preached, 
but we think it most expedient, that it be 
ministered upon Sunday, or upon the 
day of common prayers: thus we take 
away that error of the papists concerning 
the estate of the infants departing without 
baptism. We bring the ministration of 
baptism to the presence of the people, to 
be kept in greater reverence, and to put 
every one in remembrance of the pro- 
mises of baptism, in the which now many 
wax faint and cold. 

XIII. The Table.— The table of the 
Lord shall be ministered four times in the 
year, and out of the times of superstition. 
We judge the first Sunday of March, June, 
September, and December, to be meetest : 
But this we leave to the judgment of the 
particular kirks. 

Let all ministers be more diligent to 
instruct the ignorant, and to suppress 
superstition, than to serve the vain appe- 
tites of men. The ministration of the 
table should never be without sharp ex- 
amination going before ; chiefly of them 
whose life, ignorance, or religion is sus- 
pected. Who cannot say the Lord's prayer, 
the Articles of the Faith, and declare the 
sum of the law should not be admitted. 
Whoso will stubbornly remain ignorant of 
the principal points of our salvation should 
be excommunicate, with their parents and 
masters that keep them in that ignorance : 
every master of household should be com- 
manded either to instruct his children and 
servants, or cause them to be instructed ; 
and if they will not, the kirk should pro- 
ceed against them. 

It is very needful that public examina- 
tion of every person be made at the least 
once in the year, by the ministers and 
elders. 

Every master and mistress of household 
should come with their household and 



524 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



family, to give confession of their faith, and 
answer to the principal points of our re- 
ligion. 

We think it very expedient that prayers 
be had daily in privy houses at morn and 
at night, for the comfort and instruction of 
others ; and this to be done by the most 
grave and discreet person of the house. 

XIV. The Exercise. — In towns where 
learned men are, the exercise of the scrip- 
tures should be weekly. In this exercise 
three only shall speak, to the opening- of 
the text and edifying of the people. This 
exercise shall be upon some places of scrip- 
ture, and openly, that all that will may 
hear and speak their judgment to the edi- 
fying of the kirk. In this kind of exer- 
cise the text is only opened, without any 
digressing or exhortation, following the 
file and dependence of the text, confuting 
all errors as occasion shall be given. No 
man should move a question the which 
himself is not able to solve. 

The exercise being ended, the ministers 
and elders present should convene apart 
and correct the things that have been done 
or spoken without order, and not to the 
edifying of the kirk. In this public exer- 
cise all affectation and vain curiosity must 
be above all things eschewed, lest for edi- 
fying we should slander the kirk of God. 

Ministers within six miles about, should 
come in willingly, and also readers that 
would profit should come both to teach 
others and to learn : other learned men to 
whom God has given the gift of interpre- 
tation, should be charged to join them- 
selves. 

XIV. Schools. — Because schools are the 
seed of the ministry, diligent care should 
be taken over them that they be ordered 
in religion and conversation according to 
the word, Every town should have one 
schoolmaster, and a land wart the minister 
or reader should teach the children that 
come to them : men should be compelled 
by the kirk and magistrates to send their 
children to the schools : poor men's chil- 
dren should be helped. 

XVI. Universities. — The universities 
should be erected in this realm St An- 
drews Glasgow, and Aberdeen: their order 



of proceeding, provision, and degrees, with 
their readers and officers, or at length de- 
clared in the Book of Discipline; how 
many colleges, how many classes in every 
college, and what should be taught in 
every class is there expressed. 

A contribution shall be made at the 
entry of the students for the upholding of 
the place : and a sufficient stipend is or- 
dained for every member of the university 
according to their degree. 

XVI i. Rents of the Kirh— The whole 
rents of the kirk abused in papistry, shall 
be referred again to the kirk, that thereby 
the ministry, schools, and the poor may be 
maintained within this realm according to 
their first institution. 

Every man should be suffered to lead 
and use his own tithes, and no man should 
lead another man's tithes. The upper- 
most cloth, the corpse-present, the clerk- 
mail, the pasche-offering, tithe ale, and 
whole other such things, should be dis- 
charged. 

The deacons should take up the whole 
rents of the kirk, disposing them to the 
ministry, the schools and poor within their 
bounds according to the appointment of 
the kirk. 

All friaries, nunneries, chanteries, cha- 
pellanries, annualrents, and all things doted 
to the hospitality, shall be reduced to the 
help of the kirk. Merchants and crafts- 
men in burgh, should contribute to the 
support of the kirk. 

XVIII. Burial. — We desire that burial 
be so honourably handled, that the hope of 
our resurrection may be nourished ; and all 
kind of superstition, idolatry, and what- 
soever thing proceedeth of the false opinion 
may be avoided. 

At the burial, neither singing of psalms 
nor reading shall be used, lest the people 
should be nourished thereby in that old 
superstition of praying for the dead : but 
this we remit to the judgment of the par- 
ticular kirks with advice of the ministers. 
All superstition being removed, ministers 
shall not be burdened with funeral ser 
mons, seeing that daily sermons are suffi- 
cient enough for ministering of the living. 
Burial should be without the kirk in a 



FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 



525 



fine air, and place walled and kept honour- 
ably. 

XIX. Repairing of Kirks. — The kirk 
does crave most earnestly the lords their 
assistance for hasty preparing of all parish 
kirks, where the people should convene 
for the hearing- of the word and receiving 
of the sacraments: this reparation should 
not only be in the walls and fabric, but 
also in all thing's needful within, for the 
people and decency of the place appointed 
for God's service. 

XX. Punishment of Profaners of the 
Sacraments. — We desire strait laws to be 
made for punishment of them that abuse 
the sacraments, as well the ministers as 
readers. The holy sacraments are abused 



* This Book of Discipline makes a large ad- 
dition to the volume ; hut I esteem it very val- 
uable, as giving a more perfect view of the 
moral state and character of the church of 
Scotland at the time, than is to be seen in the 
preceding history, or any history whatever. 
It is evidently, in a great measure, if not en- 
tirely, the production of Knox's pen ; and that 
he intended it for insertion in his history will 
be seen by my note at the end of the third book. 
It had the sanction of the General Assembly ; 
but was never enacted by parliament, so as to 
become legally obligatory. The second Book of 



when the minister is not lawfully called, 
or when they are given to open injurers 
of the truth or to profane' livers ; or when 
they are ministered in a privy place with- 
out the word preached. The examples of 
scriptures do plainly declare that the 
abusers of the sacraments, and contemners 
of the word, are worthy of death. 

This our judgment for reformation of 
the kirk shall bear witness, both before 
God and mi.ii, what we have craved of the 
nobility, and how they have obeyed our 
leaving admonitions. 

Thus far out of the Book of Discipline, 
which was subscribed by the kirk and 
lords.* 



Discipline must be familiar to most Scots pres- 
byterians, being bound up with the Westmin- 
ster Confession. It is in many respects an im- 
provement on the first, and has the merit of 
being much condensed. But there are several 
things in the first, which might have been pro- 
fitably retained in the second. The latter was 
established by law in 1592, and confirmed in 
1690 by the Revolution parliament. It had 
been sworn to in the National Covenant ^ and 
it remains the law of the church to this day. 
— Ed. 



AN ORATION 

IN FAVOUR OF 

ALL THOSE OF THE CONGREGATION, 

EXHORTING THEM 

TO ESPY HOW WONDERFULLY THEY ARE ABUSED BY THEIR DECEITFUL PREACHERS, 



SET FORTH 

BY MR QUENTIN KENNEDY, 

COMMENDATOR OF CKOSSRAGUELL, THE YEAR OF GOD 1561. 



"ATTENDITE A FALSIS PROPHETIS QUI VENIENT AD VOS IN VESTIMENTIS OVIUM, INTRINSECUS 
AUTEM SUNT LUPI RAPACES." Matth. vii. 



Every reader of Knox's life has heard of 
the famous disputation which he had in 
Maybole, with th.e Abbot of Crossraguell, 
though few have seen an authentic report 
of it. There is in the Auchinleck library, 
a copy in black letter, which was published 
by Knox himself in 1563. The proprietor, 
Sir Alexander Boswell, favoured the pub- 
lic by publishing a fac-simile edition of it 
in 1812, of which I have obtained a copy, 
and I think it will make a very acceptable 
addition to this volume. It is regarded as 
a curiosity by the learned antiquarian; but 
would be read with difficulty by persons 
not acquainted with the character and the 
meaning of the obsolete words. I shall 
give it verbatim as I have done the his- 
tory, in modern orthography, with a trans- 
lation of such words as require it. The 
Abbot in the year 1561, delivered an ora- 



tion in defence of the mass, in which he 
made an attack on Knox by name, as a 
heretic and a seducer of souls to their ever- 
lasting- perdition. Kennedy was a man of 
great talent and learning for the times. 
No doubt he made the best defence of the 
doctrine of his church against the refor- 
mers, that could be made. It is interesting 
to see how a man of talent, educated in the 
darkness of popery, and still living in that 
darkness, could argue from scripture, as 
he professes to do. I shall therefore insert 
the oration here, as, after perusing it, the 
reader is better prepared for the disputa- 
tion. This curious relic is preserved in 
manuscript in the same library ; and Sir 
Alexander published a black letter edition 
of it along with the other, to which he 
prefixed an advertisement as follows : — Ed. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The religious controversies of the sixteenth 
century may in our days merit little re- 
gard, and therefore probably may excite 
little interest. To the few, however, who 
wish to investigate the progress of the Re- 
formation, facts or circumstances unknown 
or forgotten may be valuable, as affording 
materials for forming a more comprehen- 
sive appreciation of the state of society, and 
the comparative powers and advantages of 
the conflicting parties. With this view, 
and for the satisfaction of the curious, the 
disputation betwixt John Knox and the 
Abbot of Crossraguell has been lately re- 
printed ; and it is safer and more equitable 
to measure the Abbot's weakness and in- 
sufficiency from his own words, than from 
the partial statements of the partizans of 
his opponents. 

Far be it from me to attempt to depreciate 
the merits of those who accomplished the 
overthrow of what, in common with a mul- 
titude, I deem blind superstition, and who 
left us the secure inheritance of a purer re- 
religion, which independent of its more vi- 
tal interests, has operated so happily on our 
civil improvement : but while we do jus- 
tice to the Reformers, let us treat with due 
liberality those of another persuasion, who, 
in defiance of popular violence, conscien- 
tiously stood forward in defence of their 
faith. Let us not assail popish bigots in a 
spirit of bigotry, or disgrace a cause which 
owes its strength to reason, truth, and free 
discussion, by intemperance, misrepresen- 
tation, and scurrility. The abbot of Cross- 
raguell appears to have been one who 
spoke and wrote from his heart, and whose 
life, by the statement of friend and foe, 



* Boswell takes for granted that Knox was a 
" rude," as well as a bold man. In this style 
tories and high churchmen had always been ac- 
customed to speak of him, and Sir Alexander 
seems implicitly to have adopted their language. 



bore testimony to the sincerity of his pro- 
fessions. Rigid in his own conduct, and 
severe in his rebuke of others, in his Ora- 
tion he attributes in a great measure the 
success of the enemies of the church of 
I Rome, to the unfitness of those appointed 
by the magistrates to feed the flocks, — a 
confession which was honourable to him 
who acknowledged and reprobated this de- 
reliction of duty. 

Quentin Kennedy, abbot or commenda- 
tor of Crossraguell, was the second son of 
Gilbert earl of Cassillis, and Isabel daughter 
of Archibald earl of Argyle. He is de- 
scribed as a man of great piety and austerity 
of manners, and of considerable learning. 
From such of his writing as are still extant, 
and from the titles of those ascribed to 
him by Dempster and Conseus, it is evident 
that he was a zealous and forward defender 
of the church of Rome, so much so, that he 
seems to have escaped vengeance only 
through the power and influence of his 
nephew the earl of Cassillis. 

The disputation with John Knox, the 
bold, rude,* but indefatigable reformer, 
gives no mean proof of the abbot's skill and 
scholastic acquirements, who for three days 
defended his cause, though in homely lan- 
guage compared with the more refined 
style of his opponent, against the declama- 
tory eloquence and keen arguments of so 
shrewd and able an antagonist. This tri- 
dial and nugatory conflict, left, as might be 
expected, a doubtful claim to victory in the 
eyes of their respective partizans. Conseus 
exults, and tells us, "Et Quintinius Ken- 
nedus, Cassilii Comitis frater, non genere 
quam virtute illustrior, totos tres dies cum 



He could scarcely have seen M'Crie's life of 
Knox, in which the reformer's character is 
presented in its true light, for it was first pub- 
lished in 1812, and Boswell wrote the above in 
May that year. — Ed. 

3X 



530 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



eodem apostate, in magna hominum con- 
cione de religione disputa s, victum tan- 
dem arena cedere coegit."* And Lesley, 
bishop of Ross, while he notices the dispu- 
tation, extols the abbot, and adds, " Quare 
Knoxius, ut quam contraxerat disputando 
ignorantia? maculam, scribendo dilueret, 
disputationem illam suis commentis, nugis. 
mendaciis interspersam typis excudendam 
curat. Nam veritatem disputando cum non 
poterat infringere, earn si cum vitiis [con- 
viciisr] et dicteriis obscuret, egregie doc- 
teque se calvinizare putat."f Knox, on 
his part, triumphantly published the dis- 
putation, with an introductory address 
which he terms a prologue, no less remark- 
able for force and genius, than coarse jest- 
ing on a grave subject,^: even bordering on 



* " Quintin Kennedy, brother of the earl of 
Cassils, not more illustrious for high birth 
than for virtue, for three days held a dispu- 
tation concerning religion with the same apos- 
tate, in the presence of a large company, when 
he (the apostate Knox) being defeated, had to 
leave the field." It has always been the prac- 
tice of papists, in such cases, to claim the vic- 
tory. We shall see how it was in the sequel. 
— Ed. 

f "Wherefore Knox, as he had by his pre- 
vious disputation, incurred the blame of igno- 
rance, he takes care to publish it interspersed 
with his own comments, for when he was not 
able by argument to prevail against the truth, 
he made bold, in an excellent and learned man- 
ner, to obscure it by his crimes, his brawlings 
and jests." — Ed. 

±. Sir Alexander is here unreasonably fas- 
tidious. In the then state of society, language 
was in common use, that would not be tolerated 
now in polite circles. Fair ladies who wore 
crowns, spoke and wrote in terms that a well 
£ducated country girl, in the present day, would 
be ashamed of. The following is a specimen of 
Knox's "coarse jesting on a grave subject." 
Speaking of the wafer which papists worship, 
he says, " The fine substance of that god is 
neither wood, gold, nor silver, but water and 
meal made in the manner of a dramock." Then, 
in comparison of gods of wood, &c. he says, 
" According to their matter whereof they are 
made, they will remain without corruption 
many years. But within one year that god 
will putrefy, and then must be burnt. They 
can abide the vehemency of the wind, frost, 
rain, or snow. But the wind will blow that 
god into the sea, the rain or the snow will 
make it dagh (dough) again : yea, which is 
most of all to be feared, that god is a prey (if 
he be not well kept) to rats and mice; for 
they will desire no better dinner than white 
round gods enow. But O then what becometh 
of Christ's natural body? By miracle, it flies 
to heaven again, if the papists teach truly, for 
how soon soever the mouse takes hold, so soon 



indecency. Yet seemingly not quite satis- 
fied that the prologue and disputation 
might suffice, he assailed the abbot in mar- 
ginal attacks, sometimes intemperate, and 
in no instance creditable to him who avail- 
ed himself of such an opportunity of taking 
advantage of his antagonist. It may be 
remarked, that Knox's style in that tract, 
published under his own eye, seems per- 
fectly different from that of the history 
ascribed to him, and is unquestionably su- 
perior. If it be admitted, that the style 
and language of the history have been al- 
tered by others, all confidence in the fidel- 
ity of that publication must be destroyed.^ 
Kennedy seems to have been well versed 
in the fathers, the oracular authorities of 
the church of Rome, a cart-load of Avhose 



flieth Christ away, and letteth her gnaw the 
bread. A bold and puissant mouse, but a 
feeble and miserable god? Yet would 1 ask a 
question, Whether hath the priest or the mouse 
greater power ? By his words it is made a god, 
by her teeth it ceaseth to be a god. Let them 
advise and then answer." This is the very 
worst of his " coarse jesting," in the piece re- 
ferred to ; but who does not see that it derives 
all its coarseness from the subject, which so far 
from being "grave," is absurd and impious. 
The language must appear shockingly profane 
to a papist, who worships a god that a mouse 
can eat, as the mockery of Elijah must have 
done to the priests of Baal, when he told them 
their god was asleep or from home. Those 
who worship the true God have no more rea- 
son to be offended with the language of the re- 
former than with that of the prophet. — Ed. 

§ This does not apply to the Glasgow MS. 
edition, from which the present one is taken, 
but to those which have been hitherto in com- 
mon use. It does not appear to me that there 
is much difference between the style of the his- 
tory and the debate, farther than what might 
be expected from the more animating nature of 
the subject. In the heat of an argument a man 
will both speak and write in a higher tone, 
than when narrating plain historical facts. 
Yet there are passages in the history, of great 
animation and pathos ; such as the description 
of the battle of the bishops in the church- 
yard of Glasgow, p. 50, and the discomfiture of 
young St Giles in Edinburgh, p. 89 ; to 
which may be added, his eloquent defences be- 
fore the queen in Holyroodhouse. Boswell 
pays a high compliment to Knox, in the fourth 
paragraph, where he says, the Abbot " defended 
his cause in homely language, compared with the 
more refined style of his opponent." The Ab- 
bot belonged to an ancient and noble family, 
and should have had all the refinement of his 
age, while Knox belonged to a race of meaner 
men ; yet he somehow acquired the faculty of 
writing the English language with a purity 
and force, above any other man in the kingdom, 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



531 



writings lie is accused of having 1 brought 
down to Ayr, to overwhelm Willock in 
disputation, who it is said, bad also an in- 
timate acquaintance with their writings, 
and, the abbot alleges, quoted them falsely 
in support of his opinions. But this cart- 
load of authorities was brought in vain: 
Willock, having waited till ten o'clock in 
the morning, did not think it expedient to 
wait longer ; and the abbot, on his arrival, 
not finding him at the place appointed for 
the disputation, had recourse to the singu- 
lar expedient of taking a protest by the 
hands of a notary public—that the reason- 
ing failed on Willock' s part, — which was 
read at the market-cross. 

Of the tracts which Kennedy is said to 
have published, and of which we have a 
list in Dempster and Mackenzie, I have 
hitherto seen that only which is entitled 
Ane Compendius Tractive, 8fc. of which 
there is a copy in the advocates' library, 
and another in the possession of bishop 
Cameron, now of Edinburgh. Ames men- 
tions George Hay's Confutation of the 
Abbot of CrosragueW s Mass, §"c. but takes 
no notice of the abbot's work ; and I have 
not been able to learn that there is any 
where preserved a printed copy of it. A 
MS. of the work is said to be now in the 
library of the marquis of Stafford; and 
there is, in the Auchinleck library, a MS. 
of " A Dialogue on the Mess between mas- 
ter Quentin Kennedy and his brother 
James:" but, whether this be the tract 
alluded to is doubtful. A copy of Hay's 
Confutation, is now, I believe, in the pos- 
session of Richard Heber, Esq. Whether 
the Oration which is now offered to the 
public was ever before printed, is not 



ascertained. Dempster talks of " Oratio 
pro obedientia supremis potestatibus," and 
lC Quaerirnonia super Knoxii fraude et im- 
pietate." Something of all this may be 
found in the Oration and its Epistle. But 
it appears to be a general attack on the 
Reformers, and an open challenge to po- 
lemical controversy. 

Quentin Kennedy, according to Doug- 
las and Crawford, died in 1561, and was 
canonized as a saint. His canonization is 
a mere fable. I have no doubt that the in- 
dustrious genealogist confounded the ab- 
bot with St Kinedus Eremita, whom 
Dempster connects with the family of Ca- 
sillis, although he flourished in the seventh 
century, and the surname of Kennedy was 
not assumed till the thirteenth. Keith 
notices him as the last abbot of Crossra- 
guell. He must mean the last ecclesiasti- 
cal abbot ; for he was succeeded by Allan 
Stuart, who was roasted, the method of 
torture chosen by the earl of Casillis, for 
the base purpose of extorting a surrender 
of the revenues of the abbacy ; but this 
Allan was more probably a layman. 

The indignation which the abbot ex- 
presses in the Oration at the " confusion 
and wrackment," the barbarous destruc- 
tion of those venerable piles reared by the 
piety of our forefathers, must be read by 
many with melancholy sympathy. For 
had not headlong zealots identified reli- 
gion with architecture, gothic arches and 
fretted aisles with the mass and idolatry, 
"then had not the antiquities and monu- 
ments of this realm been shamefully de- 
stroyed."* A. B. 



Auchinleck, May 1st, 1812. 



for at least a hundred and fifty years. There 
was indeed a great falling off in the style of 
Scots writers, after him ; so that had any one 
attempted to palm on the world, a history in 
his name, he could not have come up to the 



standard of his style,, and the imposture would 
j have heen detected. — Ed. 

! * The clamour against Knox on this account 
i was much exaggerated, and in some cases quite 
| unfounded. — Ed. 



AN EPISTLE 



NOBILITY AND PRINCIPALS 

OF THE CONGREGATION. 



Having consideration of the great fervour, 
zeal, and desire that your LL. [lordships] 
mean to have toward the true understand- 
ing and forth-setting- of God's word, I have 
shown good will, — as it has pleased God to 
give me grace, — according to my judgment, 
to open and make patent a way whereby 
just trial in some part may be had of the 
same : and that by an oration set forth in 
your favours, contrary the railing, reason- 
ing, and doctrine of those who are reck- 
oned to be chief ministers and preachers to 
the congregation ; so that I by accusation of 
their wicked and ungodly doctrine, thraw- 
ing [twisting] the scripture of Almighty 
God by [beside] the godly meaning of the 
same : and they by the contrary defending 
their doctrine and doings, your pretence 
toward the just trial of the true under- 
standing of God's word may come to some 
pass ; not doubting but it is your LL. will 
and mind that the truth be tried after the 
manner, rather nor that Christian men shall 
be compelled in their conscience, but [with- 
out] other measure or reason to gainstand the 



same. If your LL. or any others will find 
fault that I dare be so bold to impugn or 
accuse your preachers and ministers, be- 
cause it is thought odious that any man 
should take the place or personage upon 
him to be an accuser, truly, and ye will be 
so good as diligently to mark and consider 
this our godly pretence, ye shall perceive 
that we do rather clothe ourself with [as- 
sume] the personage of a defender of the 
truth nor accuser of the verity, by reason, 
accusation, and inveighing against all false 
and ungodly doctrine, may properly be 
called just defence of the verity; where- 
fore, God willing, for bud [bribe] nor 
boast, while that my tongue may stir, I 
intend not to desist ; praying the good 
Lord to illuminate your hearts and ours, 
with his spirit of verity, in such a manner 
as this our godly pretence may be profi- 
table to your LL. and all others, and ac- 
ceptable to Almighty God, who of his infi- 
nite mercy and grace might give you and 
me, and all Christian men, everlasting life. 
Amen. 



AN ORATION 



IN FAVOUR OF ALL THOSE OF THE CONGREGATION, EXHORTING THEM TO ESPY HOW 
WONDERFULLY THEY ARE ABUSED BY THEIR DECEITFUL PREACHERS, 

SET FORTH 

BY MASTER QUENTIN KENNEDY, 

COMMEND ATOR OF CROSSRAGUELL, THE YEAR OF GOD 1561. 



Moved and constrained, not only by natu- 
ral affection, through tenderness of blood, 
which is betwixt me and diverse noblemen 
of the congregation, but rather compelled 
in my conscience, I have thought expe- 
dient to bestow and apply the talent and 
grace which God has given me, — if there 
be any, — in such manner as may be to the 
glory of God, true setting forth of his 
word to those which are abused with false, 
wicked, and ungodly doctrine ; specially in 
this most dangerous time, whereunto all 
heresies appear to be assembled and ga- 
thered together, as an arrayed host, to in- 
vade, oppress, and utterly downthrow the 
true faith and religion of Christian men, 
so dearly coft [bought] with the precious 
blood and death of Jesus Christ our Sa- 
viour : and to the effect that we may, by 
God's grace and favour, fulfil this our godly 
pretence and purpose, shortly will we call 
to remembrance a notable syllogism, or 
argument, set forth by a famous preacher, 
called John Knox, in his sermon against 
the mass, in manner as after follows. 

All worshipping, honouring, or service 
invented by the brain of man in the reli- 
gion of God, without his own express com- 
mandment, is idolatry : the mass is invent- 
ed by the brain of man, without any com- 
mandment of God, therefore it is idolatry. 

Have patience, beloved brethren in Jesus 
Christ, and suffer me to decypher and de- 
clare this disguised syllogism, and, God 
willing, I shall make you clearly under- 
stand if the same be godly, properly, and 
learnedly applied for confirmation of his 
purpose, to prove the mass idolatry. As 



to the first part of his syllogism, where he 
does affirm all worshipping of God invent- 
ed by the brain of man without express 
command of God to be idolatry, it is as 
false as God's word is true ; for why did 
not Abel, Abraham, Noah, and diverse 
others of the old fathers, invent means and 
w r ays to the worshipping of God without 
express command of God, and was accep- 
table to the Lord God, as the Old Testa- 
ment teaches us ?* Did not Cornelius the 
centurion in likewise invent means and 
ways to the worshipping of God, with- 
out express command of God, which was 
acceptable to God, as the New Testa- 
ment plainly teaches us r Thus may we 
clearly perceive that this wicked syllogism 
above rehearsed is express against the 
scripture of Almighty God, both Old Tes- 
tament and New. Secondly, to prove his 
false and wicked syllogism, improperly 
calls he to remembrance the scripture of 
Almighty God, where mention is made 
how king Saul made sacrifice unto God of 
his own brain, and was not acceptable to 
the Lord God. — Mark this place of the 
scripture, and it shall be easily perceived 
! that it is always improperly applied ; for 
why ? his syllogism makes mention of the 
worshipping of God invented by the brain 
of man, w ithout express command of God ; 
and this place of scripture testifies plainly 
of the worshipping of God invented by the 

* So, it seems, Abel, and the patriarchs 
found out for themselves the way of worship- 
ping God by sacrifice ; which is the same as to 
say, they found out the way of salvation, with- 
out God having revealed it to them! ! The case: 
of Cornelius is no better. — Ed. 



534 



AN ORATION 



brain of man, expressly contrary to the 
command of God. And so may we clearly 
understand that this first part of his syllo- 
gism differs far from the testimony of scrip- 
ture, adduced by him for confirmation of 
the same; because there is a great differ- 
ence betwixt the worshipping- of God in- 
vented by man, without express command 
of God, and the worshipping of God in- 
vented by man, expressly contrary to the 
command of God ; the one may never 
stand with the scripture - 3 the other agrees 
with the scripture, both Old Testament 
and New, as I have already declared. 
Thirdly, it is to be marked how this testi- 
mony of scripture, where mention is made 
how king Saul made sacrifice unto God, is 
improperly applied to prove the mass ido- 
latry, because Saul committed no idolatry, 
albeit he worshipped God contrary to his 
command; for why idolatry is to ascribe 
God's glory to any other nor to God him- 
self, or to worship any other as God ; 
which Saul did not, because he made his 
sacrifice and oblation to the living God, 
wherethrough he committed no idolatry : 
wherefore it is manifest, that this testi- 
mony of scripture is improperly applied 
for probation of idolatry. And to be as- 
sured of the same, ye shall mark the words 
of Samuel the prophet, speaking unto 
Saul : " Thou art become a fool," says 
Samuel, " that hast not observed the pre- 
cepts of the Lord, which he has command- 
ed thee." Mark how Samuel found fault 
with Saul, because that Saul brake the 
commandment of God, and not that he com- 
mitted idolatry, for all breaking of the com- 
mandment of God is not idolatry, but all 
idolatry is breaking of the commandment ; 
which difference this subtle reasoner — 
appearingly — has not diligently made ; and 
albeit the scripture does affirm that stub- 
bornness is as the wickedness of idolatry, 
nottheless stubbornness is not idolatry. 
Likewise the scripture does call disobe- 
dience as is the sin of witchcraft, yet diso- 
bedience is not witchcraft. Thus may we 
perceive, how men unlearned are ofttimes 
deceived by the scriptures falsely applied. 
Now do I appeal the conscience of all 
those of the congregation to be equal 



judges, and discern if this syllogism above 
rehearsed be godly, properly, and learnedly 
applied, for confirmation of Knox's wicked 
opinion against the blessed sacrifice of the 
mass. For Christ's sake take heed how 
miserably ye are deceived by the deceitful 
doctrine of your devout doctor, of whom 
some of you have intolerable vain persua- 
sion, thinking him to have the Spirit of 
God, as had Peter or Paul. Did ever 
Peter or Paul stir up sedition amongst the 
people of God by false application of scrip- 
tures, as your doctor has done, likeas I 
have already manifestly and abundantly 
proven ? Did ever Peter or Paul stir up 
disobedience by injurious and blasphemous 
crying out, but shame, with open chafts 
[jaws], against the magistrates, — and that 
undeserved, — as did your pestilent preacher 
in plain pulpit cry out, but [without] mea- 
sure or mercy, in contrary our most noble 
and godly princess, affirming her grace — 
and that falsely and wickedly — to be 
nursed and upbrought in idolatry, per- 
suading to all men rather to shed their 
blood, nor they should suffer the mass to 
be stirred up again ? Lord God, what 
Christian man's heart, yea, or what loving- 
subject, may with patience hear this in- 
tolerable, bloody, blasphemation, fury, and 
wodness [madness] ? Does not the scrip- 
ture plainly forbid us to blaspheme the 
magistrates ? Have pity, have pity for 
Christ's sake, have pity and commisera- 
tion of your own souls, and be not abused 
on this manner, with your deceitful wind- 
fallen preacher,* not knowing wherefrom 
he comes nor by what order. 

Now will we call to remembrance ano- 
ther testimony of scripture, improperly ap- 
plied, whereby Knox, and divers others 
factious preachers to the congregation, have 
stirred up sedition amongst the members 
of Jesus Christ, which is a familiar fault to 
him, and all deplored heretics, which ever 
have been since the faith first began. It is 
written in the scripture of Almighty God, 
how the Lord commanded to destroy the 
idolaters, and all places whereinto their 



* That is, one fallen from the clouds. 



BY QUENTIN KENNEDY. 



535 



idols were had in reverence, and honoured 
as the living God, wherewith has Knox 
and divers others, malheureux [unhappy or 
miserable] preachers to the congregation, 
stirred up with zeal but [without] know- 
ledge, to wreck a great part of the policy of 
this realm: wherefore, in favour of the 
congregation, we shall show good will, 
according to our understanding, to make 
them clearly to consider, how improperly, 
falsely, and wickedly, are these places of 
scripture gathered, and applied to persuade 
this wicked pretence and opinion. Truth 
it is, the Lord commanded to destroy the 
idolaters, and all places whereinto their 
idols were had in reverence, and honoured 
as the living God, and that justly, by rea- 
son they biggit [built] their temples, and all 
other places of prayer, to the intent that 
their idols should be worshipped thereunto 
as the living God. By the contrary, I am 
more than assured, there was never Chris- 
tian men which ever built a temple or 
kirk, or any other places of prayers, but to 
the intent that the living God should be 
duly worshipped thereinto : wherefore, it 
were the duty of all Christian men, to 
whom it appertains to take order in mat- 
ters concerning religion, in case there 
were abusion, to correct the abusion con- 
form to the practice of the evangel, and not 
to make plain destruction misorderly, as 
men do in those days. Did not our Sa- 
viour correct the abusion, which he found 
in the temple dedicate to the honour of 
God, without destruction of the same ? 
whereby we are manifestly instructed, that 
all temples and places, built by Christian 
men, to the honour of God, — in case they 
were abused, — are to be corrected, and not 
utterly destroyed, as places built by the 
idolaters to idols. Thus may we clearly 
perceive what abomination and wickedness, 
what fury and madness, ofttimes proceed 
of thrawn [perverse] interpretation, and 
improper application of the scriptures of 
Almighty God. If Knox, or any other, 
will affirm, that the temples and kirks of 
Christian men are to be destroyed as 
houses of idolatry, bec ause the mass is said 
and honoured in them, which he calls ido- 
latry, it is as false as God is true ; for why ? 



the mass was instituted by Jesus Christ our 
Saviour, in his last supper, as God willing, 
we shall make the congregation and all 
others clearly to understand, by our little 
work, which is all ready to be set forth 
concerning the sacrifice of the mass. If 
it had pleased God, in due time to have 
stirred up the hearts of those of the con- 
gregation, diligently to have espied and 
marked how this testimony of scripture, 
and divers others, are perversely applied 
by their seditious preachers, contrary to the 
godly meaning of the same, then had not 
the policy of this realm been put to utter 
confusion and wrakment [destruction], as it 
is, and that not without great calamity, 
misery, and hurt of the commonwealth. 
Then had not the antiquities and monu- 
ments of this realm been shamefully de- 
stroyed, w hich in all other realms are high- 
ly prized and regarded, by all men of godly 
learning and judgment. Then had not so 
many poor men died miserably under dykos 
through hunger, cold, and poverty, for lack 
of charity, which is waxed cold through 
the iniquity of these pestilent preachers. 
Then had not honest men been banished 
from their living, in contrary to all good rea- 
son, kindness, and conscience. Then had 
not such fremmitness [alienations] been 
amongst Christian men, amongst whom 
God and nature require more tenderness, 
favour, and heartliness. Then had not 
such suspicion been amongst the nobility 
of this realm, every one looking daily for 
others' wrackment and mischief. Then had 
not been such intolerable disobedience in 
contrary to all magistrates both spiritual 
and temporal, which of all sins most horri- 
bly stirs up the ire and wrath of Almighty 
God, as the scripture plainly teaches us, 
conform to the words of the Apostle, say- 
ing, " He that resists unto the higher power, 
resists unto God, and works his own dam- 
nation." I will not be so bold, because it 
is God's private, to aggrege [aggravate] the 
incredible and wonderful mistemperance of 
the air, which continually has been in this 
realm since this devil's dangerous dance first 
began. Alas ! alas ! with sorrowful heart, 
weeping, and tears, I am constrained to 
desist from further aggravation of this 



536 



AN ORATION 



miserable purpose .• for if I had all the elo- 
quence that ever had Cicero or Demos- 
thenes, I am not able to describe the hun- 
dredth part of the same. Notwithstanding, 
if I were of worthiness to give counsel, to 
those to whom it appertains to take order 
toward the great misorder which has been, 
and is stirred up daily in this realm, — by 
Knox and other factious preachers, — I 
would wish that they should show their cle- 
mency, mercy, and gentleness, to the sub- 
jects thereof, as may stand with the com- 
monweal of the same, because the fault, 
principally, in times bypast, was in the ma- 
gistrates, which did not provide such suffi- 
cient preachers and pastors as were able to 
have done their debt and deuor [duty] to 
the flock of Jesus Christ committed to their 
cure, whereof but [without] doubt has pro- 
ceeded chiefly a great part of the misorder : 
for it is ofttimes seen, because the higher 
powers and magistrates do not provide 
sufficient pastors and preachers, which are 
able to give sufficient instruction to the 
subjects first to do their debt and duty to 
Almighty God, thereafter to the magis- 
trates, God permits and suffers his sub- 
jects to rebel, and be disobedient to the 
laws and commandments, not only of the 
higher powers but also to the command- 
ments of Almighty God, taking the place 
of authority misorderly upon themselves, 
which is one of the chief punishments per- 
mitted by God to come upon tke magis- 
trates for their negligence. The example 
is so familiar, that we mister not [are not 
careful] to take pains not to be curious in 
cersing [exposing] of the same, praying 
God this fault be mended in time com- 
ing by the magistrates present; for I dare 
boldly say, unto the time that sufficient 
preachers and pastors be stirred up to feed 
the flock of Jesus Christ, shall never here- 
sy be suppressed, nor misorder flemit [ex- 
tinguished! out of the kirk of God. 

To testify the favour and great good 
will that I bare to the congregation, I will 
make them to consider how incredibly and 
wonderfully they are circumvented, abused, 
and deceived, and that not without great 
danger to their souls, by their mischeant 
[mischievous] ministers, in ministration of 



their communion. And for the more per- 
fect understanding of the same, I will call 
to remembrance the sayings of which are 
written to the reader, in their book called 
the Form of Prayers, as after follows, viz. 
" As for the words of the Lord's supper, we 
rehearse them not because they should 
change the substance of the bread and 
w T ine, or that the repetition thereof, with 
the intent of the sacrificer, should make 
the sacrament, as the papists falsely be- 
lieve.'' Lord God, what devilish disdain is 
this ! which constrains them to alter the or- 
dinance of Jesus Christ our Saviour, to- 
ward the ministration of his sacrament ! 
Did not our Saviour command, his Apostles 
to do as he did, saying, " Do this in re- 
membrance of me ?" Did not our Saviour 
consecrate the bread and wine by these 
words, saying, " This is my body ?" why 
then will your wicked ministers be so 
blinded, through disdain, that they will not 
consecrate the bread and wine, rehearsing 
these words, " This is my body," as Christ 
did ? Dare ye be bold to say, that Christ 
consecrated not the bread and "wane by 
these words, and that this term consecrate 
is lately invented by the papists ? I will 
call to remembrance the ancient godly 
writer Chrysostome, to bear witnessing be- 
twixt you and me, toward the use and 
understanding of this profound mystery, 
speaking on this manner : " It is not man 
that makes our Lord's body and blood of 
the bread and wine set forth upon the table 
to be consecrated, but it is Christ who was 
crucified for us. The words are pronounc- 
ed of the priest, and the bread and wine are 
consecrated by God's words and grace : 
he said, This is my body. The bread and 
wine which are set forth are consecrated by 
this word." Hitherto Chrysostome. Mark 
how this godly doctor and bishop xj. e lvij 
[eleven hundred and fifty-seven] years by- 
past testifies, that the bread and wine are 
consecrated by the words of the last sup- 
per. And ye think no shame falsely to 
affirm these words to be lately invented by 
the papists. Ambrose, a godly doctor, ap- 
proven by the kirk of God xj. c lxxvj 
[1176] years bypast, writes on this manner: 
" Before that it be consecrate it is bread, 



BY QUENTIN KENNEDY. 



537 



but after that Christ's words be come there- 
to, it is Christ's body." Cyprian, who was 
murdered for the faith of Jesus Christ xii. c 
iiij.* xvj [129G] years bypast, writes on 
this manner : " This bread, which the Lord 
gave to his disciples, being changed not as 
toward the outward forms, but as concern- 
ing nature, is made flesh by the almighty 
power of the word." Mark what pre-emi- 
nence, force, and effect, this godly martyr 
reckons to be in the words of the last sup- 
per, which are so slenderly looked on by 
these new evangelists. Attour, does not 
Luther, who was a patron of all perverse- 
ness against the papists, affirm the real 
presence of the Lord's body in the sacra- 
ment of the altar ? and that by the force 
and effect of the words of the last supper, 
" This is my body," duly pronounced by 
the minister. Likewise Melancthon, speak- 
ing on this manner : " It is great fool-hard- 
ness to set forth any other doctrine concern- 
ing the understanding of this profound mys- 
tery of the supper of the Lord, nor such as 
has been approven by the kirk of old, 
affirming that it was ever the doctrine of 
the kirk, the real presence of the precious 
body and blood of our Saviour to be in this 
sacrament and to prove the same he calls 
to remembrance the ancient fathers of the 
kirk, such as Cyril, Cyprian, Chrysostome, 
Theophylact, and divers others. Thus 
may ye perceive what force and effect is 
reckoned to be in the words of the last 
supper, " This is my body," by those who 
in these days are plain enemies to the 
pope, and all papists. Truly, the bread and 
wine being ministered and received after 
this manner, by the which words of the 
last supper, " This is my body," are tint 
[lost] in the telling, may well be called and 
thought a simple sign indeed, or else no- 
thing but as other common bread and 
wine, whereby a Christian man is as much 
refreshed in his soul as a thirsty man in 
his body, going by a tavern beholding the 
sign of the same. Wherefore it is to be 
considered, that there are some signs which 
only signify, and are bare signs indeed, 
as is the sign of the tavern. There are some 
signs called effectual signs, which not only 
do signify, but also are the same thing 



which they do signify, as bread in a baker's 
booth window signifies bread to be sold, and 
is bread, the self wherewith men are corpo- 
rally refreshed : so the blessed sacrament of 
the altar is not only a sign of the Lord's 
body, but also the Lord's body is really 
contained therein, wherewith our souls and 
bodies are refreshed, comforted, and sup- 
ported by grace, by the which we may 
come to the eternal glory, conform to the 
words of our Saviour, saying, "He that 
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has 
everlasting life." Who likes to see farther 
in this purpose, let him read our little work 
concerning the real presence of [our Lord's] 
body in the sacrament of the altar. Now 
will we briefly collect the effect and sub- 
stance of our oration, contained in three 
heads. In the first head is abundantly and 
sufficiently confuted Knox's disguised syl- 
logism, which is his fundament whereupon 
he gathers and bigs all his fury, mockery, 
and despite against the mass, which being 
subverted, as it is indeed by scriptures pro- 
perly applied, the rest, by reason, bigged 
upon this ruinous fundament, goes to the 
ground. In the second head is made ma- 
nifest what calamity, misery, and hurt, has 
the commonwealth of this realm daily sus- 
tained and suffered by Knox and other fac- 
tious preachers to the congregation, thraw- 
ing [twisting] the scripture of Almighty 
God by [besides] the godly meaning of the 
same, to be shield and buckler to their 
lusts and heresies. Into the third, we tes- 
tify our affection and great good will to all 
those of the congregation, specially such as 
are unlearned, giving them clearly to un- 
derstand, how Knox, that mischievous mi- 
nister, and the rest, play the juggler in 
ministration of the blessed sacrament of the 
altar, contrary to the ordinance and insti- 
tution of Jesus Christ our Saviour, accor- 
ding to the doctrine and interpretation 
of all men of godly learning and good life, 
which is one of the chief sacraments where- 
by Jesus Christ our Saviour has appointed 
for salvation of man, the fruit of his death 
and passion, to be daily renewed and ap- 
plied. And thus we conclude, not doubt- 
ing but the [congregation, specially those 
[of learning and sober] judgment, will take 
3Y 



538 AN O 

this [our godly doctrine to heart] or at the 
least suspend their [opinion] and judgment, 
until the time their ministers and preachers 
make sufficient answer and confutation to 
this our oration. Wherefore, with all my 
heart exhorts, prays, and but mercy appeals 
their pestilent preachers, puffed up with 
vain glory, which reckon themselves of 
greater knowledge nor Christ's whole 
kirk, coming but [without] authority, 
subverting, suborning, and circumventing 
the simple people, cersing [seeking] their 
prey like the devil's wretches, barking 
boldly like bards,* against the blessed sacra- 
ment of the altar, the sacrifice of the mass, 
and all other godly ordinance of Jesus 
Christ and his kirk, to praise their wits 
and inginis [genius], and to stretch all their 



• In an insolent and petulant manner. " The 
bard was a person of great consequence with 
the chieftaiu, whose warlike deeds he celebrat- 
ed and transmitted to succeeding generations. 



RATION 

pens in me contrary, making the congrega- 
tion and all others to understand, if I do 
properly, truly, and godly, or not, inveigh 
against their devilish doctrine and doings. 
Failing thereof, recant, for shame, recant 
ye famous preachers, and come in obedience 
to the kirk of God, which ye have stub- 
bornly misknown this long time bypast, 
and that not without great danger to your 
own souls and many others, therefore re- 
cant, in time, recant, as ye love your salva- 
tion, and cry God mercy : to whom with 
the Son and Holy Ghost, be praise, honour, 
and glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 
" Progenies viperarum fugite a ventura 
ira, nam securis ad radicem arboris 
posita est, penitentiam agite. — Matth* 
iii." 



This order of men being admitted to such 
fami!iai-ity in great houses wouid retain their 
petulant manners, even after their consequence 
was gone."— Jamieson. 



HERE FOLLOWETH THE 

COPY OF THE REASONING 

WHICH WAS BETWIXT 

THE ABBOT OF CROSSRAGUELL AND JOHN KNOX, 

IN MAYBOLE, 

CONCERNING THE MASS, 

IN THE YEAR OF GOD, A THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED THREE SCORE AND TWO YEARS. 

Apocalypse XXII. 



" FOR I PROTEST UNTO EVERY MAN THAT HEARETH THE WORDS OF THE PROPHECY OF THIS BOOK, 
IF ANY MAN SHALL ADD UNTO THESE THINGS, GOD SHALL ADD UNTO HIM THE PLAGUES THAT 
ARE WRITTEN IN THIS BOOK." 



REASONING 

WHICH WAS BETWIXT THE 

ABBOT OF CROSSRAGUELL AND JOHN KNOX, 



JOHN KNOX UNTO THE READER WISHETH GRACE, MERCY, AND PEACE, FROM GOD THE 
FATHER, AND FROM OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WITH THE SPIRIT OF RIGHTEOUS 
JUDGMENT. 



After that the prophet Isaiah, in great ve- 
hemence, had rebuked the vanity of idols 
and idolaters, as in the fortieth and forty- 
first chapters of his prophecy doth appear, 
at last he bursteth forth in these words : — 
Let them bring forth their gods, saith he, 
that they may show unto us things that are 
to come, or let them declare unto us things 
that have been done before, &c. Show 
things that are to come, that we may un- 
derstand you to be gods, let you do either 
good or evil that we may declare it. By 
which words the prophet doth, as it were, 
in mockage, provoke idolaters and the idols 
to produce for themselves some evident 
testimonies by the which we might be as- 
sured that in them was power, and that 
their religion had approbation of God. 
Which, when they could not do, he is bold 
to pronounce this sentence: Behold you 
are of nothing, and your making" is of no- 
thing — abomination hath chosen you. In 
which words the prophet condemneth both 
the idols and the idolaters ; the idols, because 
they can declare nothing to prove any 
power or virtue to be in them why they 
should be worshipped as gods ; and the ido- 
laters, because from God's mouth they could 
bring no assurance of their adulterated and 
usurped religion. If this reasoning of the 
prophet had sufficient strength in his age 
to show the vanity of the idols, and the 
fanatic foolishness of such as worshipped 
them, then may the godly this day most as- 
suredly conclude against the great idol pre- 
sented by the papists to be worshipped in 
their mass, and against the patrons of the 



same, that it and they are Tain, foolish, 
odious, and abominable before God. It, be- 
cause it hath more makers than ever had 
the idols amongst the Gentiles ; and yet 
hath no greater power than they had ; al- 
beit it hath been worshipped as God him- 
self; and they, because they worshipped 
their own imagination, and the workman- 
ship of their own hands, without any assu- 
| ranee of God or of his word. If any think 
I that I speak more liberally than I am able 
\ to prove, let him consider what makers the 
idols of the Gentiles had, and what makers 
the god of bread hath, and then let the 

I 

power of both be compared, and let me be 
rebuked if I speak not the truth. The 
prophet in description of their vanities, 
maketh these degrees. " The earth bring- 
eth forth the tree, it groweth by mois- 
ture and natural wackness [humidity], it is 

i cut down by the hand of the hewer. A 
part thereof is burnt, a part spent in uses 
necessary to man, another part chosen to 
be made an idol. This is formed to the 
likeness of man or woman, and then set up 
and worshipped as a god." All these, and 
some more, shall we find to assist and con- 
cur in the making of this great god of bread. 

j The wheat is sown and nourished in the 
earth ; rain, dew, and heat bring it to ma- 

\ turity ; the reaper or shearer cutteth it 

' down, the cart or sledge, drawn by horse or 
some other beast, draweth it to the barn, or 

: to the barnyard ; the tasker or the foot of 
the ox treadeth it out ; the fan delivereth 
it from the chaff; the miller and the mill- 
stones by the help of wind or water, make 



542 



THE PROLOGUE. 



it to be meal ; the smith maketh the irons 
that give to that god his length and breadth, 
likeness and form; the fine substance of 
that god is neither wood, gold, nor silver, 
but water and meal made in manner of a 
dramock ; and then must the workmen 
take good heed to their hand ; for, if the 
fire be too hot, that god's skin must be 
burnt; if the irons be evil dight, his 
face will be blacked ; if in making the 
roundness, the ring be broken, then must 
another of his fellows receive that honour 
to be made a god ; and the crazed or crack- 
ed miserable cake, that once was in hope 
to be made a god, must be given to a baby- 
to play him withal. And yet is not all the 
danger past ; for, if there be not an anoint- 
ed priest to play his part aright, all the 
former artificers have lost their labour, for 
without him that god cannot he made : yea, 
if he have not intention to consecrate, the 
fashioned god remaineth bread, and so the 
blind people commit idolatry. 

These are the artificers and workmen 
that travail in making of this god : I think 
as many in number as the prophet reciteth 
to have travailed in making of the idols ; 
and if the power of both shall be compared, 
I think they shall be found in all things 
equal, except that the God of bread is sub- 
ject unto more dangers than were the idols 
of the Gentiles. Men made them ; men 
make it. They were deaf and dumb ; it 
cannot speak, hear, nor see. Briefly, in in- 
firmity they wholly agree, except that, as I 
have said, the poor god of bread is most 
miserable of all other idols ; for, according 
to their matter, whereof they are made, 
they will remain without corruption many 
years. But within one year that god will 
putrefy, and then he must be burnt; they 
can abide the vehemency of the wind, frost, 
rain or snow ; but the wind will blow that 
god to the sea, the rain or the snow will 
make it dagh [dough] again ; yea, which is 
most of all to be feared, that god is a prey 
— if he be not well kept — to rats and mice ; 
for they will desire no better dinner than 
white round gods enow. But O then, 
what becometh of Christ's natural body ? 
By miracle it flies to the heaven again, if the 
papists teach truly ; for how soon soever the 



mouse takes hold, so soon flieth Christ a<, ay 
and letteth her gnaw the bread. A bold and 
puissant mouse, but a feeble and miserable 
god. Yet, would I ask a question : whether 
hath the priest or the mouse greater power ? 
By his words it is made a god ; by her teeth 
it ceaseth to be a god : let them advise, and 
then answer. If any think that I ought 
not to mock that which the world so long 
hath holden, and great princes yet hold in 
so great veneration, I answer, that not only 
I, but also all godly, ought not only to 
mock, but also to curse and detest whatso- 
ever is not God, and yet usurpeth the name, 
power, and honour of God ; and also, that 
we ought both to mock, gainsay, and abhor 
all religion obtruded to the people without 
assurance of God and his word, having nei- 
ther respect to antiquity, to multitude, to 
authority nor estimation of them that main- 
tain the same. The idols of the Gentiles 
were more ancient than is the idol in the 
mass. Their worshippers, maintainers, and 
patrons were more in multitude, greater in 
authority, and more excellent before the 
world than ever was any that bowed to that 
idol. And yet feared not the prophet 
Isaiah to mock and jest them, yea, sharply 
to rebuke them in these words : " They 
are dung [driven] backward with shame ; 
they shall be ashamed whosoever trusteth 
in a graven image, and that say to the mol- 
ten image, ye are our gods." All the 
makers of graven images are vain, their 
pleasing things shall not profit them ; for 
they themselves are witnesses to their idols, 
that they neither see, nor understand any 
thing, and therefore they shall be ashamed. 
" Who then," saith he, " shall forge a god, 
or a molten image that profiteth nothing ? 
behold all those that are of the fellowship 
thereof shall be confounded, for the work- 
men themselves are men ; let them all be 
gathered together and stand up, yet they 
shall fear and be confounded together." 
And when he hath fully painted forth their 
vanity, he concludeth : " They have not 
understanding, for God hath shut up their 
eyes that they cannot see, and hearts that 
they cannot understand ; none considereth 
in his heart, I have burnt half of it, even in 
the fire, and have baken bread also upon 



THE PROLOGUE. 



543 



the coals thereof ; I have roasted flesh and 
eaten it, and shall I make the residue there- 
of an abomination, shall I bow to the stock 
of a tree ?" &c. Thus, I say, we see how 
that the prophet doth triumph against the 
idolaters, in mocking of their madness, and 
painting forth of their vanity. Who then 
can justly be offended against me or any 
other, albeit, by all means possible, we let 
the blind world see the vanity of that idol, 
considering that by it hath the glory of God 
been more obscured than ever it was by 
any idol in the earth ; for to none was ever 
absolutely given the name, nature, power, 
and honour of God but to that idol alone. 
If any think that the scriptures of God give 
unto them patrocinie [authority], either to 
believe Christ's natural body to be there, 
after the words of consecration, as they call 
them ; either yet to believe that Christ 
Jesus, in his last supper, did offer unto 
God his Father his body and blood under 
the forms of bread and wine, he is miserably 
deceived ; for the scripture maketh no 
mention of conversion or transubstantiation 
of bread into Christ's natural body, but 
witnesseth that bread remained bread, yea, 
even when the faithful receive the same, as 
the apostle affirmeth in these words : " The 
bread that we break, is it not the commu- 
nion of Christ's body ? the cup of bless- 
ing which we bless, is it not the commu- 
nion of the blood of Christ ? we many are 
one bread, and one body, because we are all 
partaker of one bread." And after he 
sayeth : " As oft as ye shall eat of this 
bread, and drink of this cup, ye show the 
Lord's death till he come. Let, therefore, 
a man try himself, and so let him eat of this 
bread, and drink of this cup," &c. By these 
words we may clearly understand what 
judgment the apostle had of the substance 
of that sacrament, even in the very action 
of the same ; and as touching that foolish 
opinion, that Christ Jesus did offer his 
body unto God his Father, under the forms 
of bread and wine, &c. — which the papists 
make the ground of their mass — what suf- 
frage that ever it hath by man, of God nor 
of his word it hath none. The scripture 
doth witness that God the Father gave his 
Son unto the world, that the world might 



be saved by him, and that Jesus Christ did 
offer himself once unto God, for the de- 
struction of sin, and for to take away the 
sins of many ; but that ever he did offer 
himself under the forms of bread and wine, 
as the papists allege, the Holy Ghost doth 
no where make mention ; and, therefore, 
the faithful not only may reject it as the 
dream and invention of man, but also are 
bound to abhor and detest it as a doctrine 
brought in by Satan, to deceive such as de- 
light not in the verity of God, to whose 
mouth and voice are the faithful only bound. 
Mr Quentin, that great patron of the mass, 
in this subsequent conference, adduces for 
the probation of his affirmative, " Christ 
Jesus did offer," said he, " unto God his 
Father, in his last supper, his body and 
blood, under the forms of bread and wine," 
&c. For the probation hereof, I say he ad- 
duces the fact of Melchisedec that brought 
forth bread and wine, &c. But how soon 
he is ashamed thereof, and how unable he 
is to prove that which he allegeth to be 
most easy to be proven, the diligent reader 
may espy. For perceiving himself unable 
ever to prove that either Christ Jesus, or 
yet Melchisedec, did make any such obla- 
tion, as he and the fond papists do imagine, 
he runneth straight to his fortress and 
shameless shift. " O," sayeth M. Quentin, 
" I have hurt ray own cause, I was carried 
away with zeal, &c. It appertained not 
unto me to prove any thing, but to defend 
my articles as they are written." If M. 
Q. and his collaterals will resolve me a 
doubt, then will I give my judgment whe- 
ther he ought to prove, or to defend only. 
My doubt is this, whether are M. Quentin's 
articles necessary to be believed to salva- 
tion, or are they such as without danger of 
damnation we may doubt of them ? If we 
may doubt of them and not offend God, 
then assuredly I think that M. Quentin 
may hold them for truth, till that the false- 
hood of them be manifestly declared. But 
if they be such as we are bound to believe 
as a truth of God, and a doctrine necessary 
to salvation, then is M. Quentin bound to 
show to us that God hath pronounced them, 
and not man ; which if he be not able to do, 
and that in plain and expressed words, then 



544 



THE ABBOT'S FIRST LETTER, 



must we reject them as deceivable and 
false, according as we be taught by our 
master, Christ Jesus, saying, " My sheep 
hear my voice, but a stranger they will not 
hear." If M. Q. will not be reputed a false 
prophet, and one that teacheth lies in the 
name of God, and so expose himself to God's 
hot displeasure, he may propone no doc- 
trine to the church of God, the assurance 
whereof he bringeth not from the mouth of 
God. If M. Q. were brawling in the 
schools, or bragging of knowledge amongst 
the philosophers, I would patiently abide 
that he should affirm as many paradoxes as 
pleaseth him ; but in the church of God to 
affirm that God hath spoken, when God 



hath not spoken, or done that which he is 
not able to prove by his plain word that he 
hath done ; so to do, I say, is altogether in- 
tolerable ,• and, therefore, let M. Q. search 
the scriptures for the probation of his affir- 
mative, or else I will cry as loud as I can, 
that he hath lost his cause, and is convict- 
ed a manifest liar, in that he hath affirmed 
Jesus to have done that which no scripture 
doth witness that he hath done. Let all 
men, therefore, that will not follow lies, 
detest the mass, till that it find a ground 
within the book of God, as I am assured it 
never shall; and that shall the reader 
more easily perceive by this conference that 
folio weth. Read, and then judge. 



THE 



ABBOT'S FIRST LETTER. 



M. QUENTIN. 
John Knox, I am informed that you are 
come into this country to seek disputation, 
and in special to make impugnation to cer- 
tain articles which were pronounced and 
rehearsed by me to my flock, in Kirkos- 
wald, on Sunday last was, truly I will not 
refuse disputation with you, but most ear- 
nestly and affectionately covet the same, so 
it may be to the glory of God, and trial of 
the truth, like as I have, the rest of the mi- 
nisters, which have been here, and could 
have none. Wherefore, if it please you this 
day eight days, in any house of Maybole you 
please, provided always there be no convo- 
cation passing twelve, sixteen, or twenty on 
either side, which is a sufficient number to 
bear witness betwixt us, I shall enter into 
reasoning w r ith you, and, God willing, shall 
defend the said articles by the manifest 
word of God, and all good reason, as they 
are written, and in special the article con- 
cerning the mass. You shall be sure you 
shall receive no injuries of me, nor none 
that me pertains, nor no kind of molesta- 
tion in word nor work, but familiar, formal. 



and gentle reasoning; and think not that 
this is done for drifting of time, but by rea- 
son I am phibeit [prohibit] and forbidden 
by my lord of Cassilis, in name and behalf 
of the council, to enter into reasoning with 
you or any other, till his returning into the 
country, whose command I have promised 
to obey ; nottheless and [if] he come not 
betwixt and the said day, I shall discharge 
my promise to him with diligence, where- 
through you, and all others, may see how 
desirous I am that the truth come to a trial, 
but [without] drifting of time. Also you 
may be sure that I am very desirous to have 
my lord of Cassilis, as my chief and brother's 
son, and others my brethren and friends, 
of whom I have charge, to be auditors, 
wherethrough, if it please God, they might 
have profit of our reasoning ; and if you 
please to accept this condition, send me 
your promise under your hand write, and I 
shall send you the foresaid articles to advise 
on, till this day eight days ; and in the mean- 
time you may provide to be auditors such 
as you please, conforming to the number 
above rehearsed, and I the like. And if 



ANSWER TO THE ABBOT'S FIRST LETTER. 



545 



you will nowise enter into reasoning with- 
out convocation of strangers, the whole 
world may see it is but perturbation, tu- 
multuation, and cummer [trouble or incon- 
venience] that you seek, under the pretence 
of the true setting forth of God's word and 
glory ; and this I certify you, I Avill not 
enter into disputation with you, if you 
come with convocation, for I will nowise 
be the instrument of discord; and as it is 
not necessary you come with convocation of 
strangers, by reason you have my lord of 
Cassilis' promise, which is sufficient warrant 



to you, and all the rest within Carrick ; 
and in the meantime, you 'please to receive 
a f confutation of your syllogism which I 
have sent to you with the laird of Caprin- 
ton, elder, and if you defend the same well, 
you are more able to make impugnation to 
mine. Of these heads I require your 
answer in write, with this bearer, with 
diligence, wherethrough I may send away 
to my lord of Cassilis, as said is. And so 
fare you well. Of Crossraguell, this Sun- 
day the 6th of September. 

Crossraguell. 



THE ANSWER TO 



THE ABBOT OF CROSRAGUELL'S FIRST LETTER. 



JOHN KNOX. 
The truth is, that the cause of my coming 
into these parts was not of purpose to seek 
disputation, but simply to propone unto the 
people Jesus Christ crucified, to be the only 
Saviour of the world ; and to teach, farther, 
what are the fruits that God requireth of 
the members of his dear Son, &c. But 
hearing that you had in open audience pro- 
claimed blasphemous articles, making pro- 
mise to give further declaration of certain 
of them this last Sunday, likewise in open 
assembly, I could not but of conscience, 
offer myself to be your adversary in that 
case. And thus far for the cause of my 
coming yesterday to Kirkoswald. 

That you have required disputation of 
the ministers, of whom some are yet pre- 
sent, and could have none, I hardly believe 
it ; the contrary being assured to me by 
divers of honest report. That you offer 
unto me familiar, formal, and gentle rea- 
soning, with my whole heart 1 accept the 
condition ; for assuredly, my lord, so I style 
you by reason of blood, and not of office, 
chiding and brawling I utterly abhor, but 
that you require it to be secret, I neither 
see just cause why that you should require 
it, neither yet good reason why that I 



should grant it. If you fear tumult, as you 
pretend, that is more to be feared where 
many of evil mind have a few quiet and 
peaceable men in their danger, than where 
a just multitude may gainstand violence, if 
it be offered. Of my lord of Cassilis' pro- 
mise, I nothing doubt as touching my own 
person ; for I stand in the protection of the 
Almighty, to whom I render heartily thanks 
when his mercy and power boweth the 
hearts of men to assist the cause of the just. 
Eut I wonder with what conscience you 
can require private conference of those 
articles that you have publicly proponed. 
You have infected the ears of the simple. 
You have wounded the hearts of the godly, 
and you have spoken blasphemy in open 
audience. Let your own conscience now 
be judge, if we be bound to answer you in 
the audience of twenty or forty, of whom 
the one half are already persuaded in the 
truth, and the other perchance so addicted 
to your error, that they will not be content 
that light be called light, and darkness, 
darkness. If you be a pastor, as you brag 
[boast] yourself to be, you ought to have 
respect to your whole flock, yea, to the in- 
struction of all those that are offended at 
your blasphemies. But now to grant unto 
3 z 



546 



THE ABBOT'S SECOND LETTER. 



you more than reason, I am content of the 
greatest number appointed by you, provided 
first, that the place be St John's church in 
Ayr, which is a place more convenient than 
any house in Maybole. Secondarily, that 
noters and scribes be appointed, faithfully 
to take and commit to register, in open 
audience, both your reasons and mine, that 
so we may as well avoid confusion and vain 
repetition in speaking 1 , as foreclose the di- 
versity of rumours which may arise by 
reason of oblivion, what hath been spoken 
by either party. The day by you required 
I cannot keep, by reason of my former pro- 
mise made to the master of Maxwell, and 



1 unto the churches of Nithsdale and Gallo- 
way ; but if you will send unto me your 
j articles before the 15th of this instant, I 
J shall appoint the day, which, by the grace 
of God, I shall not fail. If you send your 
articles to the bailies of Ayr, it shall be 
sufficient discharge for you. 'And thus 
craving your answer, I heartily desire God, 
if his good pleasure be, so to mollify your 
heart, that you may prefer his eternal truth, 
contained and expressed in his holy word, 
to your own preconceived opinion. From 
Ayr, this 7th of September, 1562. In haste. 
" Yours to command in all godliness, 

" John Knox.'* 



the 



ABBOT'S SECOND LETTER; 

WHEREUNTO ANSWER IS MADE BRIEFLY TO EVERY HEAD OF THE SAME. 



M. Quentin. — John Knox, I received your 
writing this Monday the 7th of September, 
and considered the heads thereof. And, 
first, where you say your coming into this 
country was not to seek disputation, but 
simply to propone unto the people Jesus 
Christ crucified, to be the only Saviour of 
the world. Praise be to God, that was no 
newing* in this country, or [before] you 
were born. 

John Knox. — I greatly doubt if ever 
Christ Jesus was truly preached by a pa- 
pistical prelate or monk. 

M. Quentin. — Secondly, where you al- 
lege that I proclaimed in open audience 
blasphemous articles — he is an evil judge 
that condemns ere he knows — then had been 
time to you to have called them blasphe- 
mous when you had seen them, read them, 
and sufficiently confuted them. 

John Knox. — I had heard them ; and, 
therefore, I feared not to pronounce them 
such as they are. 



* This word is still used in Ayrshire for any 
thing new — Ed. 



M. Quentin. — Thirdly, Where you al- 
lege that I promised declaration of the said 
articles on Sunday last, was my promise was, 
as my hand write will testify, to do the 
same, provided always there had been no 
convocation of strangers, wherethrough 
tumultuation and cummer might follow ; 
and so was I exonered of my promise, in 
that you came there convoyed with five 
or six score of strangers. 

John Knox. — I lay the night before in 
Maybole, accompanied with fewer than 
twenty. 

M. Quentin. — Apparently more like to 
seek perturbation and cummer, than the 
glory of God. As I was inhibit by my 
lord of Cassilis to [till] his return into the 
country, as I wrote to you of before, for 
avoiding of cummers. Ferdlie [fourthly], 
If I required disputation of John Willock, 
and also of Mr George Hay, if they had 
ought to say to any works set forth by me, 
I report me to the auditory; and also, 
if they refused or not, to the time they had 
advised with the council and the brethren. 

John Knox. — Mr George Hay offered 



THE ABBOT'S 

unto you disputation, but you fled the 
barras.* 

M. Quentin. — Wliere you say you can- 
not perceive wherefore I should desire 
secret disputation, truly it is not secret 
that is in the presence of forty persons. 
Where you say you doubt not of my lord 
of Cassilis' promise, as touching your own 
person, truly, apparently you refer also 
little to his promise, as you may, consider- 
ing you come convoyed with such a num- 
ber of strangers, as is above rehearsed. 
Where you say you stand in the protection 
of the Almighty, so do all good Christian 
men as you ; but, apparently, you put as 
little in God's hands as you may, that go 
accompanied in every place wheresomever 
you go with such multitude. Whether it 
be for devotion, or protection, or rather 
tumultuation, God knows, for I know not. 

John Knox. — You do well to suspend 
judgment. 

M. Quentin. — Where you wonder with 
what conscience I can require private con- 
ference, truly I have many good reasons 
moving me ; first, to avoid tumultuation, 
perturbation, and cummer. 

John Knox — Your reasons are as stark 
[strong] to yourself, as you think them. 

M. Quentin. — Secondly, That we may 
have a reasonable number that may bear 
witness of both our parties, but [without] 
clamour or tumultuation. Thirdly, I am 
certain if we come to the just trial of the 
truth, their man [must] be conference of 
many books, which cannot be done com- 
modiously in public audience. Attour 
[besides], it will be more handsome and 
easy for me, nor ministers, not [not to 
have] such crying out, as if it were in open 
audience ; for if the victory consist in cla- 
mour, or crying out, I will quit you the 
cause, but [without] farther play, and yet, 
praise be to God, I may whisper in such 
manner as I will be heard sufficiently in the 
largest house in all Carrick. 



* " Barras" — bounds, or lists for comba- 
tants— 

" We ping-vle not for specie na course to ryn, 
Bot we debait suld tMs burres within, 
With waupinuis kene, and with our birnist brands." 

Douglas' Virgil, 445. 25. 



SECOND LETTER. 5i7 

John Knox. — The larger house the bet- 
ter for the auditor and me. 

M. Quentin.— Where you say I have in- 
fected the ears of the simple, I have wound- 
ed the hearts of the godly, and I have spoken 
blasp "emy in open audience, I marvel how 
you forget yourself, chiding and railing in 
this manner. 

John Knox. — The speaking of the truth 
is chiding unto you. 

M. Quentin. — Considering you said a 
little before, you did abhor all chiding and 
railing ; but nature passes nurture with you. 

John Knox. — I will neither interchange 
nature nor nurture with you, for all the 
profits of Crossraguell. 

M. Quentin. — Wherefore I must bear 
with your babbling and barking, as do 
princes hear powers [perhaps, poor or infe- 
rior] magistrates, and many hundreds better 
nor I. Where you esteem me as a brag- 
ging pastor, saying, that I ought to have 
respect to my whole flock, it is question 
to me if it be the will of my flock to make 
open disputation in profound mysteries 
concerning the Christian religion ; but yet 
will I not refuse, if any man will make im- 
pugnation, but [without] convocation of 
strangers, or tumultuation. I have heard of 
public disputation in schools, but not before 
a vulgar and rude multitude of people. 

John Knox. — You are not then so well 
seen in the ancient writers as you brag. 

M. Quentin. — Where you desire me to 
come to dispute in St John's church of 
^y r > y° u may be sure I will not dispute 
with you there, for many good reasons, 
which to write were over prolix : but if you 
please to convene according to my first 
writing, I shall be ready at all times, upon 
eight days warning, and shall send you the 
articles eight days before to advise with. 
And so fare you well. — Of Crossraguell, with 
diligence, the same day and date. 

Crossraguell. 

John Knox. — This letter was none other- 
wise answered for that time, but by ap- 
pointing unto him the place, according to 
his own desire, albeit that no reason could 

; have required that of me. 



548 



ANSWER TO THE EARL OF CASSILIS' LETTER, 



THE 



EARL OF CASSILIS' LETTER. 



After hearty commendation, forasmuch as 
I understand there is a disputation appoint- 
ed betwixt you and the abbot of Cross- 
raguell, in Maybole, the 28th of this instant, 
to the which I am not willing that any of 
mine make disputation with you, except it 
come of your occasion, for I cannot under- 
stand that any erudition shall proceed to 
the auditors of the same, but rather contra- 
diction and tumult, the which I would 
should not be for your part, like as I am 
willing to cause the abbot of Crossraguell to 



desist. As to whatsoever that will proffer 
themselves to preach the true word, con- 
form to the consuetude of the realm, 
may do the same without impediment, as I 
wrote to you of before, in any of my 
rooms. And desire you to write an an- 
swer of this writing, and God keep you. 
Of St John's chapel, the 23d of September, 
1562. 

By your good friend, 

Cassilis. 



THE ANSWER TO 



MY LORD OF CASSILIS' WRITING. 



JOHN KNOX. 
After hearty commendation of my service 
unto your lordship, your lordship's letter, 
dated at St John's chapel, the 23d of this 
instant, received I in Ochiltree, the 25th of 
the same. As touching the disputation ap- 
pointed, the occasion did proceed of the 
abbot, who, in open audience of the people, 
did propone certain articles, whereof the 
most part contain deceivable doctrine, which 
nottheless he promised not only to explain, 
but also to maintain against any that would 
impugn the same. Whereof I being ad vertised, 
and so near in the country, could do no less 
than offer myself adversary to that doctrine, 
which I am assured shall be certain con- 
demnation to all those that without repent- 
ance depart this life infected with the same. 
And upon that motive I repaired to Kirk- 
cswald ; where, because the abbot com- 
peared not, I preached, and after the ser- 
mon, a servant of the abbot's presented 
unto me a letter, containing in effect, that 
as he had required disputation of the other 



ministers, so did he of me, and did appoint 
unto me that day eight days in Maybole* 
My answer was, that to dispute I was 
heartily content, but because I had ap- 
pointed the master of Maxwell to be in 
Dumfries that same day, I desired the day 
to be prolonged to my returning from 
Nithsdale. In the meantime, by letters 
passed betwixt us, the 28th of this instant is 
appointed, which day, by the grace of God, 
I mind to keep. Neither yet in my judg- 
ment is there any just fear of tumult, for 
the persons that shall convene with me 
will promise and keep all quietness, and of 
your lordship I nothing doubt but you will 
take such order with your friends, that by 
them there shall no occasion of trouble be 
offered ; and albeit that the erudition shall 
not perchance be such as the godly would 
desire, yet I doubt not, both the verity and 
the falsehood shall appear in their own 
colours, albeit not to all, yet to such as 
either have ears to hear the truth plainly 
spoken, or eyes to discern darkness from 



THE ABBOT'S 

light. And, therefore, I would most humbly 
require of your lordship rather to provoke 
and encourage your friend to the said dis- 
putation, than in any manner to stay him ; 
for if your lordship does consider, that 
while that he openly preaches one thing, 
and we another, that the hearts of the 
people are distracted, yea, and inflamed one 
against another, your lordship should rather 
fear tumult and trouble to ensue thereof, 
than of mutual conference in the audience 
of peaceable and quiet men. The number 
is not great that is admitted to hear, and 



THIRD LETTER. 549 

therefore trouble is less to be feared 
Please your lordship to • understand, that 
the verity ought to be to us more dear than 
our own lives, and therefore we may not 
leave the maintenance of the same for fear 
of that whereof the issue is in the hands of 
God, to whose protection I most heartily 
commit your lordship. Of Ochiltree, in 
haste, the same hour your lordship's letter 
was received. 1562. 

Your lordship's to command 
in all godliness, 

John Knox. 



THK 

ABBOT'S THIRD LETTER, 

ANSWERED BY MOUTH. 



M. QUENTIN. 
John Knox, I' perceive the policy used by 
you and others to make my own aye* my 
party. The last time you came into this 
country, I was persuaded by my lord of 
Cassilis not to rencounter you, or else, truly, 
you should not have passed unrencounter- 
ed as you did, but you shall be assured I 
shall keep day and place in Maybole, ac- 
cording to my writing, and [if] I have my 
life, and my feet loose, notwithstanding any 
writing that is coming to me from my lord 
of Cassilis, therefore keep tryste, and ex- 
cuse you not upon my lord of Cassilis' writ- 



* Perhaps earn, relative, or nephew, as Lord 
Cassilis was. — Ed. 



ing, notwithstanding that I know it is pur- 
chased by your policy to put me to shame, 
and yourself to advancement, which shall not 
lie in your power ; therefore I assure you, in 
case I should do the same with the hazard of 
my life, do you the like, without excuse. And 
so fare you well. Of Crossraguell, this 2ith 
of September, 1562. Attour, that there be 
no convocation, but conform to your writ- 
ing, or else thre* score at the most, of the 
which twenty to be auditors on either side. 

Crossraguell, 



* Probably this should be twe for two, other- 
wise there are twenty to be admitted who be- 
long to neither side. — Ed. 



THE 



ABBOT'S FOURTH LETTER. 



M. QUENTIN. 
John Knox and bailies of Ayr, this present 
is to advertise you that I received writing 



and credit with this gentleman from my 
lord of Cassilis, certifying to me that he 
will keep day appointed for our disputa- 



550 



ANSWER TO THE ABBOT'S FOURTH LETTER, 



tion ; therefore keep your promise, and I you well. Of Crossraguell, the 25th of 
pretend no joukrie [shuffling or evasion] by I September, 1562. 

my lord of Cassilis' writing. And thus fare | Crossraguell. 



THE ANSWER TO 

THE ABBOT'S FOURTH LETTER. 



John Knox. — To neither of these did I 
answer, otherwise than by appointing the 
day, and promising to keep the same. For 
I can patiently suffer wanton men to speak 
wantonly, considering that I had sufficiently 
answered my lord of Cassilis in that be- 
half. 

Some other letters are omitted, because 
they were of less importance. Follow the 
conditions : 

The day, hour, conditions, and number 
agreed upon for the conference betwixt Mr 
Quentin Kennedy, abbot of Crossraguell, 
and John Knox, minister at Edinburgh. 

The day is the 28th of September, 1562. 
The place the provost's place of Maybole. 
The hour to convene is at eight hours be- 
fore noon, the day foresaid. The number 
for every part shall be forty persons, be- 
sides their scribes and learned men, with so 
many more as the house may goodly hold, 



by the sight of my lord of Cassilis. And 
hereupon, both the said abbot and John 
Knox are wholly and fully agreed. In 
witness whereof they have subscribed these 
presents with their hands. At Maybole, 
the 27th of September, 1562. 

Crossraguell. 

John Knox. 

The number received within the house 
foresaid, and so many besides as pleased my 
lord and his friends, John Knox addressed 
him to make public prayer, whereat the 
abbot was sore offended at the first, but 
while the said John would in nowise be 
stayed, he and his gave audience; which 
being ended, the abbot said, " By my faith, 
it is well said." And so after that he had 
spoken certain words, he commanded one of 
his scribes to read openly his protestation 
as followeth. 



HERE FOLLOWS 



THE COPY OF THE REASONING 

WHICH WAS BETWIXT THE 

COMMENDATOR OF CROSSRAGUELL AND JOHN KNOX, 

IN MAYBOLE, 

CONCERNING THE MASS, 

IN THE YEAR OF GOD 1562. 



M. QUENTIN. 
Perceiving the great perturbation, contro- 
versy, and debate which is stirred up lately 
in all Christian realms for the cause of reli- 
gion, honourable auditors, and also being re- 
membered [reminded] of the terrible sen- 
tence contained in scriptures toward all ne- 
gligent pastors in this dangerous time, I 
was constrained in conscience, notwith- 
standing my great inability, as it pleased 
God to support my imperfections, to give 
instruction to all those committed to my 
cure within my kirk of Kirkoswald, how 
they should be able to be enarmed against 
all wicked and deceitful preachers, which 
go about not knowing wherefrom they 
come, nor by what order. And to the effect 
that our dearly-beloved flock might have 
been the more able to have been war with 
[opposed to] all false, wicked, and ungodly 
doctrine. Among other godly lessons con- 
tained in my exhortation, I inserted certain 
catholic articles, having their warrant of 
the scriptures of Almighty God, according 
to the doctrine of the holy catholic church, 
and burdened my conscience, in the pre- 
sence of God, the said articles to be godly> 
necessary, and expedient to be believed by 
all good Christian men. John Knox, 
upon Sunday the 8th day of September, 
came unto the said church of Kirkoswald, 
being certified that I might not be present, 
and, as I was informed, to make impugna- 
tion to my said articles, wherethrough I 
wrote to him, certifying that I would affirm 
the said articles, and, in special, the article 



concerning the mass, against him, or who- 
soever pleases to make impugnation there- 
to, upon eight days' warning, the place being 
in any house of Maybole, the number 
twenty on either side, without any further 
convocation. 

Shortly, we being agreed by writing of 
the day, hour, and place, which was the 
28th day of this instant September, I am 
come, conform to my writing, to affirm 
the said articles as they are written, begin- 
ning at the article concerning the mass. 
Protesting always, that I come not to dis- 
pute any of my articles as matters of faith 
and religion disputable, considering there is 
order taken already by the church of God, 
as I would say, by the general councils, 
duly convened, which represent the uni- 
versal church of Almighty God, to whom it 
appertains, to take order whensoever ques- 
tion rises for matters concerning faith and 
religion ; but, according to the doctrine of 
St Peter, and also St Paul, to render my 
debt and duty to all that inquire there for : 
and after that manner to abide gentle and 
formal reasoning of all that please, as may 
stand to the glory of God, and the instruc- 
tion of the auditor. And to the effect fore- 
said, that we may come to formal reason- 
ing, as toward the article concerning the 
mass, I will ground me upon the scriptures 
of Almighty God to be my warrant, con- 
form to my first confirmation, which was 
gathered upon the priesthood and oblation 
of Melchisedec ; and was presented you in 
February, and as yet has got no answer, 



552 



THE REASONING BETWIXT JOHN KNOX 



notwithstanding that it was of sober quan- 
tity, sixteen or twenty lines. Wherefore, 
please you to receive this same confirma- 
tion, yet as of before, for to be the begin- 
ning- of our formal reasoning concerning the 
article of the mass, in manner as after follows : 
— The Psalmist, and also the apostle St Paul, 
affirm our Saviour to be a priest for ever 
according to the order of Melchisedec, who 
made oblation and sacrifice of bread and 
wine unto God, as the scripture plainly 
teacheth us. Now will I reason on this 
manner. 

Read all the Evangel who pleases, he 
shall find no place of the Evangel where 
our Saviour uses the priesthood of Melchi- 
sedec, declaring himself to be a priest after 
the order of Melchisedec, but in the last 



supper, where he made oblation of his pre- 
cious body and blood under the form of 
bread and wine, prefigured by the oblation 
of 'Melchisedec. Then are we compelled to 
affirm that our Saviour made oblation of 
his body and blood in the last supper, or 
else he was not a priest according to the 
order of Melchisedec, which is express 
against the scripture. 

John Knox. — John Knox protested that 
he might have the copy of this former writ- 
ing given in by my lord in write, to an- 
swer thereto more fully, and at greater lei- 
sure ; which was delivered unto him. 

Quentin. — And in like manner, my lord 
protested that he might have place to reply 
if he thought good. 



THE ANSWER OE 



JOHN KNOX TO THE ABBOT'S ORATION. 



GIVEN IN BY THE ABBOT BEFORE DISPUTATION, IN WRITE. 



JOHN KNOX. 
Whensoever it pleaseth God of his great 
mercy to show the light, and to blow the 
trumpet of his true word unto the blind 
and unthankful world, after darkness and 
long silence, it hath the strength to move 
and waken, not only the chosen, but also 
the reprobate; but in divers manners: for 
the one it wakeneth from ignorance, error, 
superstition, vanity, and horrible corrup- 
tion, to walk before their God in know- 
ledge, verity, true serving of his majesty, 
and in purity of life. But the other it 
wakeneth from their former sloth, and yet 
to their further condemnation ; for such as 
in the time of darkness did live as men 
without God, at the sound of the trumpet, 
calling them to repentance, add and join 
to their former corruption blasphemy | 
against God, and against his eternal verity, j 
For perceiving that the light discovereth j 
their turpitude, and that the trumpet will j 
not suffer them to sleep, as that they did I 



before, without open reproach, they shame 
not to call light darkness, and darkness 
light; good evil, and evil good. And to 
bring that to pass, to wit, that the light 
shine no more, doth the whole band of such 
as oppone themselves to the verity of God 
so earnestly travail, that sluggards and 
effeminate men become active and strong 
soldiers to the devil. The examples here- 
of are in scripture so common, that they 
need no long rehearsal. For what was the 
estate of the false prophets and priests in 
the days of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 
Micaiah, and the rest of the true prophets of 
God. 

What care, I say, they which by ordi- 
nary succession ought to have teached the 
people of God, took over their charges, the 
complaints and attestations of the true pro- 
phets used against them do witness ; in the 
which they call them dumb dogs, blind 
watchmen, such as regarded nothing but 
ambition, riotous cheer, and lusts of the 



AND THE ABBOT 

flesh, pastors that feed not the flock, but 
feed themselves. Finally, they term them 
men, from the most to the least, given to 
avarice, apostates that had left God, his 
laws, statutes, and ordinances, and had laid 
themselves down to sleep in the midst of 
corruption, out of the which they could not 
be wakened. 

But yet how vigilant and active they 
were to resist the true prophets, and the 
doctrine offered by them, the scripture doth 
likewise testify. For then was Isaiah, and 
such as adhered to his doctrine, held as 
monsters in the eyes of the proud priests 
and of the multitude. Then was Jeremiah 
accused of treason, cast into prison, and 
condemned, to death. Then was Micaiah 
openly struck upon the mouth ; and, briefly, 
then did none of the true prophets of God 
escape the hatred and cruel persecution of 
those that claimed the title and authority to 
rule in the church. The same may be seen 
in the days of Jesus Christ; for how negli- 
gent and careless was the whole Levitical 
order (a few excepted), these words of our 
Master, Jesus Christ, do witness : " Woe 
be unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites, for ye steak [shut] the kingdom of 
heaven before men : ye yourselves do not 
enter ; and such as would enter, ye suffer 
not." But when the trumpet began to blow 
in the mouth of John the Baptist ; and 
when Jesus Christ began to preach, and to 
make more disciples than John did; when 
John called them a progeny of vipers, and 
Jesus Christ did term them blind guides, 
how careful was the whole rabble then, is 
easy to be espied. For then were ambas- 
sadors sent to John to know by what au- 
thority he made such innovation among 
the people, and in the religion of God. 
Then was Christ Jesus tempted with sharp 
and subtle questions. Then was he accused 
for breaking of the traditions of the ancients. 
Then was he called Beelzebub ; and in the 
end he was procured to be hanged betwixt 
two thieves. And by whose diligence was 
all this brought to pass ? Was it not by 
them who before had abused the law, blind- 
ed the people, deceived the simple, and 
under the title and name of God, had set up 
the devil and all abomination to reign over 



OF CROSSRAGUELL. 553 

men. For in place of God's true worship- 
ping, they had erected a market, and filthy 
merchandize, in the temple of God. The 
ejection whereof did so enrage those dumb 
dogs, that with a bay they began to bark 
against Jesus Christ, and his most whole- 
some doctrine : and that, because the zeal 
of that great god their belly, did altogether 
consume and eat them up. These things 
we know to be most true ; and therefore 
we ought not to wonder albeit the true 
word of God retain its own nature, and 
that the self same thing chance now in our 
days that heretofore hath been fully per- 
formed. As for myself, I nothing' doubt 
but the great perturbation, controversy, and 
debate, lately stirred up in all Christian 
realms for cause of religion, is the cause 
that my lord abbot hath been of late days 
troubled with unaccustomed labourers. 
For if the superstition, idolatry, pride, 
vain glory, ambition, unjust possessions, 
superfluous rents [revenues], and filthy liv- 
ing, used and maintained heretofore by 
such as claim the name and authority of 
the church, had not been openly rebuked, 
and a part thereof, in despite of Satan, sup- 
pressed, it may be thought that my lord, in 
this his impotent age, could have contented 
himself with the selfsame ease and quiet- 
ness that in his younger age and better a- 
bility he enjoyed. But now the trumpet 
soundeth condemnation to all negligent 
pastors, and thereof is my lord afraid ; and, 
therefore, to discharge his conscience he 
will take the pains to instruct his flock, and 
to warn them to beware of false teachers. 
I will interpret all to the best part. If my 
lord's eye be single, his work is good ; but 
if the light that appeareth to be in him, and 
in his sect, be nothing but darkness, how 
great shall the darkness be ! My lord is a 
clerk, and needeth no interpreter of such 
places of scripture. Yet for the simple, I 
say, that rightly to teach the flock of Jesus 
Christ, requireth right institution in 
Christ's own doctrine ; for else a zeal 
without knowledge is nothing but the cause 
of further blindness. Yea, if the blind 
lead the blind, the ignorant idolater take 
upon him to teach the ignorant people of 
long time brought up in idolatry : neither 
4 A 



554 



THE REASONING BETWIXT JOHN KNOX 



of both can escape condemnation, so long as 
they follow that train. And, therefore, it 
will nothing nnburden my lord's conscience 
albeit that after his negligence and long si- 
lence he begin to cry to such as he terms 
his flock, beware of false prophets ; for it 
may be that himself be one of that number ; 
yea, perchance, the falsest that they have 
heard this hundred years, For if he be a 
false prophet that teacheth men to follow 
strange gods ; that prophesies a lie in the 
name of the Lord, and speaketh to the 
people the divination and deceit of his own 
heart ; that causeth the people to err, and 
leave the old paths, and to walk in the path 
of the way that is not trodden ; that con- 
stantly say to them that have provoked 
God to anger : the Lord hath spoken it ; 
ye shall have peace; and to all that walk 
after the lusts of their own hearts there 
shall no evil chance unto you, &c. If, 
finally, they be false prophets that be avari- 
cious, and study for advantage, that sew 
pillows under the arm-holes of wicked men, 
and lay sinners asleep, and promise life to 
them to whom they ought not to promise 
it. If these be false prophets, I say, as the 
scripture affirmeth them to be, then stand- 
eth my lord abbot in a wondrous perplex- 
ity, and such as believe him in no less 
danger. For God hath never pronounced 
such articles as my lord calleth wholesome 
doctrine, the chief of them, to wit, the 
mass, purgatory, praying to saints, erecting 
of images and such other, have no assurance 
of God's word, but are the mere dreams, 
statutes, and inventions of men, as their 
particular examination, if my lord pleaseth 
to abide the trial, will more plainly wit- 
ness ; and, therefore, it is no sufficient as- 
surance to the conscience of the auditory 
that my lord burden his conscience in the 
presence of God that his articles be godly, 
necessary, and expedient to be believed. 
For so have ever the false prophets done 
when they and their doctrine were impugn- 
ed. Did not the prophets and priests of 
Baal affirm their doctrine and religion to 
be godly against the prophet Elijah ? They 
did not only burden their conscience, but 
also offered themselves to suffer trial, God 
himself being judge, before the king, and 



before the whole people. The sdf-same 
thing did the false prophets against Micaiah 
and Jeremiah ; and, therefore, yet again, I 
say, my lord's conscience, if a blind zeal be 
worthy of the name of conscience, will nei- 
ther save himself nor others, because it is 
not grounded upon God's revealed will 
nor promise. If my lord thinketh that the 
holy catholic church is sufficient assurance 
for his conscience, let him understand that 
the same buckler had the false prophets 
against Jeremiah, for they cried, The 
temple of the Lord ! the temple of the 
Lord ! the temple of the Lord ; but as he 
with one stroke did burst their buckler 
asunder, saying, Put not your trust in ly- 
ing words : so say we, that how catholic, 
that is universal, that ever their church 
hath been, holy are they never able to 
prove it, neither in life, making of laws, 
nor in soundness of doctrine, as in my an- 
swer, given by mouth, I have more plainly 
shown. It pleaseth my lord to term us 
wicked and deceitful preachers, who go 
about not knowing wherefrom we came, 
nor by what order. And, further, he fear- 
eth not to pronounce our doctrine false, 
wicked and ungodly, for of us, and our 
doctrine, it is plain that my lord meant, and 
meaneth. 

I answer, that as by God's word we ac- 
cuse the whole mass of man's nature, of 
corruption and wickedness, so do we not 
flatter ourselves, but willingly confess our- 
selves so subject to corruption and natural 
wickedness, that the good that we would 
do, we do it not, but the evil that we hate, 
that we do; yea, we do not deny but that 
in our lives and outward conversation there 
be many things both worthy of reformation 
and reprehension. But yet, if our lives 
shall be compared with the lives of them 
that accuse us, be it in general, or be it 
in particular, we doubt not to be justified, 
both before God and man. For how many 
ministers this day within Scotland is my 
lord, abbot, joining with him the whole 
rabble of the horned bishops, able to con- 
vict to be adulterers, fornicators, drunkards, 
bloodshedders, oppressors of the poor wi- 
dow, fatherless, or stranger ; or, yet, that 
do idly live upon the sweat of other men's 



AND THE ABBOT OF CROSS RAG UELL. 



555 



brows. And how many of them, from the 
highest to the lowest, are able to abide an 
assize of the forenamed crimes. And yet 
shall we be called by them wicked and deceit- 
ful preachers, even as if the strongest and 
most common harlot that ever was known 
in the bordell [brothel], should slander and 
revile an honest and pudick [chaste] 
matron. But in somewhat must the sons 
resemble their father. 

The devil, as that he is a perpetual ene- 
my to truth, and to an honest life, so is he 
a liar and accuser of our brethren ; and, 
therefore, albeit such as serve him in ido- 
latry, and all rilthiness of life, spue out against 
us their venom and lies, with testimony 
of a good conscience, we refer vengeance to 
Him to whom it appertaineth ; neither yet 
would we have once opened our mouths 
for the defence of our own innocency, for 
God be praised, even before the world it 
will utter itself, were it not that in slan- 
dering our lives they go about to deface 
the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, whereof 
it hath pleased his mercy to make us minis- 
ters : and in that case let them be assured, 
that the lies, which without shame and as- 
surance they cause to vomit out against us, 
with shame and double confusion they shall 
justly receive again in their own bosoms. 
If my lord abbot allege that he accuseth not 
our lives and external conversation, but our 
doctrine, which he terms false, wicked, and 
ungodly, we answer, that as that doth 
more grieve us nor the slandering of our 
lives, so doubt we nothing but that he that 
made his favourable pmes [promise] to 
Jerusalem in these words : " All instru- 
ment that is prepared against thee shall 
not prosper, and every tongue that shall 
rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt 
rightly convict and condemn of impiety." 
We doubt not, I say, but the same God will 
in this our age confound the tongues that 
oppone themselves to his eternal verity, 
which is the ground and assurance of our 
doctrine. And, therefore, we nothing fear 
to say that my lord in the end shall speed 
no better, if he continue in that his irreve- 
rent railing, than such as heretofore have 
blasphemed Jesus Christ and his eternal 
verity, to the which, albeit for the present 



they will not be subject, and that, because 
our persons and presence, whom God 
maketh ministers of the same, are con- 
temptible and despised ; yet in the end 
they shall feel that in rebelling against our 
admonitions, they were rebellious to the 
mouth of God, and in defacing us, they 
have despised the eternal Son of God, who 
of his mercy hath sent us to rebuke their 
impiety, and to reduce to knowledge, and 
unto the true pastor again, such as through 
blind ignorance have followed the inven- 
tions and dreams of men, and have sought 
justice, remission of sins, and reconci iacion 
with God, by other means than by Jesus 
Christ, and by true faith in his blood. But 
of this point I know my lord most doubts, 
to wit, whether God hath sent us or not ? 
For my lord says we go about not know- 
ing wherefrom we come, nor by what 
order; we answer, that in our consciences 
we know, and he himself will bear us re- 
cord, that we are not sent by that Roman 
antichrist, whom he calleth pope, nor yet 
from his carnal cardinals, nor dumb-horned 
bishops : and thereof we rejoice, being as- 
sured that as we are not sent by Christ's 
manifest enemy in the earth, so are we 
sent by Jesus Christ himself, and that by 
such order as God hath ever kept from the 
beginning when public corruption entered 
into the church by sloth, and impiety of 
such as of duty ought to have fed the nock, 
and to have retained the people under obe- 
dience of God, as well in religion, as in life 
and manners. The order of God, I say, 
hath been in such public corruptions, to 
raise up simple and obscure men, in the 
beginning of their vocation, unknown to 
the world, to rebuke the manifest de- 
fection of the people from God, to convict 
the pastors of their former negligence, 
sloth and idolatry, and to pronounce them 
unworthy of their offices. For so was 
Elijah sent in the days of Ahab ; Jeremiah 
in the time of corruption under Jehoiachin, 
and Zedekiah ; Amos under Jeroboam, and 
the rest of the prophets, every one in their 
own time ; and after the same order hath 
God raised up in these our days such men 
as my lord and his faction term heretics, 
schismatics, Zuinglians, Lutherans, Oeco- 



556 



THE REASONING BETWIXT JOHN KNOX 



lampadians, and Calvinists, to prove the 
pope to be an antichrist, his whole glory in 
the earth to be altogether repugnant to the 
condition of Christ's true ministers; the 
mass to be idolatry, and a bastard service of 
God ; yea, more corrupted than ever was 
the sacrifice in the days of the prophets, 
when yet they affirmed them to be abomi- 
nable before God ; purgatory to be nothing 
but a pickpurse ; the defence of man's free 
will to do good and avoid evil, to be the 
damned heresy of Pelagius ; the forbid- 
ding of marriage to any estate of men or 
women to be the doctrine of devils ; and 
the forbidding of meat, for conscience sake, 
to proceed of the same fountain ; the 
erecting images in churches, and in public 
places of assemblies, to be against the ex- 
pressed commandment of God ; prayer for 
the dead, and unto saints, to be work done 
without faith, and therefore to be sin. 
Briefly, God hath raised up men in these 
our days so to discover the turpitude and 
h'lthiness of that Babylonian harlot, that 
her very golden cup, in the which her for- 
nication was hid before, is become abomi- 
nable to all such as trust for the life ever- 
lasting. And they have, further, set so ve- 
hement a fire in the very ground of her glory, 
that is, in her usurped authority, that she 
and it are both like to burn to their utter- 
most confusion. My lord and his com- 
panions fear no such threatenings ; they are 
but railing knaves that despitefully speak 
against their holy mother the church. I 
have already said that the prophets in their 
days were even so rewarded of those that 
had the same title and dignity that now our 
adversaries claim, and yet did they not 
escape the plagues pronounced ; and in the 
same confidence stand we, rejoicing further, 
that howsoever they repine, storm and rage, 
yet they that are of God hear us, know the 
voice of Jesus Christ speaking in us his 
weak instruments, and do fly from that hor- 
rible harlot, and from her filthiness, which 
is to us a sufficient assurance that God hath 
sent us for the comfort of his chosen. But 
my lord perchance requireth miracles to 
prove our lawful vocation ; for so doth 
Vincet, procurator for the papists. To both 
1 answer, that a truth by itself, without mi- 



racles, hath sufficient strength to prove the 
lawful vocation of the teachers thereof, but 
miracles, destitute of truth, have efficacy to 
deceive, but never to bring to God. But 
this, by the grace of God, shall be more 
fully entreated in the answer to Vincet's 
questions thereupon. And yet one word 
must I say before I make end to my lord, 
and unto the rest of the pope's creatures, 
and it is this : if they will study to keep 
themselves in credit and estimation, let 
them never call our vocation in doubt, for 
we incontinent will object to them, that 
from the most to the least, there is none 
amongst them lawfully called to serve with- 
in the church of God, but all commit si- 
mony, all are heretics, all receive the spirit 
of lies, and the leprosy of Gehazi. And, 
finally, being accused in their first ordina- 
tion, they neither can give grace nor bene- 
diction to the people of God; and thus, by 
their own law, I offer myself to prove as 
evidently as my lords bishops, abbots, priors, 
and the rest of that sect, are able to prove 
themselves called to ecclesiastical function, 
as they term it, by their father's bulls, and 
confirmation of the pope. I wonder not a 
little that my lord should allege that I was 
certified that he might not be present at 
Kirkoswald the day that first I offered my- 
self to resist his vain and blasphemous arti- 
cles. I am able to prove that by his pro- 
mise he had bound himself oftener than 
once to be present ; and, also, that by fa- 
mous gentlemen, that same Sunday, in the 
morning he was required either to come 
and teach according to his promise, and so 
to suffer his doctrine, in audience of such as 
he named his own flock, to be tried, or else 
to come and hear doctrine, and with so- 
briety and gentleness to oppone at his plea- 
sure. These two heads, I say, J am able to 
prove; but that I was certified that he 
could not be present, &c. I think it shall be 
as hard to prove, as to prove that Melchise- 
dec made sacrifice of bread and wine unto 
God. But my lord shall have liberty of 
me to allege in such cases what pleaseth 
him, so long as his allegation shall not pre- 
judge the verity, nor give patrocynie [au- 
thority] to a lie in matters of religion. It 
is not of great importance whether I was 



AND THE ABBOT OF CROSSRAGUELL. 



557 



certified or not that my lord could not be 
present, as he allegeth. I presented myself 
at the day appointed, and that is some argu- 
ment that I greatly feared not my lord's 
presence. The letters that have passed be- 
twixt us, tog-ether with some answers that 
I differed, (perhaps deferred,) shall be put in 
register before the disputation, that men 
may see the whole proceedings of both 
parties. And this much by writ to my 
lord's first oration given in, in writ. 

Now followeth my answer to the rest, 
given at that same instant by mouth. 

JOHN KNOX ANSWERETH BY MOUTH. 

Because I perceive, both in your protesta- 
tion and article, that you dispute not upon 
these matters as disputable, but as of things 
already concluded by the kirk, general coun- 
cils, and doctors, I must say somewhat in 
the beginning how far I will admit of any 
of the forenamed. And of the kirk, first, I 
say. that I acknowledge it to be the spouse 
of Christ Jesus, builded upon the founda- 
tion of the apostles and prophets ; so that 
into all doctrine it heareth the voice of the 
spouse only, and a stranger it will not hear, 
according to the words of our master Christ 
Jesus. " My sheep hear my voice," &c. ; 
and, therefore, if that any multitude under 
the title of the kirk, will obtrude unto us 
any doctrine necessary to be believed to our 
salvation, and bringeth not for the same the 
express word of Jesus Christ or his apos- 
tles, &c. men must pardon me although I 
acknowledge it not to be the kirk of God 
for the reason foresaid. And unto the 
general councils I answer the same, to wit, 
that such as hath been gathered duly, and 
in the name of God, for extirpation of he- 
resies, with my whole heart I do reverence, 
provided always that the doctrine that they 
propone to be believed have the approbation 
of the plain word of God, or else with that 
ancient I must say, that more credit is to 
be given to a man, bringing for him the 
testimony of God's scriptures, than to a 
general council, affirming any doctrine 
without the same. And as concerning the 
authority of the doctors, for whom I praise 
my God, as that I do for all them whom he 
maketh profitable instruments in his kirk, I ; 



think my lord will bind me no straiter than 
he hath desired to be bound himself, that is, 
that men be not received as God ; and, 
therefore, with Augustine I consent, that 
whatsoever the doctors propone, and plain- 
ly confirm the same by the evident testi- 
mony of the scriptures, I am heartily con- 
tent to receive the same ; but else, that it 
be lawful to me with Jerome to say, what- 
soever is affirmed without the authority of 
God's scriptures, with the same facility it 
may be rejected as it is affirmed. And 
these three admitted, so forth I enter into 
disputation. 

M. Quentin. — There are divers heads 
wherewith I am offended, willing that the 
purpose we come for may go shortly to pass; 
therefore, presently I will omit, and as the 
occasion shall serve of the doctors, councils, 
and aught else, which are not expressly 
contained in the scriptures; and thus 
quickly go to the purpose. 

John Knox. — You are not ignorant, my 
lord, that in every disputation the ground 
ought so to be laid, that the matter dis- 
putable, or the question, either come under 
a perfect definition, or else under a sufficient 
description : and, specially, when the ques- 
tion is, De voce simplici, as is Missa. If it 
please your lordship to define the mass, or 
yet sufficiently to describe it, I will take oc- 
casion of that which I think wrong ; and if 
not, then must I explain my mind what 
mass it is that I intend to impugn, and have 
called idolatry; not the blessed institution 
of the Lord Jesus, which he hath command- 
ed to be used in his kirk to his gaincoming, 
but that which is crept in into the kirk 
visible, without all approbation of the word 
of God. And this mass, I say, hath a name, 
a form and action, an opinion conceived of 
it, and an actor of the same. And unto the 
whole four, I say, that neither the name, the 
form and action, nor the opinion, nor actor, 
have their assurance of God's plain word. 

M. Quentin. — As to the definition or de- 
scription that I gave the last year, I will 
abide by it this year, for I am not come in 
use of est and non est. And as to the mass 
that he will impugn, or any man's mass, 
yea, and if it were the pope's own mass, I 
will maintain nothing but Jesus Christ's 



558 



THE REASONING BETWIXT JOHN KNOX 



mass, conform to my article as it is writ- 
ten, and definition contained in my book, 
which he has taken on hand to impugn. 

John Knox. — As I can conceive, my 
lord's answer containeth three heads : the 
first is, a relation to his book as containing 1 
the definition of the mass. The second a 
declaration of his lordship's constancy. 
And the third, an affirmation, that he will 
affirm no mass, but the mass of Jesus 
Christ, yea, not if it were the pope's own 
mass. Unto the first I answer. That I 
have not read his lordship's book,— not ex- 
cusing thereuntil my own negligence, — and 
therefore it appeareth unto me, that rather 
his lordship, should cause the definition to 
be read out of his book, nor to burden me 
with the seeking of it. As concerning his 
lordship's constancy, I beseech the eternal 
God, to make us all constant, in his eternal 
verity ; for inconstancy in the truth, cannot 
lack infamy, and great danger. But to me 
it appeareth, that in no wise it can hurt 
the fame, nor conscience of the godly, to 
confess themselves men, who both may err, 
and also be occasion that others err. And 
yet, when that the fuller knowledge cometh 
unto them, by the Spirit of God, no man 
ought to impute unto them inconstancy, 
albeit they retract their former error, as in 
divers heads did that learned Augustine. 
But the third head doth most delight me, 
to wit, that my lord hath affirmed that he 
will defend no mass, but the mass of the 
Lord Jesus : which if his lordship will per- 
form, as my good hope is, then I doubt 
not, but we are on the very point of a 
Christian agreement. For whatsoever his 
lordship shall prove to me, to be done by 
the Lord Jesus, that, without all contra- 
diction, I shall embrace. Providing that 
his lordship allege nothing to be done, by 
Jesus Christ, which his own institution 
witnesseth not to be done. 

M. Quentin. — 1 define the mass, as con- 
cerning the substance, and effect, to be the 
sacrifice and oblation, of the Lord's body 
and blood, given and offered by him, in the 
last supper. And take the scripture to 
my w arrant, according to my article as it 
is written. And for the first confirmation 
of the 6ame, grounds me upon the sacrifice 



and oblation of Melchisedec. To the se- 
cond, I thank John Knox of his praise and 
prayer of my constancy, and in like man- 
ner for Christian charity's sake, praise God 
with all my heart, for his indurateness and 
pertinacity, — if so be that he be in error, — 
and will wish him, that he be willed to re- 
fuse his pertinacity, as I shall do my con- 
stancy if I be in error. To the third, for 
avoiding of cavillation, I mean that I will 
defend no mass as concerning the sub- 
stance, institution and effect, but that mass 
only, which is institute by Jesus Christ. 

John Knox. — Omitting to further con- 
sideration, the answer to the definition to 
the last two heads I shortly answer, that 1 
praised no constancy, but that which is in 
the truth. And as touching my own in- 
durateness, wherewith my lord seeraeth to 
burden me, I plainly protest before God, 
that if I knew myself in error, in that case, 
or in any other, that concerneth the doc- 
trine of salvation : I should not be ashamed, 
publicly to confess it. But the last part of 
my lord's answer appeareth somepart to 
vary, in my judgment, from his former 
affirmation, which I took to be, that his 
lordship would defend nothing in the mass, 
which he was not able to prove, to be the 
very institution of Jesus Christ And 
therefore, must I have recourse unto the 
former division of the mass : which is ia 
name, action, opinion, and actor. And 
humbly require of his lordship, that he 
would signify unto me, if he would be con- 
tent to prove the name to be given by Jesus 
Christ: the whole action and ceremonies 
from beginning, to the end, to be the ordi- 
nance of Almighty God. The opinion, 
which hath been conceived, taught, and 
written of it, for to be agreeable with the 
scriptures of God. And finally, if that the 
actor hath his assurance of God, to do 
that, which he there publicly protesteth 
he doeth. 

M. Quentin.— As willing that the truth 
come to a trial, I will not trifle, but shortly 
give for answer. I will begin at the best 
first, which is the substance and effect. 
And as to the ceremonies, actor and name, 
shall defend them abundantly, God willing, 
conform to my article when I come thereto. 



AND THE ABBOT OF CliOSSRAGUELL. 



559 



John Knox. — The ceremonies used in 
the mass, and the opinion conceived of the 
same, have been holden substantial parts 
thereof, into the conscience of a great mul- 
titude. And therefore, ought the con- 
science of the weak and infirm first to be 
delivered from that bondage. For what my 
lord affirmeth of the mass, — to wit, that it 
is a sacrifice, — this perchance may be also 
alleged to appertain to the right institu- 
tion of Jesus Christ, in some case, which 
once was void, both of those ceremonies, 
and that damnable opinion. 

M. Quentin. — I am not coming here to 
maintain the opinions of men, but to defend 
the institution of Jesus Christ, conform to 
my article. 

John Knox. — It appeareth to me yet 
again, that my lord is willing to defend 
nothing, but the very institution of Christ 
Jesus. And I have already affirmed, that 
neither the name of the mass, the ceremo- 
nies used in the same, the opinion con- 
ceived of it, neither yet that power, which 
the actor usurpeth, hath either the institu- 
tion or assurance of Jesus Christ. 

M. Quentin. — 1 am willing to defend 
my definition concerning the mass, as I 
have defined it, and take God's word to 
my warrant, and as to the ceremonies, actor 
and all the rest shall defend, God willing, 
to be agreeable with God's word al through 
abundantly as time and place shall serve, 
beginning first at the substance and effect, 

John Knox. — I answer, that albeit in 
my judgment, the conscience of man ought 
first to have been set at liberty, yet hoping 
that my lord will be content, according to 
his promise, that the name, ceremonies, 
and the rest of the accidents of the mass 
suffer the trial by the word of God. I am 
content shortly to enter in the body of 
the matter ; and desireth the definition to 
be resumed. 

M. Quentin. — I promise, before this 
honourable auditory, to defend that all con- 
tained in the action of the mass to be 
agreeable with God's word, providing al- 
ways we gang [go] to the substance. 

The definition being resumed: John 
Knox answered. — Your lordship is not ig- 
norant, that in every definition, there ought 



to be, genus, which I take your lordship 
here maketh this term {sacrificium), but 
because the term is general, and in the 
scriptures of God is diversely taken, there- 
fore it must be brought to a certain kind. 
For in the scriptures there be sacrifices 
called eucharistica, that is, of thanksgiving. 
The mortification of our bodies, and the 
obedience that we give to God, in the 
same, is also called sacrifice. Prayer and 
invocation of the name of God hath also 
the same name within the scriptures. Li- 
berality toward the poor, is also so termed. 
But there is one sacrifice, which is great- 
est, and most of all, called propidatorium, 
which is that sacrifice, whereby satisfaction 
is made to the justice of God, being offend- 
ed at the sins of man, &c. Now I desire of 
my lord that he appoint unto the mass, 
which of these sacrifices best pleaseth him. 

M. Quentin. — What ye mean by the sa- 
crifice propitiatorium, presently I will not 
dispute. But I take the sacrifice upon the 
cross, to be the only sacrifice of redemp- 
tion, and the sacrifice of the mass, to be the 
sacrifice of commemoration of Christ's death 
and passion. 

John Knox. — So far as I can conceive 
of my lord's answer, he maketh no sacri- 
fice propitiatory, in the mass : which is the 
chief head, which I intend to impugn. For, 
1 as for the commemoration of Christ's death 
! and passion, that I grant, and publicly do 
confess, to be celebrate in the right use of 
the Lord's supper, which I deny the mass 
to be. 

M. Quentin. — It is your duty according 
to formal proceeding, to impugn my war- 
rant, which I have chosen, to defend my 
definition by, and article^ even as it is 
written. 

John Knox. — Protesting that this much 
is won, that the sacrifice of the mass being 
denied by me to be a sacrifice propitiatory, 
for the sins of the quick and the dead, ac- 
cording to the opinion thereof before con- 
ceived, hath no patron, at this present: I 
am content to proceed. 

M. Quentin. — I protest that he has won 
nothing of me as yet, and refer it to black 
and white, contained in our writing. 

John Knox. — I have openly denied the 



560 



THE REASONING BETWIXT JOHN KNOX 



mass to be a sacrifice j)ro<pitiatory for the 
quick, &c., and the absence thereof is de- 
nied. And therefore I refer myself unto 
the same judges that my lord hath claimed. 

M. Quentin. — Ye may deny what ye 
please, for all that ye deny I take not pre- 
sently to impugn, but where I began there 
will I end, that is, to defend the mass, con- 
form to my article. 

John Knox. — Seeing that neither the 
name, the action, the opinion, nor the actor 
of the mass, can be defended for this pre- 
sent, I would gladly know what I should 
impugn. 

M. Quentin. — All above rehearsed can 
be defended, and shall be defended, God 
willing, and where ye are glad to know, 
what ye should impugn, appearingly that 
should be no newings to you, for I certify 
you, ye should impugn my warrant alleged 
for defence of my definition and article. 

John Knox. — If by your warrant ye un- 
derstand the oblation made in bread and 
wine by Melchisedec, I plainly deny, that 
Melchisedec made any oblation or sacri- 
fice, of bread and wine unto God, and de- 
sire the text to be judge. 

M. Quentin. — It is your part to impugn, 
and mine to defend, for I am the defender, 
and shall be God willing. 

John Knox. — Can I impugn more plain 
than when I deny your ground ? 

M. Quentin. — I say the denying of the 
ground is no proper impugnation. 

John Knox. — Your lordship's ground is, 
that Melchisedec is the figure of Christ, in 
that, that he did offer unto God bread and 
wine, and therefore, yet it behoved Jesus 
Christ to offer in his last supper his body 
and blood, under the form of bread and 
wine. I answer to your ground, yet again, 
that Melchisedec offered neither bread nor 
wine unto God. And therefore it, that ye 
would thereupon conclude, hath no assu- 
rance of your ground. 

M. Quentin. — Prove that. 

John Knox. — Whether that the proba- 
tion of a negative, should be devolved upon 
me, especially when I have denied your 
chief ground, I am content the learned 
judge. 

M. Quentin.-— Moved through fervour 



of the trial of the truth of God's word, I 
refuse logic captious cavillations for the 
present, — not perchance for ignorance, — 
but yet we tyne [lose] not time, to finish 
and establish our godly pretence for the 
ease and quietness of the conscience of the 
noblemen here present. 

John Knox. — I have else [already] pro- 
tested, that I abhor all cavillations, and 
yet again declare unto your lordship, that 
in my judgment it is the way most suc- 
cinct, yet your lordship prove your own 
ground, that is, that Melchisedec offered 
unto God bread and wine, which I deny. 

M. Quentin. — I take the text to be my 
warrant and ground. 

John Knox. — The text being read, the 
14th of Genesis. There is no mention 
made of any oblation of bread and wine 
made by Melchisedec unto God, but only 
that Melchisedec being king of Salem, 
brought forth bread and wine. And that 
being priest of the most high God, he 
blessed Abraham as the text beareth wit- 
ness. And therefore I say that the text 
proveth not that any oblation of bread and 
wine was made unto God by Melchisedec. 

M. Quentin.— Ye do affirm that Melchi- 
sedec brought forth bread and wine. I 
speir [ask] at you to what effect ? 

John Knox. — Will ye devolve upon me 
now, the person of an answerer, seeing that 
ye refused yourself of before the same. 

M. Quentin. — This which he calls an- 
swering, is more properly to be called im- 
pugnation in this case, in that, finding the 
text to serve nothing for my purpose, is 
plain impugnation to my pretence. And so 
are ye clad rather with the personage of an 
impugner, nor [than] a defender. 

John Knox. — Whether that I sustain the 
personage of an impugner, or of a defender, 
I am not bound to answer what was done 
with the bread and wine after that it Avas 
brought forth. It sufficeth to me for my 
former purpose, that there is no mention 
made in the text, that bread and wine by 
Melchisedec was offered unto God. 

M. Quentin. — It ryndes [remains] to you 
to prove, that Melchisedec made no obla- 
tion of bread and wine unto God. 

John Knox. — It sufficeth to me, that in 



AND THE ABBOT OF CROSSRAG CELL. 



561 



the text there is no mention made that 
Melchisedec made any oblation of bread 
and wine unto God, as ye before alleged, 
and have laid for your ground. 

M. Quentin. — I say the words of the 
test are plain that Melchisedec made obla- 
tion of bread and wine unto God, and de- 
sire you to improve ^disprove] the same by 
the text. 

John Knox. — My inprobation is already 
led. For in the text there is no mention 
of oblation of bread and wine made unto 
God. And therefore I am content, that 
the whole world judge, whether the ground 
be not sufficiently inproven or not. 

3VI. Quentin. — Melchisedec brought forth 
bread and wine, which he did not without 
cause, and ye deny that he brought it forth, 
for the cause, that I allege, ergo, for some 
other cause. Which if ye will not, nor 
cannot show presently, I shall do diligence 
to cause the present auditory understand 
clearly, that he brought forth bread and 
wine for the cause alleged by me. Pro- 
viding that if ye will not show the cause 
presently, that ye shall have no place to 
show it hereafter. 

John Knox. — I answer that he brought 
forth bread and wine, the text plainly 
afnrmeth, and I have already granted. 
But that he made oblation of the same, be- 
cause the text purporteth it not, I cannot 
grant it. As touching the cause where- 
fore he brought it forth, — if place shall be 
given to conjectures, and that not grounded 
without great probability, and also with 
suffrage of some of the ancients, to wit, 
Josephus and Chrysostome. — It may be 
said that Melchisedec being a king, brought 
forth bread and wine, to refresh Abraham 
and his weary soldiers. And this, for your 
satisfaction of the cause, why he brought 
forth bread and wine : ever still sticking 
upon the principal ground. That because 
no mention is made, that Melchisedec made 
oblation of bread and wine unto God, I 
deny it as of before. 

The penult of September, 1563. 

M. Quentin. — Of John Knox's sayings 
above rehearsed, 1 conceive two heads in 
special, the one is, that Melchisedec made 
no oblation unto God, but he did bring 



f forth the bread and wine, to refresh Abra- 
! ham and his company. I will answer unto 
j the said heads formally, 'and on this man- 
ner. First, I will make impugnation unto 
the last head where it is thought that he 
did refresh Abraham and his company. 
In that, the text is manifest in the con<- 
trary, in so far as the text testifies, that 
Abraham and his company were refreshed 
by the spoils of the enemies, and were not 
refreshed, nor mistered na [nor needed any] 
refreshing of Melchisedec, wherefore it is 
manifest that Melchisedec brought forth 
bread and wine unto another effect, not to 
refresh Abraham and his company. 

John Knox. — My former proof, that 
Melchisedec did not offer bread and wines 
unto God, standeth upon this ground, that 
the text maketh mention of no manner of 
oblation made there unto God of bread and 
wine. And therefore in a matter of so- 
great importance, dare not I affirm cblaticn 
to be made, while that the Holy Ghost 
keepeth silence. And now unto my lord's 
argument, first, I answer, that there is no 
contradiction betwixt these two, Abraham, 
and his company were refreshed of the 
spoils of their enemies, and Abraham and 
his company were refreshed of the li- 
berality of Melchisedec. And first, be- 
cause in the time when Abraham and his 
company received their nourishment of the 
substance of their enemies, they were out 
of the presence of Melchisedec, and not 
returned unto their country. But albeit 
that they had been even in the presence of 
Melchisedec, yet they might have been 
nourished, partly by his liberality, and 
partly by their own provision. And thirdly, 
because the text doth not affirm that Abra- 
ham and his were nourished only of the 
spoil. I cannot admit my lord's argu- 
ment. 

M. Quentin. — For satisfaction of the 
auditory, and to come quickly to the point 
without drifting of time I will refuse rea- 
soning, after schoolmanner, and will go yet 
to the text, and depend thereupon. And 
on this manner saying, — save only that 
which the young men have eaten, — I infer 
of this text, that it does appear, yea, and is 
manifest, that there remained more nor was 
4 B 



562 



THE REASONING BETWIXT JOHN KNOX 



eaten, by Abraham and his company, for 
the present. 

John Knox — I do not deny, but there 
remained substance, which was neither 
eaten nor consumed by Abraham and his 
company, but what shall be hereof con- 
cluded. 

M. Quentin. — I infer that not only 
there remained substance, but there re- 
mained much more substance, nor Abraham 
and his company were able to consume, yea, 
and to give a great deal away, for why, 
Abraham was victor of four kings, where- 
through he obtained a great spoil, and not 
only of four, but also he got the spoils of 
other five, and got all their vivers and 
meat, wherethrough it is manifest by the 
very plain text, that Abraham and his 
company had much more meat nor they 
were able to consume, and so mistered 
[needed] he nor his company no refreshing 
of Melchisedec, considering he and his 
company were but a meme number,* as I 
would say, three hundred and eighteen, 

John Knox. — The victory of Abraham 
is in the text specified, as also the num- 
ber of the kings vanquished. And that 
there remained substance, yea, much more 
than was spent, I do not deny. But this 
will not necessarily conclude, but that Mel- 
chisedec of his liberality brought forth bread 
and wine to the purpose foresaid : as by 
conjecture is most probable. For men of 
godliness and civil honesty, do not only 
show themselves liberal in time of extreme 
necessity, but also will declare their bene- 
volence without great need, yea, and in 
greatest abundance. 

M. Quentin. — Because John Knox speaks 
of substance indifferently, I will desire him 
to declare his opinion, conform to the text, 
whether Abraham and his company, re- 
covered of the nine kings' spoils, bread 
and wine, and other sustenance, which 
truly, albeit the text do not purport the 
same in plain words, yet can no man of 
judgment think otherwise, as I can give 
many hundred examples in the scriptures, 



* ' Meme number,' evidently a misprint for 
'mean number,' or small number,' as is mani- 
fest from the context. — Ed. 



and one in special, where Jesus Christ our 
Lord speaks in his own prayer, called the 
Pater noster, of daily bread, whereunto is 
to be understood all required unto the sus- 
tentation of man, albeit the text does not 
expressly declare the same. 

John Knox. — I have spoken of substance 
in general, so instructed by the plain text, 
which maketh mention neither of bread 
nor wine, in expressed words, other nor of 
that which Melchisedec brought forth. 
And by all appearance, there could not any 
great store of bread and wine be carried 
back again by Abraham and his company, 
after the victory of his enemies. For plain 
it is, that he brought nothing back, which 
they before did not carry away, — himself 
and his company only excepted, — we read 
that they took the prey of Sodom and Go- 
morrah, and carried with them the sub-* 
stance, yea, and the victuals, Lot his sub- 
stance, &c. Now albeit, that in the be* 
ginning their victuals had been great, yet 
being such a company as we may justly 
suppose them to have been : and also being 
arrived within their, own coasts, it is not 
appearing that great store was reserved. 
But howsoever it be, this matter standing 
in conjecture, we will of necessity conclude 
nothing, seeing that the Holy Ghost hath 
not expressed it. As touching my lord's 
allegation of the daily bread, &c. I ac- 
knowledge with his lordship that to be the 
familiar phrase of the scripture, that under 
the name of bread, is commonly taken all 
things necessary for the use of man's body, 
like as these, J 'range esurienti panem tuum,fyc. 

M. Quentin. — Having consideration that 
John Knox would cast in a suspicion in 
the hearts of the honourable auditory,— 
saving his pardon,-— by continual repetition 
of this word conjecture, we will do as God 
will give us grace, to take this policy out 
of the hearts of the auditory, and that by 
proper description of arguments of infer 
ence or conjecture, wherefore the auditory 
shall consider, that there are some conjec- 
tures and arguments of inference which 
necessarily concludes and follows upon. 
And are called nottheless arguments of con- 
jecture or inference, because the one word 
is not the other, nor does not expressly 



AND THE ABBOT OF CROSSRAGUELL 



563 



conclude the other, as for one familiar ex- 
ample, spiral ergo vivil, as I would say, he 
aindes [breathef?], ergo he lives. Where- 
fore I infer that this conference of phrase, 
or manner of speech, where it is said in 
the text, all their victuals, necessarily infer 
bread, wine, and all other thing's expe- 
dient to be eaten, considering there was 
great abundance in the cities which were 
spoiled, as do this phrase, break unto the 
hungry thy bread, and so whatsoever may 
be inferred of the one phrase, necessarily 
may be inferred of the other. 

John Knox. — Hitherto I have travailed, 
to make difference betwixt that, that man 
of necessity is bound to believe, and that 
which man may either believe, or not be- 
lieve, without any hurt of conscience. 
What God in expressed words and sen- 
tences, hath committed to us within the 
scriptures, and commanded the same to be 
believed, he requireth of us that necessarily 
we believe the same. But where the Spirit 
of God hath kept silence, and hath not in 
plain sentences, declared unto us the will 
of God our Father, there may a man sus- 
pend his judgment without hurt of con- 
science ; yea, and more sure it is, not boldly 
to affirm, that which is kept close by the 
wisdom of God, than that we should rashly 
affirm any thing, without the warrant of 
God's word, as we are taught by the admo- 
nition of Augustine. As touching the di- 
versity of arguments, I know both the 
strength of them that are called necessario 
concludentia, and of those which stand in 
probability, which both I grant to have the 
strength in persuasion : but the faith of man 
requireth a surer ground, than any argu- 
ment that can be deduced from nature, to 
wit, it requireth hearing, and that hearing 
©f the word of God, according to the doc- 
trine of the apostle. Now to my lord's 
argument, I say it doth not necessarily 
conclude, that Abraham and his soldiers 
brought more ready meat, such as bread 
and wine back from their victory, than 
they were able to spend, albeit that they 
carried with them the whole substance, 
yea, the whole victuals of Sodom and Go- 
morrah, &c. Because that in the journey 
some might have been lost, in the jour- 



ney no doubt but much was spent, and in 
the victory the rest might have been dis- 
persed or lost. For by all appearance 
Abraham had small respect to bread and 
wine, more than to that which might rea- 
sonably sustain him and his company unto 
their return. And thus from conjecture 
we shall continually pass to conjecture, un- 
less that my lord be able to prove, that the 
text affirmeth in plain words, that such su- 
perfluous abundance of bread and wine was 
brought back, unto the time that Melchise- 
dec met him, and although his lordship be 
able so to do, as I am assured no man is 
able, yet shall always Melchisedec and his 
liberality stand still unconvicted. 

M. Quentin. — To meet all the heads 
contained in John Knox particularly above 
rehearsed, notwithstanding apparently I 
am constrained to the same. Yet always 
in favour of the auditory, I will go shortly 
to seme special heads. And first where he 
makes one meine [complaint], that I go by 
natural reasons to persuade, to take the 
suspicion of men justly off me in this head, 
I say and do affirm, that I have done not 
[nothing] in that cause as yet, but conform 
to the scriptures althrough [throughout]. 
And where John Knox speaks in general of 
meat, our contention was for bread and 
wine, which I inferred necessarily of the 
text. And desire him to give me one 
reason shortly, grounded upon the scrip- 
ture, wherefore the phrase alleged by me 
concerning the meat shall not include bread 
and wine as well as his phrase concerning 
the bread, by his opinion, without express 
scripture shall include all kind of other 
meats. 

John Knox. — I purge myself first, that 
J neither burden my lord with informality, 
neither yet, that his lordship travaileth by 
natural reason only, to persuade to man. 
But because the whole state of the cause, 
as I understand, standeth in this, whether 
that Abraham and his soldiers brought 
back again superfluity of bread and wine or 
not, I have desired the same to be proven 
by the expressed word. The phrase is not 
mine only, but I did agree with my lord 
bringing in the same first. And now why 
| I think that Abraham, and his, brought no 



564 



THE REASONING BETWIXT JOHN KNOX 



superfluity of bread and wine back again ? 
the reason is, because the text doth plainly 
affirm, that victuals, besides the other sub- 
stance, was carried away by the enemies. 
But that any victuals, besides the substance 
were brought back again, there is no spe- 
cification. 

M. Quentin. — Because I perceive John 
Knox does not meet the head of my ar- 
ticle where I do mark the conference [anal- 
ogy, agreement] betwixt the phrases of the 
scriptures alleged by us both : wherein — 
after my judgment — consists the marckis 
point* of the purpose, I will travail no 
further therein, notwithstanding that I have 
ground of the scripture abundantly. And 
so I will go to another head, to assure the 
reader that Melchisedec brought not forth 
bread and wine, to refresh Abraham and 
his company, I will ground myself properly 
upon the text, and on this manner. The 
text says, protulit or firoferens, which is in 
the singular number, as, one person bring- 
ing forth bread and wine, wherefore ne- 
cessarily it concludes he brought not forth 
bread and wine to refresh a multitude, as 
Abraham and his company was, which was 
not possible to one person to do : but only 
to make sacrifice conform to my beginning. 

John Knox. — What I have answered, 
the benevolent reader shall after judge, to 
the present conjecture of my lord; I an- 
swer, that if Melchisedec alone without all 
company had brought only forth so much 
bread and wine, as he was able goodly to 
carry, yet shall it not be necessarily con- 
cluded, that therefore he brought it not 
forth to gratify Abraham, for a small por- 
tion may oftentimes be thankful to many, 
but my lord appeareth to shoot at that 
ground, which I have not laid for my 
principle. And therefore albeit his lord- 
ship should win it, yet my former strength 
were little diminished, — in my judgment, — 
for unless his lordship be able to prove by 
the plain words of the text, that the bread 
and wine were brought forth to be offered 



* The marckis point.' The object directly 
aimed at — the bull's eye — a metaphor borrowed 
irom avcbery — signifying here — the main point 
in question. 



unto God, my principal ground doth always 
abide. But the phrase of the scripture, 
and also the ordinary manner of speaking, 
doth oftentimes attribute to the principal 
man, that which at his commandment, or 
will is done by his servants or subjects, 
whereof I offer myself, to show in scrip- 
tures, more testimonies than one, with 
time. And yet this is not my chief ground, 
but this I speak for explaining of the text. 

M. Quentin. — Of the former article I mark 
two heads in special, which does not only 
give appearance for my pretence, but plainly 
does convict, as the godly and inaffectionate 
reader may clearly perceive. The first 
head is, where John Knox does allege that 
Melchisedec brought forth bread and wine, 
to refresh Abraham and his weary company, 
which plainly differs from his speaking 
present, saying, that it was to gratify Abra- 
ham and his company, whereinto there is 
such manifest difference as it gives plain 
persuasion, his ground in this head to be 
nought. Secondly, it is against the order 
of nature, to think that any one man, — let be 
one king and one priest, — should bring 
forth that might gratify, let be to refresh 
such a multitude as three hundred and 
eighteen weary persons. 

John Knox. — What my lord's judgment 
doth move in the hearts of the auditory, I 
remit to their own judgment, but I plainly 
affirm, that neither in my word, nor in my 
ditement, is there any such repugnance or 
difference, as justly may convict me to 
have an evil ground. For in my former 
sayings, my words were, that by probable 
conjecture, the bread and wine were 
brought forth by Melchisedec, to refresh 
Abraham and his weary company. I did 
not affirm, that he and his whole company 
were thereof wholly refreshed. And in my 
latter words, I say, that albeit there had been 
no more bread and wine, than Melchisedec 
only brought forth, yet doth it not there- 
of necessarily conclude, that the same were 
not brought forth to gratify Abraham. In 
which manner of speech, this term gratify, 
doth neither repugn, nor yet differ, from the 
term refresh, otherwise, commonly doth in 
manner of speech, genus and species, that is 
to say, the more general and the inferior. 



AND THE ABBOT OF CROSSRAGUELL. 



565 



For in so far as Abraham and his company 
were refreshed by the bread and wine, — 
were it never so little,— in so far doth he 
bring it forth, to gratify him. Protesting 
plainly, that unwillingly I am compelled 
thus to answer. 

And thus endeth the second day's travail, 
all wholly spent to answer my lord's shift- 
ing. Whereto he was moved, because he 
was not able to prove that Melchisedec 
offered bread and wine unto God, as will- 
ingly once he took to prove. 

M. Quentin. — As does John Knox, so 
do I with all my heart, remit me to the 
judgment of the auditory in this head : and 
will not report the heads, of his former ar- 
ticle for avoiding of prolixity. But now 
will I conclude with one argument. 

And thus begins M. Quentin the third 
day, having this argument written in paper 
which he causeth to be read. 

M. Quentin. — Whatsoever opinion is 
conceived of the scriptures of Almighty 
God, having no express testimony nor ap- 
pearance of the same, is all utterly to be re- 
fused, as says John Knox himself. But so 
it is, that John Knox's own opinion, con- 
ceived or contracted of the scripture, con- 
cerning the bringing forth of bread and 
wine by Melchisedec, to refresh or gratify 
Abraham and his weary company, is not 
expressly contained in the scripture, nor 
has no appearance of the same : therefore it 
follows well, that it is all utterly by his 
own judgment to be refused. 

Moved on godly zeal, — honourable audi- 
tory, — that in this dangerous time, the 
truth should come to trial, in such manner, 
as the conscience of such, as are perturb- 
ed, so far as lies in our sober possibility, 
should be established, and at quietness : 
we set forth certain articles, as pleased 
God to give us grace, unto the which, John 
Knox took on hand to make impugnation : 
specially to the article concerning the mass, 
day hour and place being appointed and ob- 
served, I come to defend my articles, and 
in special my article concerning the mass. 
And according to the same, took me pro- 
perly to my warrant grounded upon God's 
word : unto the which warrant, John 
Knox, as yet, has made no impugnation, 



but desired me to sustain and defend the 
name, the actor, the ceremonies, the opi- 
nion of men conceived of the mass, and if 
it was a sacrifice propitiatory- I being- 
willed, that we shortly should go to the 
ground, and effect, and substance of the 
purpose wherefore we come, 1 stood by my 
article and warrant as they are written : 
not refusing to defend the heads above re- 
hearsed, as time and place should serve. 
And notwithstanding that I was sufficiently 
grounded upon God's word, which I took 
to be my warrant, and took likewise upon 
me, far above my ability, the place and 
personage of a defender : nottheless through 
occasion that served, as work will bear 
witness, I was constrained to take upon 
me the personage of a pursuer, far by [be- 
side] my appetite, yea, and the will of my 
cause : and also by the opinion of all such 
as would the will of the same, moved on 
godly zeal, — as God be judge, — that the 
truth should come to a trial, to the plea- 
sure of God, and satisfaction of the honour- 
able auditory, I being clad with the perso- 
nage of an impugner, expressly contrary to 
my mind, for such causes as are above re- 
hearsed, I made impugnation, not by 
manly [human] imaginations, but by the 
manifest word of God. And that three man- 
ner of ways : first to take away John Knox's 
conceived opinion, that Melchisedec brought 
forth bread and wine, to refresh or gratify 
Abraham and his weary company, I called 
to remembrance, how that the spoils of 
nine kings, and of certain cities too, were 
recovered by Abraham, wherethrough he 
and his company were sufficiently refreshed, 
and had enough to be refreshed on, so that 
they mistered [needed] not to be refreshed 
with bread and wine of Melchisedec. Se- 
condly, where John Knox made question, 
that they had not bread and wine, I re- 
turned again to the text to verify the same. 
Which says, and all things pertaining unto 
meat. Inferring that in this phrase was 
contained bread and wine, conform to the 
phrase of the scripture, where mention is 
made only of bread, containing all things 
necessary for man's sustentation, he finding 
this not sufficient satisfaction. Yet zeid 
[yield] I not to man's imagination, but to 



566 



THE REASONING BETWIXT JOHN KNOX 



the plain text, and grounded myself upon 
the words of the text, saying, Melchisedec 
brought forth bread and wine : inferring, 
in that it was spoken in the third person 
singular, it was against the order of nature, 
to think that a man should bring forth — 
especially he that was a king and a priest, 
to take that pains to bring forth — bread 
and wine, that might gratify, let be to re- 
fresh, three hundred and eighteen men. 
Seeing that invincible persuasions pro- 
perly gathered upon the text, could nowise 
bring John Knox to confess that thing 
which appeared unto me conform to the 
scriptures of Almighty God, and all good 
reason he should have confessed. Then 
concluded I with the scriptures, as I did 
begin, as my conclusion will bear witness, 
that he would have justified his opinion 
conceived of the scripture, conform to his 
own sayings by the express word of God. 
And of my liberality will grant him yet, if 
he has any manner of appearance of the 
same, notwithstanding he said to me he 
would not give me one hair of his head if I 
should stand there seven years. 

John Knox. — Protesting first, that I may 
answer in writ unto the former argument, 
because as I perceive it was before conceived 
in writ, I enter in shortly unto the long- 
discourse made by my lord : not willing to 
answer every part thereof, but only so 
much as may appear to infirm the just 
cause. And first, where that my lord 
afHrmeth that I have made no impugna- 
tion unto his lordship's article concerning 
the mass, I am content that not only this 
honourable audience, but also the whole 
earth, be judge in that point. For I have 
plainly denied that either the mass hath 
approbation of the plain word of God, 
either in name, action, opinion, — to wit, 
written of the mass, taught of the mass, and 
in the conscience of men, conceived of the 
mass, — and finally that the actor thereof, for 
his usurped power, hath no great assurance 
of God's word. Which whole heads being 
denied to be disputed, at the present, 
against my lord's article and ground, I did 
thus reason : that his lordship was not able 
to prove that Christ Jesus in his last sup- 
per did offer his body and blood unto God 



his Father, under the forms of bread and 
wine. His lordship, taking for his proof 
the alleged sacrifice of Melchisedec in 
bread and wine offered unto God, I did 
likewise deny that Melchisedec did at that 
time — to wit, in the presence of Abraham 
— offer either bread or wine unto God, 
which hath been these two days bypast in 
controversy betwixt his lordship and me. 
I have always denied that the Holy Spirit 
in any notable or evident place of scrip- 
ture doth affirm such a sacrifice to have 
been made by Melchisedec unto God : 
and while that I did hear no place of scrip- 
ture adduced for the approbation thereof, 
my lord demanding of me, what then I 
thought was done with the bread and wine ? 
I answered, that albeit I was not bound to 
my judgment, because that he was bound 
to prove his affirmative, as yet I say he is 
bound 3 and thereof I will be content that 
his lordship's most favourable friends, of 
best judgment, yea, even if his lordship 
please, the lords of the session, be judges 
in that point. I answered, I say, that by 
conjecture, the bread and wine were 
brought forth by Melchisedec to refresh 
Abraham and his weary company. Upon 
which occasion his lordship, how justly let 
all men judge, did clothe himself again, with- 
out my procurement, with the personage 
of an impugner; and did adduce such 
things as best pleased his lordship: whereto 
I did answer, as the whole conference will 
report, and as I suppose, sufficiently to 
every thing objected, except that because 
my lord did not touch the exposition al- 
leged by me upon the words, Melchisedec 
alone did bring forth bread and wine, as my 
lord allegeth, I deferred to bring in the 
conference of scriptures to prove that it is 
a thing in scripture very common, that the 
thing that is done at the command of any 
notable person is attributed unto himself, 
although it be done by servants or subjects 
at his command, which I do now shortly. 
It is said in scripture that Noah did all 
that God commanded him : and plain it is 
that God commanded him to make the 
ark, which was in building the full space of 
a hundred years. God further commanded 
him to furnish the ark with all kind of 



AISD THE ABBOT OF CROSSRAGUELL. 



567 



victuals, which the text affirmeth that 
he did. Now if we shall conclude, that 
Noah alone cut every tree, Noah alone did 
hew every tree, and so forth, it appeareth 
to me that we shall conclude a great ab- 
surdity. The same is evident in David, of 
whom mention is made, that he, being pro- 
phet and king, divided to the whole people, 
yea, unto the whole multitude of Israel, 
yea, both to men and women, a portion of 
Iread, a portion of flesh, and a portion of 
wine. 

If we shall think that David did this 
with his own hand, we shall conclude in 
my appearance the former absurdity. The 
same is manifest by many other phrases, 
yea, and by our daily manner of speaking. 
And therefore yet, as of before, I think my 
lord's exposition coact [forced, constrained], 
in that he will admit none to have brought 
forth the bread and wine but Melchisedec 
alone. But howsoever it be, it moveth me 
nothing; for until such time as that my 
lord, in plain words pronounced by the 
Holy Ghost, prove that Melchisedec did 
offer unto God bread and wine, he hath 
proven nothing of that which he took on 
hand to prove. And therefore I greatly 
fear, that while that which his lordship 
calleth the best is so long in finding a sure 
ground within the scripture, that the rest 
in the end be found altogether groundless, 
at the least, within the book of God. And 
therefore I desire, as of before, to hear his 
lordship's probation of the principle. 

M. Qoentin. — I am sorry that we are 
constrained on this manner, to drive time, 
either party in justification of his own 
cause: but wish quickly to go to the 
mark's point, as I have ever done, con- 
form to my article and to my warrant : and 
make the whole world to judge, whether 
it is my duty, after formal reasoning, to de- 
fend the said articles, or to prove, or to 
impugn. Where John Knox makes a 
mane [complaint,] that I have brought my 
arguments or purposes in writ : what I have 
in word, or writ, or otherwise, I praise God. 
But the truth is, according to my custom, I 
made memory [memoranda], after my re- 
pose of such heads, as I thought I was able 
to have business ado with all. And that I 



did by the grace of God only, not that I am 
ashamed to be learned with any man that 
will teach me. And as to the conclusion 
of his particle, where he does make mane, 
that I have no ground of the scripture for 
the mass, as he believes, will God shall frus- 
trate his expectation in that and all others ; 
and assures him will God shall justify the 
mass as sufficiently, conform to my ar- 
ticle, as he and all the rest of his opinion 
in Christendom shall be able to justify by 
express scripture, or any other mean, that 
Jesus Christ is one substance with the 
Father. And that it be not thought that 
these are wanton words, likeas the matter 
should not come to pass, but that I would 
trifle the matter, I will desire John Knox 
most humbly and heartily, for Christ's sake, 
let us go shortly without trifling to the 
purpose, and let work bear witness. And 
so requires to resume my argument, and 
say thereto formally as effeirs. 

John Knox. — Because that every man 
must give accounts before God, not only of 
his works, but also of his words and 
thoughts, I will make no further protes- 
tation, whether that I have defended hither- 
to my own opinion or a manifest truth, or 
whether that I have impugned any truth 
of God or a manifest lie, — let this be said 
with reverence of all persons, for the just- 
ness of the cause, — leaving, I say, the judg- 
ment to God, I say that I have in plain terms 
justly oppugned both the grounds, brought 
forth by my lord for defence of his article. 
For in plain words I have denied, that 
Jesus Christ, in his last supper, did make 
any sacrifice of his body and blood, under 
the forms of bread and wine, unto God his 
Father ; and likewise I have denied, that 
Melchisedec did offer unto God bread and 
wine as of before ; which grounds, because 
my lord hath not hitherto proven, I must 
hold them as impugned and oppugned : 
ever while [until] I hear the ground of 
Melchisedec plainly proven by plain scrip- 
ture, to wit, that the plain scripture say, 
that Melchisedec offered unto God bread 
and wine, or that it be of any plain and 
evident scripture, plainly convicted that so 
he did. His lordship ought not to think it 
strange, although I require to answer in 



568 



THE REASONING BETWIXT JOHN KNOX 



writ, to that argument, which his lordship 
hath propounded, conceived before, and. 
committed in writ, for such 1 take to be the 
liberty of all free disputations. Whose la- 
bour it was, or is, I nothing- regard. For 
so long- as God doth minister unto me spi- 
rit and life, with judgment and ability, I 
intend, by his grace, to oppugn that which 
in my conscience I hold to be damnable 
idolatry. And where his lordship saith, 
that he is as able to affirm the mass, 
which 1 impugn, to be the ordinance of 
God, as that I or any of my opinion, is able 
to prove Jesus Christ to be one substance 
with the Father, with reverence of his 
lordship's personage, blood, and honour, and 
with the reverence and patience of the 
whole auditory, I say, that the assertion is 
not only rash, but also most dangerous, yea, 
and in a part blasphemous. For, for to 
compare the greatest mystery, yea, the 
whole assurance of our redemption, with 
that which, as it hath been used, hath no 
approbation of God's word, — for that I have 
impugned and intend to impugn, — cannot 
lack suspicion of a lightly esteeming- of our 
redemption. And to cut the matter short, 
the former question being decided, to wit, 
whether that Melchisedec did offer unto 
God bread and wine, I offer myself with- 
out further delay to prove that Jesus 
Christ is of one substance with the Father; 
and that by the evident testimonies of 
God's scriptures. And therefore yet, as of 
before, I humbly require his lordship to 
prepare him for his probation of the form- 
er, to wit, of the oblation of Melchisedec. 

M. Quentin. — Where John Knox does 
affirm that in plain terms he has justly 
impugned both the grounds brought forth 
by me for defence of my articles, I answer, 
that I deny that he has made any impugna- 
tion. And where he says, that in plain 
words he has denied that Jesus Christ in 
his last supper did make any sacrifice of 
his body and blood, under the forms of 
bread and wine, unto God his Father, or 
that Melchisedec did offer unto God bread 
and wine, as of before, I answer, that it is 
his duty to make impugnation to my asser- 
tion, conform to my warrant ; for denying 
is no proper nor sufficient impugnation. 



And where he says, that because I have 
not hitherto proven the said grounds, &c. 
I answer, that it is my duty to defend and 
not to prove, conform to my article and my 
warrant. And >where he desires time to 
answer to my argument, proponed this day 
in writ, I freely grant it unto him. And 
where John Knox says, that my assertion 
is not only rash, but also most dangerous, 
yea, and in one part blasphemous, I answer, 
that where he says, I am too rash, I wish 
his modestness in this same such as be- 
comes a sincere Christian, like as he is 
reckoned to be. And where he calls my 
assertion in one part blasphemous, then 
had been time to have called it blas- 
phemy, when he had proven it indeed suf- 
ficiently. And where he says it is dan- 
gerous, there is no danger, it being under- 
derstood as I say and truly mean. For I 
am more nor assured, that Jesus Christ our 
Lord is one substance with the Father, and 
also that Jesus Christ is the author and in- 
stitutor of the mass. And so does not one 
verity make impugnation to another. But 
in this manner of speaking, I will plain my 
industry given unto me by the grace of 
God, willing to contrafit the wisdom and 
prudence of the wise and prudent medici- 
ner, for we are, and should be of reason, 
mediciners to the soul, for like as the pru- 
dent mediciner does expel a venom or 
poison by contrapoison, so would T expel 
the damnable heresies of the Calvinists, 
Lutherans, and iEcolampadians, against the 
blessed sacrifice of the mass, by conference 
with the damnable heresies of the Arians, 
who did allege ten testimonies of scripture 
for one, giving more appearance to prove 
that Christ was not one substance with the 
Father : nor does the Calvinists, Luthe- 
rans, and iEcolampadians, to prove that the 
mass is idolatry, as I shall sufficiently jus- 
tify, as may stand to the glory of God and 
weal of my cause. To the latter part where 
he says, To cut the matter short, the former 
question being decided, to wit, whether 
that Melchisedec did offer bread and wine 
unto God or not, he offers himself without 
further delay to prove that Jesus Christ 
is one substance with the Father, &c. I an- 
swer to the hinder part of this particle. I 



AND THE ABBOT OF CROSSRAG UELL. 



569 



wish of God, he, and all others of his opi- 
nion, mistered as little probation or per- 
suasion to the one, as I do to the other, as 
I would say, to believe the mass to be the 
institution of Christ Jesus, as I do more 
than assuredly believe Christ to be one 
substance with the Father, ai d desires no 
probation thereof: but shall, God willing-, 
prove the one by the scripture as ex- 
press as he shall prove the other. And 
where he humbly desires me to prepare 
myself for the probation of the former, to 
wit, of the oblation of Melchisedec, I hum- 
bly and heartily desire John Knox, as he 
will testify his fervour, that the truth come 
to a trial; and as he will satisfy the expec- 
tation of the noble auditory, that he will 
make impugnation formally according- to 
his duty, to my last argument and con- 
clusion. 

John Knox. — Were my lord to unburden 
himself of that which by all reason he 
ought to sustain, to wit, to prove his affir- 
mative by himself proponed, saith, that to 
deny is not properly to impugn, I answer, 
that in that case it is most proper, for he 
that proponeth for himself an affirmative, 
and his adversary denying the same is ever 
still bound to the probation thereof, and 
the adversary hath ever still impugned it 
until he prove it, and thereupon I desire 
judgment. To the second, I still affirm 
that it is his lordship's duty to prove his 
affirmative, whereupon standeth the vic- 
tory of his whole cause, which is by me in 
plain words denied. To the third, I thank 
his lordship heartily, and promise unto 
him an answer again in writ, this present 
conference being put to a sufficient end. 
To the fourth, as my protestation will wit- 
ness, I speak against the assertion only, 
and not against the person : which yet, in 
my judgment, lacketh not suspicion of the 
former crimes. For howsoever my lord be 
persuaded of the ground and assurance of 
the mass, the assurance whereof I have not 
yet heard, I myself am fully assured that 
there be more than ten thousand who evi- 
dently do know the vanity and impiety of 
that mass which 1 have impugned : who, 
nottheless, most constantly believe Jesus 
Christ to be of one substance with the Fa- 



ther; yea, that do believe whatsoever by 
the scriptures of God, can be proven ne- 
cessary for the salvation of man. There- 
fore, yet again I say, that to lay in any 
manner of equality, that which is most 
sure, and that which was never yet plainly 
proven by the scriptures of God, to be the 
institution of Jesus Christ, is more subject 
to the crimes foresaid, than that I can be 
subject to any suspicion of immodesty for 
my former words. To the blasphemy, I 
answer as before. Immediately to the sixth, 
how that ever my lord understandeth and 
meaneth, that his lordship is as able to 
prove the mass to be the institution of 
Jesus Christ, as I am able to prove Christ 
to be one substance with the Father: I 
think that a great number will think my 
lord's affirmation very hard to be proven. 
And I myself will still continually doubt, 
until the time I hear the probation read. 
To the seventh, as touching my lord's com- 
parison of the mediciner, and of his lord- 
ship's industry, what the pastors of the 
church ought to be, the scriptures plainly 
do teach us : but what universally they 
have been these nine hundred years bypast, 
histories, experience, and recent memory 
have taught us, yea, and presently do teach 
us, to the great grief of all Christianity. 
Where that his lordship doth in plain 
terms condemn the Calvinists, Lutherans, 
and iEcolampadians of heresy, I would 
have required of his lordship delay of time, 
according to his desire of me, until the 
time that their cause had been sufficiently 
1 tried in a lawful universal counsel, duly 
indicted and convened. But where that 
he compareth the doctrine of the fore- 
named with the damnable heresy of Alius, 
I would likewise have wished unto his 
lordship greater foresight in so grave a 
matter. For howsoever the Arians ap- 
peared to abound in testimonies of scrip- 
tures, without all ground, indistinctly con- 
gested, and that because they made no dif- 
ference betwixt the two natures in Jesus 
Christ, but did foolishly appropriate to the 
Godhead that which did only appertain to 
the manly [human] nature, yet think I, that 
my lord shall never be able, by plain scrip- 
ture to impugn any chief head, either 
4 0 



570 



THE REASONING BETWIXT JOHN KNOX 



affirmed or denied in doctrine of salvation 
by the foresaid persons, likeas did the 
godly and learned in their ages, the fore- 
said damnable heresy. To the last, I have 
already promised to answer to my lord's 
argument in writ, and therefore ought not 
to be burdened with it now, especially be- 
cause it is without our former ground, and 
doth not properly appertain to the cause. 
And yet therefore now last for conclusion, 
that we shall not be compelled continually 
to repeat one thing, I desire my lord ac- 
cording to his duty and reason of disputa- 
tion, to bring forth his probation of his 
two former grounds by me plainly denied. 

This conference being- ended for this 
time, my lord presently did rise for trouble 
of body, and then John Knox did shortly 
resume the principal grounds. And be- 
cause the noblemen here assembled were 
altogether destitute of all provision, both 
for horse and man, the said John humbly 
required the foresaid lord, that it would 
please him to go to Ayr, where that better 
easement might be had for all estates; 
which because my lord utterly refused, the 
said John desired when that the said con- 
ference should be ended ? My lord did pro- 
mise, that upon license purchased of the 
queen's majesty and her honourable coun- 



cil, that he would compear in Edinburgh, 
and there, in their presence, finish the said 
conference. The said John did promise to 
travail with the secret counsel, that the 
said licence might be obtained ; and desired 
the foresaid lord, to do the like with the 
queen's majesty, whereupon the said John 
Knox took instruments and documents. 

M. Quentin. — At the conclusion of our 
reasoning, 1 gave John Knox an argument 
in writ, desiring him that he would justify 
his opinion by express testimony of scrip- 
ture, or any appearance thereof. Whereto 
the said John required time to give 
answer, and the time might nowise serve 
of farther reasoning for such causes as are 
comprehended in the said John Knox's 
writing. And as towards his desire of me 
to Ayr, truly it was the thing that I might 
not presently commodiously do. But al- 
ways [however] I will compear before the 
queen's grace, and such as her grace pleases to 
take to be auditors, to defend the said articles, 
and in special the article concerning the 
mass, as they are written, when and where 
it be her grace's pleasure, so that the abili- 
ty of my body will serve any wise, as I 
hope to God it shall, to whom be praise, 
glory, and honour for ever. 

Crossraguell. 



THE ANSWER 

TO MY LORD'S LAST ARGUMENT, 

PROPONED BY HIM IN WRIT, THE LAST DAY OF DISPUTATION. 



M. Quentin. — Whatsoever opinion is con- 
ceived of the scriptures of Almighty God, 
having no express testimony nor appear- 
ance of the same, is utterly to be refused, 
as says John Knox himself. But so it is 
that John Knox's own opinion conceived 
or contracted of the scripture, concerning 
the bringing forth of bread and wine by Mel- 
chisedec, to refresh or gratify Abraham and 
his weary company, is not expressly con- 



tained in the scripture, nor has no appear- 
ance of the same, therefore it follows well, 
that it is all utterly by his own judgment 
to be refused. 

John Knox. — If I should grant unto you, 
my lord, your whole argument, I should 
but declare myself ignorant of the art, and 
unmindful of my own affirmation; but yet 
had ye proven nothing of your intent. The 
chief question and controversy Letwixt you 



AND THE ABBOT OF CROSS RAG UELL. 



571 



and me, is not whether that my interpre- 
tation of that place, — which at your in- 
stance and request I gave, — be true or not : 
but whether that Melchisedec, the figure of 
Christ, did offer unto God bread and wine, 
which ye have affirmed, and have laid it to 
be the ground and cause, why it behoved 
Christ Jesus to have made oblation of his 
body and blood, under the forms of bread 
and wine, in his last supper ; which both I 
denied, so that it rests to you to prove, 
that Melchisedec, the figure of Christ, did 
offer unto God bread and wine, &c. And 
appertains not unto me to prove my opin- 
ion nor interpretation : for supposing that 
my opinion conceived of that place were to 
be rejected, — as ye are never able to prove 
it to be, — yet is your affirmative never the 
better proven ; for if ye will conclude, it 
was not brought forth to refresh Abraham, 
. — which is yet not proven, — ergo, it was 
brought forth to be offered unto God : 
babes will mock you, and send you again to 
your logic. But yet, my lord, with your 
leave, I must come nearer you, and say, 
that the major or first part of your argu- 
ment is false, and that ye falsely allege 
upon me that which I never spake nor 
meant. Read the whole conference be- 
twixt you and me, and ye shall not find 
that I have simply affirmed that all opinion 
of man, conceived of the scriptures, is ut- 
terly to be rejected, unless the same be 
proven by the manifest word of God ; for I 
am not ignorant that some interpretations 
are tolerable, yea, and may be to the edifi- 
cation of the church, although they do not 
fully express the mind of the Holy Ghost 
in that place. But I have affirmed, and 
yet affirm, that neither the authority of 
the church, the determination of the coun- 
cil, nor the opinion of the doctor is to be re- 
ceived in matters of faith, and in the doc- 
trine concerning our salvation, unless the 
same be proven by the express word of 
God. And therefore, my lord, with your 
leave, I must say, that either wilfully or 
else by some oversight ye have omitted, 
both in the major and in the minor of your 
argument, that which should have been 
the cause and assurance of your conclusion ; 
for thus ye ought to have reasoned, what- 



soever opinion is conceived of the scrip- 
ture of Almighty God, concerning faith and 
the doctrine of salvation, having no express 
testimony of the same, is to be rejected. 
But so it is, that John Knox's own opin- 
ion concerning the bringing forth of bread 
and wine by Melchisedec, is a matter con- 
cerning faith, and the doctrine of our sal- 
vation, and yet hath no testimony of 
God's expressed word ; therefore it is to be 
rejected. If on this manner ye had rea- 
soned, my lord, — as of necessity ye must 
do, if ye conclude any thing against me, — 
I would have immediately denied the se- 
cond part of your argument, and have said, 
that to know or define what was done 
with the bread and wine brought out by 
Melchisedec, is no article of our belief, nei- 
ther yet is it a doctrine necessary to the sal- 
vation of man. For neither did Adam, 
Abel, Seth, Enos, Enoch, Methusalem, nor 
Noah, believe any such thing, neither yet is 
there since the days of Abraham, any com- 
mandment given by God to believe such an 
article; yea, further, in the whole scrip- 
tures, there is no mention made what was 
done with that bread and wine, and there- 
fore it can be no article of our belief, nor 
yet no doctrine concerning our salvation, 
and so hath your argument broken its own 
neck. If I list, my lord, to sport a little 
with you, I might find some occasion in the 
second part of your argument; for where 
ye affirm that my opinion concerning the 
bringing forth of the bread and wine by 
Melchisedec, to refresh Abraham and his 
company, is neither expressly contained in 
the word of God, neither yet hath appear- 
anae of the same, and therefore utterly it is 
to be rejected. Now, my lord, give me 
leave to turn this part of the argument in 
your own bosom, if I can, and that so I 
may do, thus I reason. 

The opinion conceived by my lord abbot 
concerning bread and wine, brought forth by 
Melchisedec to be offered unto God, is not 
expressly contained in God's scriptures, 
therefore it is utterly to be rejected. Be- 
ware, my lord, that ye be not beaten with 
your own baton, for then must the mass, 
yea, the best part of the same, stand upon 
an unsure ground, that is to say, upon the 



572 



THE REASONING BETWIXT JOHN KNOX, fee. 



opinion of man, and having- no assurance of 
God's expressed word. But now, my lord, 
raerryness set aside, I humbly require you 
by my pen, as I did by mouth, that 
deeply ye consider with what conscience 
before God ye dare affirm that, doctrine to 
be wholesome, yea, and necessary to be be- ' 
lieved, whereof ye are able to bring no 
proof out of the manifest word of God. 
The second day of our conference and dis- 
putation, when I was constrained to an- 
swer your frivolous conjectures and vani- j 
ties, your brags and boast oftener blown 
out than once, where that your probation 
should be so evident, that the stones should 
hear your probation, and the dead walls 
should see the justness of your cause. I 
patiently did abide, — although perchance 
with the grief of some brethren, — these 
your wanton words, and thought with my- 
self parturiunt rnontes, 8?c. But what is 
now produced and brought forth, the world 
may see, it may appear that ye were 
hard beset, when, to avoid the proof of 
your own affirmative, ye tied to impugn 
that which appertaineth nothing to the 
purpose. For as I was not bound to have 
shown unto you what I thought was done 



with the bread and wine brought forth by 
Melchisedec, so was I not bound to have 
defended my interpretation and judgment 
of that place : but unto you it always ap- 
pertaineth, — and if ever we meet again 
upon that head, it will yet be judged to 
appertain to you, — to prove that Melchise- 
dec did at that time offer bread and wine 
unto God ; which I am well assured, that 
ye are never able to do by any testimony of 
God's word. And therefore must I say, 
the mass standeth groundless ; and the 
greatest patron thereof, for all his sicker 
riding, hath once lost his stirrups, yea, is 
altogether set beside his saddle. And yet 
the common bruit goeth, that ye, my lord, 
your flatterers and collaterals brag greatly 
of your victory obtained in disputation 
against John Knox, but I will not believe 
you to be so vain, unless J shall know 
the certainty by your own hand writ. 

Let all men now judge upon what 
ground the sacrifice of the mass standeth. 
The heavenly Father hath not planted 
within his scripture such a doctrine : it 
folio we th, therefore, that it ought to be 
rooted out of all godly men's hearts. 



INDEX. 



The kite?' n. is appended to such Articles as are to be found in the Editorial Notes. 



Abbeys, some destroyed by order of council, 238. 
Adamson, Eliz., her death, 84. 

Airth, William, a friar, in a sermon at Dundee speaks 
freely against the licentious lives of bishops, 14. 

Aleseus, Alexander, flies from persecution into Ger. 
many, 20. 

Anderson, Alexander, sub-principal of Aberdeen, called 
before the convention of the nobility to give an ac- 
count of his faith, 226, 227. 

Andrew's, St, castle of, besieged after cardinal Beaton's 
death, 63— an agreement made with the besieged, ib. 
— siege of, 70— surrender, 71— rased, 72. 

Argyle, earl of, makes Douglas his chaplain, 95 — his an- 
swer to the articles sent to him by the bishop of St 
Andrews, to dissuade him from embracing the refor- 
mation, 96, &c. — sides with the protestants, 120, 121 — 
letter to the queen regent, 128— assists the church, 327 
— complained of for raising forces, 330 — threatened, 
331. 

Armstrong, Andrew, put to trouble, 293. 

Arran, earl of, chosen governor of Scotland on the 
death of James V. 32 — by the practices of the abbot 
of Paisley he favours the catholic views, 36 — breaks 
the contract of marriage betwixt queen Mary and 
prince Edward of England, 37— renounces the pro- 
testaut religion in Stirling, ib. — gives Ids eldest son 
pledge to cardinal Beaton, ib. — made duke of Cha- 
telherault, &c. 74 — deposed, 1554, 82 — his purgation in 
form, 160 — ordered by the privy council to deliver up 
Dumbarton castle to the queen, 169. 

Arran, earl of, eldest son of the preceding, arrives from 
France, 139— proposed by the parliament of Scotland 
560 in marriage to queen Elizabeth, 224, rejected, ib. 
— makes suit to queen Mary of Scotland for marriage, 
but is refused by her, 226 — Ms protestation against 
an act of privy council, 249— is in great trouble of 
mind, and pretends to discover a treasonable conspi- 
racy against the queen contrived by the earl of Both- 
well, 268 — other acts of frenzy, ib. — imprisoned, 269 — 
is ill used by captain James Stewart of Cardonel his 
keeper, ib. 

Articles, on which the Lollards of Kyle were accused, 
4 — concluded by the protestants of Scotland for the 
promoting reformation, 94 — of reformation agreed on 
by the popish clergy, 101 — agreed to by the bishop of 
Vallance and monsietir Randam, commissioners from 
France, and the nobility and people of Scotland, 200— 
above mentioned proclaimed at Edinburgh, 8th July, 
1560-204. 

Assembly, General, of the church of Scotland, petitions 
against idolatry and respecting stipends, 236— meets in 
Dec. 1561, 256 —debates concerning the Book of Dis- 
c'-pline, 257— presents articles concerning the planting 
of kirks and provision of ministers, ib. — its address to 
the queen concerning the earl of Bothwell, &c. for 



breaking up Cuthbert Ramsay's house, 264— meets 
24th June, 1562, sends a supplication to the queen con- 
cerning abuses, 271— 274— meets 25th Dec 1562, 281— 
approves Knox, 300— meets in June, 1564, 304— ap- 
points a conference with Knox, ib.— meets in De- 
cember, 1564, 321— meets, frames some articles to the 
queen concerning religion, 327— which are presented 
to her, 328— her answer, ib.— convenes in Edinburgh 
25th December, 1565, makes some acts against the 
mass, and addresses the queen for payment of their 
stipends, 340— appoints a fast, ib.— supplicates the 
king and queen for stipends, 341— convenes 25th June, 
1566, before whom Paid Methven compears, 346— 
meets 25th Dec. 1566, its letter to the bishops of Eng- 
land in favour of such as were persecuted for refus- 
ing to comply with the ceremonies, 350. 

Athole, Earl of, one of the queen's counsellors, 336— 
338— goes to Stirling, enters into a bond with many 
of the nobility to defend the young prince, and revenge 
the murder of king Henry, 354. 

Ayrshire, Lollards in, 4— assistance from, to the con- 
gregation, 122— bond of the barons from, for main- 
taining ministers, with the names of the signers, 276. 

B 

Balfour, Sir James, his character, 70, and n.— prisoner 
in the gallies, set at liberty, 80. 

Balfour, James, parson of Flisk, his great interest at 
court, 335, 336— his saying to the inhabitants of Edin- 
burgh, 337— capitulates with the lords for delivery of 
the castle of Edinburgh, 357. 

Ballenden, Sir John, justice clerk, 300. 

Balnaves, Henry, his imprisonment, &c. 77, and n. 

Baptism, opinions concerning, 106, and n. 

Bawbee, Scotch, value, and origin of the name, 135, n. 

Beaton, Cardinal David, puts king James's hand, after 
he was dead, to a blank paper, above which was 
superinduced a pretended testament, 31— imprisoned 
in Dalkeith and Seyton, gets himself released by 
bribery, 33— heads a faction against Arran, 37— causes 
dissension betwixt lord Ruthven and lord Grey, con- 
cerning the office of provost of Perth, 38 — persecutes 
many in the town of Perth for pretended heresy, 39, 
40 — puts four men and a woman to death on suspicion 
of their having eaten a goose on Friday, ib.— causes 
Jolm Roger a black friar to be murdered, ib. — perse- 
cutes Wishart, 51— his death, May 29th, 1546, 59— 
sketch of his life, 62, n. 

Beaton, James, his character and titles, 6 — his crafti- 
ness and cruelty towards Patrick Hamilton, 7— fur- 
ther cruelties, 19, 20. 

Bedford, earl of, governor of Berwick, receives the 
banished lords, 339— attends the baptism of king 
James, 349. 



574 



INDE X. 



Berwick honours queen Mary, 349. 

Bishops, death of several, 89— twopenny faith sent 
abroad by, 101 — silence in parliament, 220— embroil 
the protectant cause, 233. 

Black, a friar, says mass to the queen regent, 198. 

Bond of the protestant nobility to promote religion, 
from which they took the name of lords of the con- 
gregation, Edinburgh, 3d December, 1557, 94— by the 
congregation at Perth, 123, 124— for maintenance of 
religion and mutual defence, at Stirling, 26th July, 
559, 138— at Leith, 136, 196— by the gentlemen of 
Kyle, Cunningham, and Carrick in favour of the 
protestant religion, 4th September, 1562, 276— by the 
noblemen, who slew Rizzio, to maintain religion and 
liberty, 342. 

Borthrcick, captain John, burned in effigy, 21. 

Bothwell, earl of, waylays Ormiston, 166— escapes pur- 
suit, ib. — his house of Crichton spoiled, 168— with 
some others break up Cuthbert Ramsay's door, in 
quest of Alison Craig, his daughter-in-law, 264— tu- 
mult betwixt him and the Hamiltons, 266— seeks to 
be reconciled with the earl of Arran by means of 
John Knox, ib. — which is accomplished, 267 — impri- 
soned on the accusation of Arran, 269 — escapes out 
of Edinburgh castle, 275 — obtains liberty to go to 
France, 280— returns from France, 322— his enmity 
to the earl of Murray, ib. — summoned to answer the 
course of the law for his crimes, ib. — fails to appear, 
324— retires to France, ib.— the queen favours Mm, ib. 
arrives from France, and is made lieutenant in the 
west and middle marches, 337— is married to the earl 
of Huntly's sister, 342— goes to the queen at Dunbar, 
344_in favour with the queen, and procures favour 
to the lairds of Ormiston, Hatton, and Calder, 345— 
receives lands, &c. from the queen, ib.— procures par- 
don for some of those who were accessory to Rizzio 's 
slaughter, 347— deserts the protestant sermons, ib.— 
is wounded by the thieves in Nithsdale, visited by the 
queen in his sickness, 348— generally courted, 349— 
causes the body of Darnley to be carried to the next 
house, 352 — contriver of his murder, 353— reasons, ib. 
—tried and acquitted, 353— calls together several 
lords, and procures their consent to his marriage with 
the queen, ib.— carries her to Dunbar, as it were by 
force, ib. — obtains his pardon from her, and a divorce 
from his lady, ib. — married to queen Mary, 354 — 
causes the queen write to the nobility, a bond subscrib- 
ed by several, ib. — raises men with a design to seize 
the prince, 355 — but is prevented, ib. — made duke of 
Orkney, ib. — marches against the lords with Mary, ib. 
—challenges them to single combat, 356— forbid by 
Mary to fight, ib — escapes by her means, 357 — 
sends to Sir James Balfour for a silver cabinet, ib.— 
the lords seize it, and find in it the letters and love 
sonnets betwixt the queen and Bothwell, ib. 
Bowes, Margery, spouse to Knox, dies, 226. 

Briance, count, ambassador from the king of France to 
attend the prince's baptism, 349. 

Buclianan, George, imprisoned, makes his escape, 24, 
and n.— specimen of his " Franciscan," 25, n.— men- 
tioned, 3 21, n. 

C 

Caithness, earl of, imprisoned for a murder committed 

by his servants upon the earl of Marshall's men, but 

soon released, 303. 
Carmichael, Richard, prosecuted, 16. 
Cassils, earl of, and others die in France, suspected to 

have been poisoned, 90. 
Cassils, earl of, marries lord Glammis' sister, and by 

her persuasion becomes protestant, and carries on the 

reformation in Carrick, 31S. 



Cecil, Sir William, his first letter to the congregation, 
182— his answer to John Knox's letter, 186— comes to 
Scotland to negotiate with the French, 200. 

Chalmers, James, laird of Gathgirth, his bold speech to 
the queen regent, 8S. 

Chatellet dances with queen Mary, 283— brought to St 
Andrews, tried, and beheaded, 283. 

Chattelherault, duke of, See Arran. 

Child?nurder, two of the queen's court hanged for, 301. 

Churches of Geneva, Berne, and Basil, &c. send the con- 
fession of their faith to the church of Scotland, which 
is approven by them, 348. 

Clergy, Popish, in Scotland, remarks on, 16, n.— poems 
against, 25, and n. — remarks on, 62, n. 

Cockburn, John, See Ormiston. 

Cockle, knighthood of the, a French order, conferred on 

several nobles, 74 — on Darnley, 342. 
Coldingliam, lord John, his death and character, 292. 
Colvin, Robert of Cleish, master of household to lord 

James, slain at the siege of Leith, May, 1560, 198. 
Coinets and fires, 87, 301, and n. 

Confession of faith by Mr Patrick Hamilton, 8—13 — of 
the barons and ministers presented to parliament, 208 
—213. 

Congregation of protestants and lords of their bond, 
98— their address to the queen regent complaining of 
the hardships she had put them under, 116 — their de- 
claration in their own defence, 117 — their declaration 
to the popish prelates, &c. 120 — assisted at Perth by 
the gentlemen of Fife, Angus, and Mearns, and town 
of Dundee, ib. — and by forces from Ayrshire, 122 — 
their bond 123 — meet in great numbers in Cupar muir, 
126 — make a cessation of arms with the queen for 
eight days, 13th June, 1559, 127, and n. — write to the 
queen regent, 128 — march to St Johnston, rescue the 
town, but the abbey destroyed, 129— seize Stirling, 
131— and from thence march to Edinburgh, ib. — nego- 
tiation between them and the queen regent, 131 — 135 
— vindicate themselves from the calumny of debasing 
the public coin, and of carrying off money from the 
mint, 135 — their agreement with the queen regent, 
24th July, 1559, 136, 137 — these articles proclaimed, 
138— depart from Edinburgh to Stirling, their bond 
there, 138— their answer to the queen's proclamation, 
28th August, 1559, 145 — another answer to the said 
proclamation, 148— their convention at Stirling, 10th 
September, 1559, 150 — their letter to the queen regent 
upon her beginning to fortify Leith, 19th September, 
1559, ib. — their letter to lord Erskine, informing him 
of the Frenchmen's fortifying Leith, 19th September, 
1559, 151 — appoint their forces to meet at Stirling, 15th 
October, 1559, 152 — give warning to the country of the 
designs of the French, ib. — their declaration against 
the queen regent's proclamation, 154 — their second 
admonition to the queen regent, 160 — convene in 
council at Edinburgh 21st October, 1559, depose by 
their unanimous sentence the queen regent, 162 — the 
reasons contained in their declaration, ib. — intimate 
the queen's suspension from authority at the cross of 
Edinburgh, and send back the lion herald to her with 
their answer, 164 — summon the town of Leith by 
sound of trumpet, and get defiance from those within, 
165— send Ormiston to Berwick for money, 166 — pur- 
sue the earl of Bothwell for wounding and robbing 
the laird of Ormiston, ib. — lose some of their great 
ordnance, 167 — skirmish with the French, 168 — re- 
move to Stirling, 169— harass the French, 178— their 
letter to Sir William Cecil, 182 — send lord James 
Stewart, lord Ruthven, &c. to meet the duke of Nor- 
folk and the queen of England's commissioners, 190— 
instructions to the commissioners, 193 — their bond at 
Leith, 27th April, 1560, 1C6— petition the parliamant 



I N D 

15G0, for establishing the protestant religion, 206— 
their confession of faith presented to the parliament, 
208—220. See Nobility, and General Assembly. 

Convention of grey friars, Knox's answers before a, 66. 

Councils, 110, n. 

Council, Privy, ambassador from France to, 232— an- 
swers to Ms proposal, 237 — make an act, that all 
places and monuments of idolatry should be destroyed, 
which is executed, 238— their letter to queen Eliza- 
beth concerning queen Mary's refusing to ratify the 
treaty at Leith, 16th July, 1561, 242— act 25th August, 
1561, commanding every person to keep the peace, 
248— four of their acts concerning the provision of 
ministers, all in 1561, 25S— 261. 

Craig, John, his satire on two of Mary's court, 302 — his 
speech in conference, 318 — his reasons for refusing 
to proclaim Bothwell and Mary, 354. 

Cranston, Patrick, interrupts mass at Holyrood, &c. 
293. 

Craw, Paul, a Bohemian burned at St Andrews for 
alleged heresy, anno 1431, 3. 

Crichton, Abraham, president of the session, dies, 345. 

Crofts, Sir James, an English general, 195 — blamed for 
neglect of duty at the assault on Leith, 197. 

Crossraguell, Kennedy abbot of, disputes with Knox, 
277 — abbacy thrown down by order of the privy coun- 
cil, 238. 

Crown matrimonial granted to the daupldn of France, 
husband to queen Mary, 101 — voted to Darnley, 328. 

Cumming, Robert, a schoolmaster, tried for idolatry, 
281. 

D 

Dancers, invective against, 301. 

Daniot, John, his advice to Rizzio, 342. 

Darnley, Henry Stewart lord, arrives in Scotland, Feb- 
ruary 20th, 1564-5, 322 — is introduced to the queen, 
ib. — created earl of Ross, 326 — and soon after duke of 
Rothsay, ib.— crown matrimonial granted to in 
council, ib. — proclaimed king, 331 — made knight of the 
cockle, 332 — his honours limited by the queen, ib. — 
marches with the queen to various places, 333 — 338, 
see Queen Mary. — vindicates himself from the slaugh- 
ter of Rizzio, 343 — neglected by the queen, 348 — and 
generally, ib. — wants such things as are necessary 
for his station, writes to the Pope, the kings of Spain 
and France, ib. — complains that popery is not again 
erected in Scotland, and lays the blame thereof on 
the queen, ib. — his reception by the queen at Jed- 
burgh, ib. — how used at Stirling at the time of his 
son's baptism, 349 — gets poison, goes to Glasgow, ib. 
— is allured by the queen to come to Edinburgh, 
where he is murdered, 352 — inquest on his body, ib. — 
his character, ib. — remarks concerning his murder, 
ib. 

Dearth in Scotland in 1563, 284 — causes, ib. 

Discipline, commission given to several ministers and 
superintendents, to frame the policy and discipline of 
the kirk, 223 — first book of, subscribed by a great part 
of the nobility, ib. — printed at large, 486 — 525. 

Dun. See Erskine, John. 

Dunbar, bishop of Glasgow, 49, and n. — his quarrel at 
Glasgow cathedral with cardinal Beaton for prece- 
dency, 50 — agreed upon Mr Wishart's prosecution, 51. 

Dundee, town of, aids the congregation, 114 — 120 — 
sends forces to assist at the siege of Leith, 167 — pays 
composition to queen Mary, 335. 

Durie, bishop of Galloway, his death and character, 91, 
and n. 

E 

Edinburgh spoiled and burned by the English army, 41 



E x. 575 

—tumult in, the provost slain, 76— imssge of St Giles 
burned there, 87— tumult on St Giles' day, 88— tumults 
in, 234— fired on by Erskine from the castle, 334— 
money exacted from by the queen, 337. 

Edinburgh, magistrates of, make a proclamation against 
vice and popery, 255 — imprisoned by the queen, ib. — 
and an order given to make a new election of magis- 
trates, which is reluctantly obeyed, 255. 

Edward VI. of England dies, his character, 83. 

Elders and deacons, the order of their election in the 
kirk of Edinburgh, 230—232. 

Elizabeth queen of England answers the Scots ambas- 
sadors that she would not marry soon, and desired 
that the earl of Arran might not depend on any hopes 
thereof, 226— ratifies the treaty of peace at Leith, 2S8 
— much offended at queen's Mary's refusal to ratify 
the treaty at Leith, 240— writes to estates of Scotland 
concerning that matter, 241— her embassy to desire 
the ratification of the treaty of Leith, which is again 
declined by queen Mary, 256— negociation betwixt 
her and queen Mary, and an interview betwixt them 
designed at York, which did not take place, 271 — ap- 
pears displeased with queen Mary's intention to 
marry lord Darnley, commands the earl of Lennox 
and lord Darnley to return to England, 322— her dis- 
simulation, 323, 326— denies aid to the banished lords, 
339 — sends them some support after the earl of Mur- 
ray's departure from her, and writes to queen Mary, 
ib. 

Elphinston, Nicolas, sent to England by the protestants 
for support, 332. 

English, their ships and troops come to Scotland, 40— 
they march towards Leith, 72— engage the Scots near 
Musselburgh, 73— fortify Broughty, 74— ships fight 
with the French, 76 — peace with, 81 — ships enter the 
Forth, 178, 190 — English army in aid of the congre- 
gation assembles, 194 — enters Scotland, 195— skirmish 
at Leith, ib. — English and Scots assault Leith, 197 — 
army of the, leaves Scotland, 204. 

Erskine, lord, governor of Edinburgh castle, 167 — his 
firmness, 175 — his reason for refusing to subscribe the 
Book of Discipline, 223, and n. — made earl of Mai', 
331. 

Erskine, John, of Dun, his interview with the queen 
regent, 114— writes to the congregation, ib. — with- 
draws from her, ib — the consequences, ib. — interview 
with queen Mary, 291. 

F 

Failfufd, religious house of, thrown down by order of 

the privy council, 238. 
Faith, tico-penny, a popish catechism so called, 101. 
Farces, popish, the Abbot of Unreason, 15, and n. — 

Robin Hood, 233, and n. 
Faside hill, battle of, 72. 

Ferrier, Alex., his singular behaviour on being accused 

of heresy, 16. 
Fife, John, flies from persecution, 20. 
Flisk, see Balfour. 

Forbes, lady, her words on Huntly's death, 280. 
Forrest, vicar of Dollar, burned, 22 — his character, ib. 
and n. 

Forrest, , of Linlithgow burned for having a New- 
Testament in English, 19, and n. 
Fox's Book of Martyrs, 6, and n. 

Francis II. king of France, crown matrimonial of Scot- 
land granted to, 101, 102 — his and queen Mary's let- 
ter to lord James prior of St Andrews, 139 — refuses 
to confirm the peace contracted at Leith; 1560, 222 — 
dies 15th December, 1560, 224, 225 — a poem upon his 
death in Latin and English, 225. 



576 



INDEX. 



French, inroad at Wark, 41— galleys attack St Andrews 
castle, 70— an additional force of, eomes to Scotland, 
74 — fortify Inveresk, 76 — peace, 81— their presump- 
tion, 144— their numbers in Scotland complained of, 
148— skirmishes with the, 167, 168— take King-horn, 
176 — their cruelty to a Scotchman, 195 — attack the 
English trenches, ib. — transported from Leith to 
France, 204. 

G 

Geneva, church of, sends its confession to that of Scot- 
land, their uniformity, 348. 

Giles, St, image of in Edinburgh how used, S7, 88 — 
church of used in preparing scaling ladders for the 
siege of Leith, 165. 

Glasgow, persecution in, for heresy, 22 — fray in, be- 
tween two prelates, 50 — country about, destroyed by 
the French, 194. 

Glencairn, Alexander earl of, his poem against the 
friars, 25 — protests against A. Wallace's death, 82 — 
his resolution, 120 — together with the gentlemen of 
the west comes seasonably to the relief of Perth, 122 
— breaks down the altars and images in the chapel of 
Holyroodhouse after the queen's imprisonment in 
Lochleven, 357. 

Goodman, Christ., his words in assembly, 300. 

Gourley, Norman, burned for heresy, 21. 

Gordon, capt., of Inverness castle, executed, 277. 

Gordon, John, laird of Findlater, pursues lord Ogilvie, 
275 — is taken and imprisoned, ib. — makes his escape, 
ib. — surprises captain Stewart, 278 — see Huntly. 

Grange^ see Kirkaldy, Win. 

Gray, lord, general of the English army, 195 — is com- 
manded by the duke of Norfolk to continue the 
siege of Leith, 198. 

Guise, duke of, and faction, their practices, 225 — slain, 
291. 

H 

Haddington fortified by the English, 74— infected with 
the pestilence, 80. 

Halden rigg, raid of, 26. 

Haliburton, capt. Alexander, death of, 168. 

Hamiltons, their feud with Bothwell's party, 266— re- 
fuse to join with the lords who oppose queen Mary, 
and enter into a bond for the protection of the young- 
prince, 357. 

Hamilton, laird of Stenhouse and provost of Edinburgh, 

slain by the French in a tumult, 76. 
Hamilton, Gavin, slain by the English, 74. 
Hamilton, Sir James, appears to king James V. after 

his death, 24. 

Hamilton, John, abbot of Paisley and bishop of St An- 
drews, bastard brother to the earl of Arran, governor, 
gives him ill council, 36 — by his practices and cardinal 
Beaton's the contract of marriage betwixt our queen 
and prince Edward is broken by the earl of Arran, 
governor, 37 — takes the lady Stenhouse from her hus- 
band, and lives a very flagitious life, 41 — made bishop 
of St Andrews, excommunicates and causes denounce 
rebels such as were accessory to cardinal Beaton's 
death, 66 — his letter to the earl of Argyle, and in- 
structions to Sir David Hamilton, to dissuade the 
said earl from embracing the reformation, 95, &c. — 
sketch of his life and character, 109, and n. — and 
abbot of Crossraguell meet secretly in Paisley, 275 — 
erects the mass, 1563, 284 — procures an order from 
the queen to put him in possession of all the power 
he had before the reformation, 352 — comes to Edin- 
burgh with 100 horse to take possession, is desired by 



the provost of Edinburgh to desist from the design ; 
he complies with the advice at that time, ib. 

Ha?nilton, John, an unlearned ambassador, 72. 

Hamilton, Patrick, sketch of his life, 6 — condemned 
and burned for heresy, 7 — his articles of doctrine in- 
serted, 8—14 

Harlow, William, a protestant preacher comes to Scot- 
land, 83 — his character, ib. and it— preaches publicly 
in Edinburgh, 87. 

Hay, George, commissioner to Carrick, 275. 

Henry VIII. king of England, abolishes the authority of 
the pope of Rome in England and suppresses monas- 
teries, 20— assignation with king James V. at York, 
which was agreed to by king James, 26— offers his 
son Edward to queen Mary, 35. 

Henry, a man named, executed for Rizzio's murder, 
348. 

Hepburn, Patrick, bishop of Murray, his character, 15. 

Home, castle of, recovered from the English, 1549, 77. 

Hood, Robin, game of, celebrated at the instigation of 
the papists, 233, and n. 322. 

Huntly, earl of, engaged at the battle of Faside, 73— 
taken, ib. — ransomed, ib.— his interview with queen 
Mary, 277— her displeasure at him, ib.— denoimced 
rebel, 278— his forces overcome at Carrochie-burn, 
279— Ms death, ib.— his title with that of eleven of 
Ms party forfeited, 287— lord Gordon restored to the 
digmty, 331. 

I - flfcfr**f* 

Images stolen away in all parts of the country, 87 — 

broken in Holyrood, 357. 
Inquisition against the inhabitants of Dundee and Leith 

by cardinal Beaton, 21. 

J 

James V. king of Scotland, how Avrought on by the 
clergy, 23, n.— Ms dreams, 24 — assembles his forces at 
Fala, 27 — where they refuse to invade England, ib.— 
makes an unsuccessful expedition against England, 
ib. — gets news of its bad success, falls into a deep 
melancholy, 31 — soon after dies, 32. 

James prince of Scotland, and afterwards king James VI. 
of Scotland and L of G. Britain, born in the castle of 
Edinburgh, 19th June, 1566, 346— baptized in Stirling 
castle after the popish manner, 349 — crowned king at 
Stirling, and the earl of Morton and lord Hume take 
the coronation oath in name of the young king, 359. 

K 

Keilor, a black-friar, burned on the castleMll of Edin- 
burgh, 22, and n. 

Keith, earl marshal/, his notable speech when he voted 
for establishing the protestant religion, 1560, 220. 

Keith's History of the Scottish Bishops corrected, 49, n. 
61, n. 89, n. 90, n. 91, n. 

Kennedy, burned for heresy at Glasgow, Ms behaviour, 
22. 

Kennedy, Quinten, Ms dispute with Knox, 277 — his 
work on the subject, 527. 

Kilwinning abbacy thrown down by order of the privy 
council, 64. 

Kinghorn wasted by the French, 179. 

Kirkaldy, Wm., laird of Grange, his advice to king 
James, 28 — Ms counsel about the election of Arran to 
be governor, 31 — enters the castle of St Andrews, 6) 
— he and others escape from France, 79— sends a 
challenge to monsieur d'Oysel, 177 — defeats captai i 
Batu, 178. 



INDEX. 



577 



Knox, John, his intercourse with Wishart, 47— enters 
the castle of St Andrews, 1547, 64— teaches there, ib.~ 
is solicited to enter into the office of the ministry, ib. 
his dispute concerning the popish tenets with dean 
John Annan, ib. — is opposed by Hamilton bishop of 
St Andrews, 66 — is called before a convention of gray 
and black friars, and accused of several articles, ib. — 
conference between him and John Winram sub-prior 
of St Andrews and friar Arbuckle, 66 — 69 — sent with 
others to the galleys, 71— his feelings there, 78 — his 
escape with William and Robert Leslie in beggars' 
garments, 79— comes to England, preaches at several 
places,ib.— goes to Geneva, ib. — called to be preacher at 
Frankfort, ib.— accused by the English refugees, ib. — 
returns to Geneva, goes to Dieppe, 80— returns to 
Scotland and preaches in Edinburgh secretly, 84— goes 
to Dun at the laird's desire, 85 — summoned before the 
bishops, 15th May, but diet not held, ib. — wrote a letter 
to the queen dowager, 86 — copy of, at 361 — goes again 
to Geneva, 86 — burned in effigy for non-appearance, 
87 — makes his appellation, ib.— inserted, 375 — 100 — let- 
ter from some of the nobility to, 91 — letter to the pro- 
testant nobility of Scotland from Dieppe, 92, and n. — 
arrives from France, 2d May, 1559, 114— exhorts the 
preachers summoned, ib. — his oration to the lords of 
the congregation at St Johnston, 121 — preaches at 
Perth, 123 — opposed by the bishop of St Andrews, 
preaches in St Andrews, June 10th, 1559, 125— his let- 
ter to the queen regent, 15S — his opinion concerning 
the deposition of the queen regent, 162 — Ms sermon to 
the congregation at Stirling, 170 — 173 — at Cupar, 176 — 
Ids letter to Sir William Cecil, 179 — discourse with 
Grange, 182 — Ms second letter to Sir William Cecil, 
183 — his letter to queen Elizabeth, 184' — his answer to 
Sir William Cecil's letter, 187 — his letter to the lords 
at Glasgow, 188 — appointed mimster of Edinburgh, 206 
—his part in the Confession of Faith, ib. n. — preaches 
against idolatry, 250 — Ms conversation with the 
queen, 250—254 — Ms treatise against the Regimen of 
Women objected to by the queen, 251 — inserted, 439 
— 461 — his opimon of the queen, 254 — conference 
with Bothwell, 266 — interview with Arran, 268 — 
preaches a sermon which gives offence to the queen, 
269 — called before her on that account, ib. — his con- 
ference with her, 269 — 271 — appointed by the General 
Assembly commissioner to Kyle and Galloway, 275 — 
goes to Nithsdale and Galloway, confers with the 
master of Maxwell, writes to the duke of Chattel- 
herault, disputes with the abbot of Crossraguell, 277— 
his conference with the queen at Lochleven, 284 — his 
letter to the earl of Argyle, 286 — differences betwixt 
Mm and the earl of Murray, 288, and n. — his free 
sermon before the nobility in the parliament, 1563, 
289 — for which he is accused to the queen, 290 — con- 
ference between the queen and Knox, ib. — his letter 
convocating the brethren to assist in the trials for 
interrupting mass, 293— which is intercepted and put 
in the hands of the queen, 294— accused of treason, ib. 
—brought before the council, 298— acquitted, 299 — 
refuses to make confession of a crime, 300 — approven 
by the general assembly, ib. — examined in a confer- 
ence, 304 — 320 — Ms sermon before king Henry 
Stewart of Scotland, 332— commanded to come to the 
council, ib.- desired to abstain from preaching for 15 
or 20 days, refuses, ib.— prays publicly for the nobility 
that were bamshed in 1565, and is approven by Secre- 
tary Lethington, 339— preaches the sermon at the 
coronation of king James, 359— remarks on Ms history 
and character, 61, n. 75, n. 92, n. 100, n. 130, n. 180, n. 
250, n. 279, n. 304, n. 311, n. 
Knox's History, authenticity and editions of, 29, n. and 
introduction, xxxi— London suppressed edition, 29, n. 



40, n. 47, n. 50, n. 60, n. 67, n. 80, n. 86, n. 137, n. 165, 
n. 179, n. 184, n. 243, n.— 1586, 61, n.— Glasgow MS. 
copy, 29, n. 50, n. 243, n. 265, n.— Buchanan's edition 
of, notices and corrections of, 4, n. 19, n. 29, n. 31, n. 
34, n. 43, n. 50, n. 57, n. 59, n. 75, n. 78, n. 86, n. 243, n. 
265, n. 

Kyle, zealous letters from the protestants there, and 
other places of the west, to their brethren against 
idolatry, 323. See Ayrshire. 

Kyllon tried for rioting, released by the populace, 234. 

L 

Leith, inhabitants of, accused of heresy, 20— besieged, 
165— a mutiny among the besiegers, ib.— fire there, 
190. 

Lennox, earl of, arrives from France, 37— is put in hopes 
to be made governor, and that the queen dowager 
should marry him, frustrated of Ms expectations de- 
serts the French faction, and seeks the favour of 
England, ib.— makes a party against the earl of Ar- 
ran, governor, is disappointed of Ms design and nar- 
rowly escapes, ib. — goes to England, received under 
the protection of king Henry VIII. who gives Mm to 
wife lady Margaret Douglas Ms mece, mother to 
Henry lord Darnley, husband to queen Mary of Scot- 
land, 41 — and his lady committed to the Tower of 
London for trafficking with papists, 271 — obtains 
liberty to return to Scotland by means of Secretary 
Lethington, 291— comes back to Scotland after a long 

exile, 321 — is graciously received by the queen, ib 

restored by parliament, ib. — his fortunes, 322 — applies 
to the queen for the trial of the earl of Bothwell, for 
his son the king's murder, 353. 

Lesly, John, brother to the earl of Rothes, joins tha 
conspirators who seize the castle of St Andrews and 
slay the cardinal, 60. 

Lesly, John, parson of Une, afterwards abbot of Lin- 
dores and bishop of Ross, declines to answer the argu- 
ments against the nobility, 1560-1, 226— called Nolu- 
mus et volnmus, 243. 

Lesly, Norman, 60 — imprisoned in the castle of Cheris- 
burg in France, 77. 

Lin, John, a gray friar, turns protestant, 22. 

Lindsay, John, a saying of, 15. 

Lindsay of Pitscotie quoted, 23, n. 

Lockhurt, Alexander, brother to the laird of Bar, killed 
at the siege of Leith, 198. 

Lockhart, Robert, endeavours to make an agreement 
betwixt the queen regent and lords of the congrega- 
tion without success, 158. 

Lollards of Kyle accused of heresy, 1494, 4, and n. 

Lothian, superintendant of, see Spottiswood, John. 

Lundie, laird of, Ms speech in the General Assembly, 
304 — imprisonment, 335. 

M 

M'Crie's life of Knox quoted, 33, n. 42, n. 77, n. 83, n. 
109, n. 

M'Gill, James, lord register, embraces the protestant 
religion, 233. 

Machabeus, John, a learned man, fiies for religion into 

Denmark, and 105, n. 
Magistrates, discussion concermng the powers of, 251, 

304—320, n. 

Maitland of Lethington, joins the protestants, 169 — 
sent to London, 173 — his sayings and opinions con- 
cerning ministers' stipends, 262, 263 — his sayings in 
the General Assembly, 274 — conversation with Knox, 
295 — conducts Knox's trial for treason, 297 — long dis- 
cussion with Knox in conference concerning the 
powers of rulers, 304 — 320. 
4 1) 



578 



INDEX. 



Marticks come to Scotland, 175, see French. 

Mary of England, her character, 83. 

Mary queen of Scots, born, 31— treaty of marriage 
to Edward prince of Wales, 35 — contracted to the 
king of France, 74 — declines to ratify the treaty at 
Leith with England, 222 — ambassadors from, 232 — 
answer to him, 237 — negotiation between her and the 
English ambassador, 238 — 240— arrives in Scotland, 
247 — sets up mass, which was ill taken by many pro- 
testants, ib. — conversation with Knox, 250 — 254 — 
chooses her privy council, 254< — takes a tour through 
the country, ib. — is sumptuously entertained at 
Edinburgh, ib. — in terror of armed men in the court 
of her palace, 256 — second interview with Knox, 269 
— 270— in great joy on account of the triumph of her 
party in France, 269 — takes a tour to the north of 
Scotland, 275 — comes to Aberdeen and is met by the 
earl of Huntly, 277— rumours of her marriage, 280 — 
returns to Edinburgh, ib. — her speeches, 288 — inter- 
view with Knox and others on the subject of her 
marriage, 290 — makes a tour to the west, 292 — her 
family in her absence set up the mass at Edinburgh, 
ib. — the consequences, 293 — present at Knox's trial 
for treason, 296 — 299 — behaviour of her court, 301 — 
303 — goes to Athole to the hunting, 321— goes to Fife, 
is magnificently entertained by the nobility and gen- 
try there, ib. — shows great signs of love to lord 
Darnley, sends Lethington to the queen of England 
to declare her intention to marry lord Darnley, 322 — 
is displeased Avith the magistrates of Edinburgh for 
punishing a popish priest, 324 — her letter to the ma- 
gistrates of Edinburgh, ib. — charges the magistrates 
of Edinburgh to set the priest at liberty, ib. — writes 
to the lords and learned men to meet her at Stirling, 
325 — desires the earl of Murray to consent to lord 
Darnley's receiving the crown matrimonial, takes 
his answer in ill part, ib. — her marriage with lord 
Darnley proposed in council and assented to by the 
chief of the nobility, providing religion be secured, 
325, 326 — convention of the nobility appointed to meet 
at Perth, the last of May, 326— calls for the superin- 
tendents, ib. — promises to hear disputation concerning 
religion, and to hear sermons from protestant minis- 
ters, particularly the laird of Dim, ib. — her answer to 
some articles presented by the General Assembly, 
328— hears a protestant sermon at baptizing a child 
of lord Livingston's, 329— sends a message to the ma- 
gistrates of Edinburgh to imprison several burgesses 
of the town, and causes the lord treasurer take an 
inventory of the said burgesses goods, which is very 
displeasing to the inhabitants, ib. 330— displeased at a 
meeting of some of the nobility, 15th June, 1565, 
writes to several gentlemen throughout the kingdom 
to attend her in arms, ib. 331— makes a proclama- 
tion declaring that she had no intention to alter reli- 
gion, ib. — creates lord Darnley duke of Rothesay, 
bans of marriage proclaimed betwixt her and lord 
Darnley, ib. — complains of the earl of Murray ; sends 
a message to him to come to her, which he declines 
because many of his enemies were at court, ib. — 
makes proclamation that prince Henry duke of 
Rothesay, &c. her husband, should be obeyed and 
reverenced as king, ib. — is married at Holyroodhouse 
by the dean of Restalrig, 332 — summons forces, ib. — 
progress to Glasgow, 333 — and various places in pur- 
suit of the lords, 334 — her proclamation against re- 
bels, 335 — her counsellors, 336 — pursues the lords, 338 
— induces the earls of Lennox, Athole, and Cassilis to 
go to mass openly in her chapel, 339— allows some 
friars, viz. Abercromby and Roger, to preach, 340 — 
dissensions in court, ib. — her love to her husband 
king Henry declines, 342 — causes her own name to be 
put before his in all writs, ib. — and a seal like the 



king's to be made and given to Rizzio, ib. — her dis- 
pleasure at the death of Rizzio, 343 — dissembles, ib. — 
goes to Seton and Dunbar, and carries the king about 
with her, ib. — consults to revenge Rizzio's death, 341 
— comes back toEdinburgh with the king and 8000 men, 
many in alarm leave the town, ib. — her severities, 345 
— disposes of the church-benefices to courtiers, &c. ib 
— gives the castle of Dunbar, and principal lands of the 
earldom of March, &c. to BothweU, ib.— her hatred to 
Darnley how increased, 348 — falls sick when visiting 
the earl of Bothwell, 348— names the duke of Chattel- 
herault and earl of Murray regents if she should die at 
that time, ib. — is visited by her husband king Henry, 
who gets a cold reception, ib. — king James born, 346— 
goes to the borders, 349 — to Craigmillar, ib. — makes 
preparation for the baptism of the prince at Stirling, 
ib. — her liberal promises to the church, 350— goes to 
Glasgow to visit her husband, 352 — brings him into 
Edinburgh with fair words, and lodges him at the 
church of Field, ib. — he is murdered, ib. — the house 
blown up with gun-powder, ib. — appoints an assize 
for Bothwell's trial, 353— carried off by Bothwell to 
Dunbar, ib. — desires Mr John Craig, minister of Edin- 
burgh, to publish the bans of matrimony betwixt 
her and Bothwell, 354 — his reasons against the law- 
fulness of the marriage, ib. — is married to Bothwell 
15th May, 1567, by the bishop of Orkney, ib. — pub- 
lishes a proclamation against the lords who joined 
against Bothwell, 355— flies from Borthwick to Dun- 
bar, ib. — marches from Dunbar with an army of 5000 
men, ib.— is met by the lords at Carberry lull, 356 — 
the army refuses to fight in favour of Bothwell, 357 
— surrenders herself to the nobility, ib.— is put under 
restraint by the lords, ib. — carried to Edinburgh, and 
from thence sent to the castle of Loch-leven, ib. — re- 
signs rule in favour of Murray, 358. 

Maries, the queen's four, 247, and n. 

Mass set up at Holyroodhouse, 141 — act against, 221 — 
disputation concerning, 226 — celebrated by queen 
Mary, 248— instituted in several places, 284 — trials 
for celebrating, 287 — set up by queen Mary's family 
at Holyrood, 293. 

Maxwell, master of, lord Harries, warden of the 
marches, 29 — taken by the English, 30 — conversation 
with Knox, 294— entreats the queen, 333— joins the 
protestant lords, 334, 335, 337 — summoned, ib. — restor- 
ed to favour, 338. 

Meals, hours of, 235. n. 

Melville, laird of Raith, beheaded for writing to his 

son, 77. 
Melville, James, dies, 80. 

Methven, Paul, preaches the reformed doctrines, 104 — 
is accused of adultery, 282 — commission to John Knox 
and some elders of Edinburgh, to try the said scandal 
at Jedburgh, and to report to the session of Edin- 
burgh, ib. — is convicted, flies, and is excommunicat- 
ed, ib. — reflections thereon, ib. 283 — his penance and 
flight, 337. 

Milne, Walter, sometime a popish priest, a man of 
great age, put to death by the bishop of St Andrews 
for the protestant religion, 109. 

Ministers distributed through the kingdom, anno 1560, 
206— ill used by the flatterers of the court, 223, 301— 
meeting of, 338 — supplication to the queen, 346— 
complaints of, 347 — their address to the English 
church, 350, see Stipends. 

Moneth or Grampians, 259, and n. 

Money, Scotch, value of, 26, n. 135, n. and 262, n. 321, n. 
Morton, earl of, his share in the slaughter of Rizzio, 

342 — his answer to Bothwell's ambassador, 356. 
Murray, earl of, lord prior of St Andrews, afterwards 

earl of Murray, his answer to the letter of Francis II. 

ai'd queen Mary,140— his answer to the queen regent's 



INDEX. 



579 



letter, 30th September, 1559, dated at St Andrews, 1st 
October, 1559, 153— his embassy to France, 227— re- 
turns from France having escaped many dangers, 237 
— brings letters from the queen entreating her sub- 
jects to preserve the peace till she come home, ib. — 
goes to the north and executes the orders of the 
privy council with respect to the destroying of the 
monuments of idolatry, ib. — appointed the queen's 
lieutenant in the south for suppression of theft, 256 — 
made earl of Murray, 263 — marries lady Agnes Keith 
daughter of the earl of Marischall, ib.— makes raid to 
Hawick, apprehends 50 thieves, several of them 
were executed, 271— heads the fight against Huntly's 
forces, 279— confirmed in the earldom of Murray, 288 
— holds courts in the north, 292 — is much displeased 
with Bothwell's return from France, 322— reasons 
with the queen, 325 — writes to the chief of the pro- 
testants concerning the convention at St Johnston, 326 
— sick at Lochleven, 327 — summoned, and not appear-, 
ing is denounced rebel, 331— interview with queen 
Elizabeth, 339— with the rest of the banished lords 
arrives in Scotland, 343— refuses to sign the bond in 
defence of the queen and Bothwell, obtains liberty to 
go to France, 355 — arrives from France, 359 — accepts 
the regency, and is proclaimed regent, ib. 

N 

Nobility of Scotland refuse to invade England with the 
French, 87 — their letters of invitation to Mr Knox to 
return to Scotland, 10th March, 1556, 91 — convention 
of them at Edinburgh, 5th January, 1560, 256— con- 
vinced of the falsehood of popery, 227 — send lord 
James prior of St Andrews to France to queen Mary, 
ib.— appoint a meeting of parliament, 20th May, 1561, 
ib. — their petition against popery and for the provi- 
sion of the ministry, 327 — opposed to queen Mary 
meet at Ayr, 15th of August, 1565, where they re- 
solve to be in readiness with their whole forces, 24th 
of said month, 332— are prevented of meeting by the 
queen, who proclaims them rebels, and orders all 
men of Lothian, Fife, Angus, &c. to meet their majes- 
ties the said 24th of August, ib.— meet at Paisley, 333 
—go to Hamilton, ib. — come to Edinburgh, ib.— joined 
by few, ib. — write to the king and queen, complain, 
ing of their hard usage, are willing to submit them- 
selves to trial, insist that the true religion may be 
established, &c. ib.-leave Edinburgh, 334-go to Ham- 
ilton, ib. — to Dumfries, ib. — send propositions to the 
king and queen which are neglected, ib. — summoned 
to appear at St Andrews, 335 — denounced rebels, ib. 
■ — displeased at the queen's counsellors, 336 — seek 
support of the queen of England, 337 — go to Carlisle, 
338 — are kindly received in England by the earl of 
Bedford, 339 — send the earl of Murray to queen Eliza- 
beth, ib. — summoned to appear for treason and lese 
majesty, ib.— use interest to be received into favour, 
340 — articles devised against them, and the queen de- 
signs they should be attainted and forfeited, 342 — go 
to the tolbooth of Edinburgh March 12th, and protest 
that their trial was fallen from, 344— join against 
Bothwell, 354 — design to besiege the castle of Borth- 
wick where he was with the queen, 355 — come to Edin- 
burgh, ib. — are masters of the town, ib. — publish a 
proclamation against Bothwell, ib. — apply to the 
General Assembly that they may interpose with the 
Hamiltons and other of the lords, who refuse to join 
with them in defence of the young prince, &c. 357 — 
agree on several articles, 358 — send the lords Lindsay 
and Ruthven to the queen to present unto her two 
writs, ib. 

Norfolk, duke of, marches into Scotland, 27 — treats ! 



with the congrega n, 188— negotiations and contrac t 
with the Scotch lords at Berwick, 190—193. 

O 

Orleans, mask of, described, 265. 

Ormiston, Cockburn, John, laird of, banished and forfeit- 
ed, 74— waylaid by Bothwell, 166. 
Oysel, monsieur de, lieutenant for France in Scotland, 
70— his terror, 73— proposes to march into England, 
87— leads the forces against Perth, 123— gives assur- 
ance of armistice, 127. 

P 

Painter, David, bishop of Ross, his death, 89— his cha 

racter, ib. n. — his advice to the popish clergy, 91. 
Paisley, abbacy of, burned by the earls of Arran, Argyle 

and Glencairn, 238. 
Papists, endeavour to raise new troubles in Scotland, 
223 — intend to take Edinburgh before the meeting of 
parliament in May 1561, but are prevented by the 
protestants, 235 — are very insolent, anno 1564, make 
a superstitious song which gives great offence to the 
protestants, 322. 
Parliament of Scotland, makes an act allowing all to 
read the Scriptures in the English tongue, 33— sends 
commissioners to Henry VIII of England to treat of 
the marriage betwixt Ms son and queen Mary of 
Scotland, 34— held in the abbey of Haddington, agrees 
to the marriage of the queen with the French king, 
74— appointed to meet 25th July, 1560, 206— meets, ib. 
orders the congregation to give in a confession of 
faith, 208— read, 208— 220— ratified, ib.— act against 
the mass, 221— act for abolishing the jurisdiction of 
the pope, ib.— answers to the objections made against 
its authority, 222 — sends ambassadors to England, 224 
—meets, May, 1563, in which the earl of Huntly and 
several of his kinsmen are forfeited, the laird of 
Grange and others restored, and an act of oblivion 
passed, 287— meets December, 1564, in which the earl 
of Lennox is restored to his estate and honours, 321 
—at Perth, 327 — prorogued by the queen, 330. 
Peace contracted between Scotland. England, and 
France, 81. 

Perth, Charteris and Ruthven contend for the provos- 
try of, 38 -executions for heresy there, 39 — embraces 
the reformed doctrines, 113— the multitude destroy the 
monasteries, &c. there, ] 14— letter from the protes- 
tants there to the queen, 116 — entered by the queen 
regent, 124 — abandoned by many of the inhabitants, 
ib.— retaken by the army of the congregation, 129. 
Poetry of queen Mary's age, 301, n. 
Pope, Ms authority in Scotland abolished by act of par- 
liament, 221. 
Prodigies, 87, 301, and n. 

Protectants, their oration and petition to the queen re- 
gent, 105, with notes— their letter to the parliament, 
110 — their protestation in parliament, 112 — meet May 
27th, 1561, and draw up articles to be presented to 
the parliament, 235— prepare to defend themselves, 
1565, 333, see Congregation. 
Protestation made in parliament by the protestants re- 
fused to be recorded, 112. 
Provost of Edinburgh slain by the French in a tumult, 
76— deposition of one, 255— comes to the palace of 
Holyroodhouse with 500 men upon the report of the 
slaughter of R zzio, is commanded to go home by 
king Henry, 343. 

O 

Queen dowager passes to France by sea, 82 — with the 
earls of Huntly, Glencairn, Marshall, Cassilis, lords 



580 



INDEX. 



Maxwell, Fleming-, Sir George Douglas, &c. whereof 
few returned, 90 — made regent after her return, 1554, 
82— deals deceitfully with the protestants, 109 — causes 
summon the protestant ministers to undergo trial, 
113 — but at the intercession of the earl of Glencairn 
and Sir Hugh Campbell of Louden, she delays the 
summons, ib. — desires lord Ruthven provost of Perth 
to suppress the reformation, which he declines to do, 
ib. — desires Mr James Haliburton provost of Dundee 
to apprehend Paul Methven, of which he gives adver- 
visement to the said Paul, who makes his escape, ib. 
— orders the preachers to compear at Stirling, 10th 
May, 1559, ib. — puts the preachers to the horn, 114 — 
enters Perth, 124 — charges all men to leave the town 
of Perth, ib. — goes to Falkland with a number of 
Frenchmen, 125— intends to come to Coupar, but is 
hindered by the lords of the congregation, 126— issues 
an offensive proclamation, 131— causes mass to be set 
up at Holyroodhouse, 141 — discharges payment to 
such of the canons of Cambuskeneth as had forsaken 
popery, also discharges payment to the abbot of Lin- 
dores because he had joined with the protestants, 142 
—breaks the articles of agreement with the protes- 
tants, ib.— writes a flattering letter to the duke of 
Chattelherault, ib. — and to the barons of Scotland, 143 
—brings in bands of French soldiers, 144 — emits a 
proclamation to deceive the people, ib. — fortifies Leith 
contrary to agreement, 150 — sends an answer to the 
lords by Sir Robert Carnegy and Mr David Borth- 
wick, 151 — endeavours to withdraw the gentlemen of 
the country from the lords of the congregation, and 
to divide them among themselves, 152 — writes to lord 
James, prior of St Andrews, by Mr John Spence of 
Condy, 30lh September, 1559, ib.— issues a proclama- 
tion against the lords of the congregation, 153— 
sends Mr Robert Forman lyon king at arms, to the 
lords of the congregation, and by him commands all 
such as assist the duke of Chattelherault and lords of 
the congregation to depart from Edinburgh, 161 — de- 
posed by the lords of the congregation, 162 — goes to 
the castle of Edinburgh, 195— sits upon the fore-wall 
of the castle of Edinburgh, and rejoices at the slaugh- 
ter of the English and Scots at the assault on Leith, 

198 — her words thereon, ib. — her sickness increases, 

199 — desires to speak with monsieur d'Oysell, ib. — a 
letter of hers intercepted by lord Gray, ib.— she de- 
sires to speak with the earls of Argyle, Glencairn, 
Marshall, and lord James, ib. — she sends for John 
"Willock minister, ib. — her corpse carried to France, 
19th October, 1560, ib. — her burial, remarks thereon, 
235. 

Question debated betwixt Knox and the queen, whe- 
ther subjects might suppress the idolatry of their 
prince, 250. 



R 



Raith, laird of, see Melville. 

RambouiUet comes ambassador from France with the 
order of the cockle for king Henry, 332. 

Randame, mons., comes to Scotland to negotiate peace, 
199. 

Randolph, Tko., agent for queen Elizabeth in Scotland, 
264. 

Re/owners, Scottish, first covenant of the, 94 — modera- 
tion of, 105, and n.— remarks on their character and 
opinions, 75, n. 94, n. 105, n. 107, n. 108, n. Ill, n. 120, 
n. 127, n. 130, n. 132, n. 180, n. 216, n. 219, n. 222, n. 
223, n. 347, n. 

Reid, Adam, one of the Lollards of Kyle, his answers 

to his accusation, 5. 
Reid, bishop of Orkney, poisoned, 90— his death, ib. — 

his character, ib. n. 



Resby, James, his martyrdom, 3, n. 

Rizzio, David, his rise in the court of queen Mary, 

1564, 303— 306— his influence in court, 327, 336— his 

elevation in court, 339 — slain by the earl of Morton, 

lord Ruthven, lord Lindsay, master of Ruthven, &c. 

upon the 9th of March, 1565-6, 342— the effects, 343, 

344 — execution for, 348. 
Roger, John, his imprisonment and death, 40. 
Rothes, earl of, put to the horn, 335. 
Rough, John, 64 — cited to a convention at St Andrews 

with Knox, 66. 
Row, John, heads a deputation from the assembly to 

the queen, 341— appointed to confer about the queen's 

grants, 350. 

Russel, Jerome, a cordelier friar, accused and burned 
for alleged heresy, 22. 

Ruthven, aids the congregation at the battle of King- 
horn, 178— kills Rizzio, 342— flies, 344. 



S 



Sadler, Ralph, sent ambassador by Henry VIII. to the 
earl of Arran, governor, to treat of a marriage be- 
twixt Edward prince of Wales, and queen Mary of 
Scotland, 35 — the effects of this, ib. 

Sanderson, appointed to be carted for bigamy, but res- 
cued by the mob, 232—234. 

Sandilands, Sir James, lord of St John, his oration to 
the queen regent, 105 — sent to France by the parlia- 
ment, 1560, to get their acts ratified by Francis II. 
and queen Mary, which is refused by them, 222. 

Scoon, abbey of, destroyed, 130. 

Scot, Thomas, justice clerk, dies in great terror, 24 — re- 
port of his appearance to king James V. ib. 
Scot, Thomas, executed, 345. 

Scriptures, the Scots parliament allows them to be read 

in the English tongue, 33— reasoning and reflections 

on the subject, 34. 
Sea stood still and neither ebbed nor flowed for 24 hours, 

in February, 1563, and some other prodigies, 301, 

and n. 

Seaton, Alexander, a black friar, confessor to king 
James V. preaches, 16, 17 — accused of heresy, flies to 
England, 17 — his letter to that king, 18— preaches in 
England, 20. 

Semple, lord, disobeys the ordinances of the council, for 
which reason his castle is besieged and taken, 224. 

Semple, John, called the dancer, his marriage, 801. 

Sinclair, He?i?y, bishop of Ross, his character, 294 — 
shows a letter of Knox's to the queen, ib.— reproved 
by the queen, his answer, 299— dies, 345. 

Sinclair, John, dean of Restalrig and bishop of Brechin 
on the death of the preceding, his brother of Ross 
preaches sound doctrine at first, but soon after dis. 
covers Ms hypocrisy, 90, 91, n. — dies, 345. 

Sinclair, Oliver, a pensioner to the priests and a great 
enemy to the reformation, 24— made lieutenant gene- 
ral at the battle of Solway moss, 28 — defeated, ib.— 
his conduct, 30 — reflected on by king James V. 31 . 

Soldier, French, death of one, 178. 

Solway moss, battle near, 29. 

Spence of Condy, sent with a memorial from the queen 
regent, 152 — encourages Knox, 295. 

Spotswood, John, superintendant of Lothian, his sup- 
plication to the queen against idolatry, 323 — convenes 
the ministers under his charge at Edinburgh, 338 — 
supplicates the king and queen for payment of their 
stipends, ib. 

Spotswood's history, notices and corrections of, 22, n. 
201, n. 349, n. 

Stipends, petition of the church to the privy council 
concerning, 236— acts of the privy council concerning, 



I N D 

25S -261— appointed to be modified to ministers, 262— 
value of, ib. n. — opinions concerning - , 263. 

Stirling taken by the. congregation, 131. 

Straiton and Gourley, two gentlemen hanged and burn- 
ed for heresy, 21. 

Summons by the poor widows, orphans, blind, &c. 
against the monks and friars, 100 — against papists, 
who are brought before the justiciary court, they sub- 
mit to the queen's pleasure, and are imprisoned, 287. 

Superintendants appointed, 206— the form and order of 
their election, 228— 230— and other ministers suppli- 
cate the queen for their stipends, 346. 

Sweden, king of, sends an ambassador with proposals of 
marriage to queon Mary, which are rejected by her, 
271. 

T 

Tarbet, James, how treated for saying mass, 323. 
Thanksgiving, for m of, for deliverance from the French, 
205. 

Throgmorlon, Sir Nicholas, ambassador for queen Eli- 
zabeth arrives in Scotland, 1565, gets audience of the 
queen, and represents his mistress's displeasure at 
her intended marriage with lord Darnley, 326. 



E x. 581 

w 

Wallace, Adam, his accusation and answers, 81 — is 
burned on the castlehill for pretended heresy, 82. 

Wfutelaw, Alexander, mistaken for Knox, 142— his cha- 
racter, 185. 

Wickliffe's translation of the New Testament,. 14, n. 
Williams, T/io?nas t account of, 33, and n. — preaches to 
Arran, ib. 

Willock, John, his life and character, 83, and n. — 
preaches in Edinburgh, 105 — endeavours used to 
hinder him from preaching in the kirk of St Giles, 
141 — to which the protestant lords refuse to yield, ib. 
— his speech for the deposition of queen Mary, 
161. 

Wishart, George, account of, 42, and n. — his gifts, ib. — 
his prophecies, ib. and n. — preaches at various places, 

43 — goes to Dimdee while the pestilence rages there, 

44 — a priest attempts to assassinate him, ib.— his ser- 
mons at Montrose, Leith, &c. 45, 46 — his apprehen- 
sion, 48 — trial, accusation, and ausvvers, 51 — 56 — exe- 
cution and behaviour at the stake, 57 — 59, and n. 

Witches, countess of Huntly's, 279, and n. — two burn- 
ed, 292, 

Wodrow's history corrected, 4, n. 
Wood, John, his defalcation, 256. 



THE END. 



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